Let's talk about "health-conscious" beer

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Nate

Check the healthiness of red stripe.

GMO corn syrup.

Originally Posted by BIGSHOW

Give Mill St. Organic a try.

Will do. Thanks!

[ALBERTA REEF]

Try the hard stuff. My poison is Rye. Sask boy en yall.

[mike31154]

Referring back to your original post it appears you prefer a light or pilsner style of beer. I really enjoy a good pilsner myself, especially one with a strong hop flavour. Hoppy is not everyone's cup of tea though. In any case, keep looking for & trying pilsners from different producers until you find one that suits your taste & doesn't have any GMO corn. I'm quite surprised to find that any kind of corn is actually an ingredient for beer! Going by the 1516 Rheinheitsgebot, water, barley & hops are the only allowable ingredients in beer made to that standard. Of course you need yeast as well, but it wasn't mentioned in the original text of the law. I haven't checked to see if there's any GMO barley out there yet, chances are there is, but if you stick to beer made to the 1516 standard, you'll be less likely to come across GMO ingredients.

I'm thinking the smaller craft breweries are more apt to follow the 1516 rule than mega breweries like Molson, Labatt, et al. And these days there's a greater selection of smaller local brewers offering Pilsners & lighter beers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinheitsgebot

Okanagan Spring no longer makes a pilsner (WTF?), but if you can get hold of a 1516 Lager in Saskland, it might be close to what your taste buds crave.

http://okspring.com/1516-bavarian-lager/

I've found my tastes have changed significantly with respect to beer I enjoy as I myself 'matured' (or aged do put it bluntly). I'm liking the darker brews these days. Also don't drink my beer very cold any longer. Cold kills the flavour, particularly the darker brews. Nothing like a Backhand Of God from a craft brewer in Sorrento in Long John's Pub (shameless plugs, yes) after a morning skiing the slopes of Silver Star. That brew is so dark & thick, you can almost skip food for lunch altogether. On the other hand, a chilled Corona with a lemon or lime in the heat of summer is hard to beat.

Clearly I drink a bit more beer than Mindy! I'm kind of on the same page as Aquattro with respect to watching ingredients of what I consume very closely. Generally if it tastes real good, I'll go for it, within reason of course. I figure if it hasn't put me under the ground yet, I'll keep risking it. To each his own though. There's certainly a lot of stuff going on that we don't know about with regard to our food supply. My problem with modifying crops is companies like Monsanto (spelling?) having the power to put farmers out of business that don't use their seeds.

[Myka]

Monsanto...ugh!!

Mike I don't like really hoppy beer. On the topic of darker beers, I don't know ofbit really counts, but I do also like Rickard's Red. I'm known to buy a case of Alexander Keith too. Maybe I just need to buy some tester cases or something.

[mike31154]

Rickard's Red is tasty. Another originally smaller craft brewery bought up by larger corporation, Molson. When I lived in Ontario, I used to enjoy Rickard's out of the tap at the local pub when it was still an independent brew. "The first-ever Rickard’s, this full-flavoured, Irish-style ale .....", described further as an amber. Most pale ales will be similar, although not quite as 'red'. So sample more pale & amber ales..... or keep enjoying the Rickards, according to their web site, the ingredients seem natural.

I mentioned backhand of god earlier. Very dark stout, but upon searching, they have a web site & looks like additional selection. Not sure they ship out of province, it's difficult enough to find pubs that serve it locally. About as organic as it gets.

http://www.crannogales.com/

[Myka]

Originally Posted by mike31154

Rickard's Red is tasty. Another originally smaller craft brewery bought up by larger corporation, Molson. When I lived in Ontario, I used to enjoy Rickard's out of the tap at the local pub when it was still an independent brew. "The first-ever Rickard’s, this full-flavoured, Irish-style ale .....", described further as an amber. Most pale ales will be similar, although not quite as 'red'. So sample more pale & amber ales..... or keep enjoying the Rickards, according to their web site, the ingredients seem natural.

Yeah, it's hard to say because Molson has openly said they used mixed corn (GMO and non-GMO) in their beers. I should take a closer look though.

[mike31154]

Just in case you missed it, I just edited my previous post with some more info & a link.

http://www.crannogales.com/

[Werbo]

+2 for Mill St if your into organic and all

[MKLKT]

Try Harp maybe, I don't think that's GMO.

Most large volume North American beers are going to be corn based and therefore likely GMO.

Personally I just don't like the taste (lack of) of most high volume beers. If I don't have a huge selection I'll try and get Stella or Kronenberg. For mid-sized breweries I like a lot of the stuff from Phillips, Big Rock and Central City.

Kilkenny, Guiness, Tetley, Newcastle Brown are probably my top ones, I never get tired of those.

For cheapy/lighter stuff I'll usually have Rolling Rock, Red Stripe, Stella, Kronenburg, Heineken, Harp.

Personally what I always do is buy one beer I know I like and then one I've never tried, founds lots of good ones that way.

I tried a Corona for the first time in ages the other day, it was basically just air and bubbles.

[sphelps]

Judging by the beers you like it seems to me you've just become accustomed to crappy beer which will pass in time . The best beer you'll find will probably be from your closest micro-brewer, good beer rarely gets exported. So besides the real big names the German beer you get here will actually be pretty crappy over there. What I would suggest is to stay away from ales, those probably contain the flavors you aren't overly impressed with, to lager drinkers these are referred too as off flavors and undesirable. A good lager will be clean and crisp without such flavors favorable in ales, so try some micro lagers but be picky and avoid things like dark or black lagers. Also note many micros won't even brew lager due to the extra complexity involved in the fermentation.

That said be weary of internet articles targeting beers as being unhealthy. There are many that are completely made up which virtually no truth what so ever(the top 8 list comes to mind). Check the author, if it's some generic username you know its BS as a real journalist would put their real name on it.