2aff4297   
   From: norbertkosky69@gmail.com   
      
   On Tuesday, September 9, 2008 at 3:36:53 PM UTC-4, John Nichel wrote:   
   > Geo wrote:   
   > > On Sep 9, 10:55 am, Kyle  wrote:   
   > >> Okay, last month a certain trio of 'tards herded up against me for   
   > >> daring to call a spade a spade -- specifically for daring to say that   
   > >> Corona was a bad beer. I'm apparently forbidden from judging a beer   
   > >> -- by people who jump at the chance to judge me.   
   > >>   
   > >> Michael "the Beer Hunter" Jackson probably knew more about beer than   
   > >> anyone. He wrote the book on beer -- several of them, actually ("The   
   > >> New World Guide to Beer," "Michael Jackson's Beer Companion," The   
   > >> Great Beers of Belgium" and others, all classics). And here's what he   
   > >> had to say about Corona in his New World Guide:   
   > >>   
   > >> Corona beer, from Mexico, for a time enjoyed a cult following   
   > >> north of the border, and challenged Heineken as the biggest import to   
   > >> the United States. It did so initially with very little marketing   
   > >> support, and its success was a phenomenon much studied in the business   
   > >> pages.   
   > >>   
   > >> Corona is a beer made as cheaply as possible, so that it can be   
   > >> sold inexpensively to manual workers in Mexico. Every Mexican brewery   
   > >> has at least one such product in its portfolio, among several more   
   > >> interesting beers.   
   > >>   
   > >> These modestly-paid bean-pickers get what they can pay for, and   
   > >> their thirsts are quenched. Corona tastes like a beer made with a   
   > >> very high percentage of corn adjunct and a short lagering time. It is   
   > >> thin-bodied, with some apple notes. It is no worse, nor better, than   
   > >> several similar products. That it should command a high price in the   
   > >> United States reflects upon the judgement of the consumers.   
   > >>   
   > >> The idealized Mexican worker, thirstily reaching for his Corona,   
   > >> presented a macho model for the well-heeled kids of Texas and   
   > >> California (and later New York). The plain glass bottle and   
   > >> rudimentary, enameled label no doubt added to the inverted snobbery.   
   > >> The beer was consumed from the bottle, with a slice of lime jammed in   
   > >> the neck. The lime was an important part of the ritual, but it also   
   > >> improved the taste. If Chuck, Chip, and Scooter really wanted to look   
   > >> like macho working men, they could have affected the Pabst of an   
   > >> unemployed steel-worker from Bethleham, PA., but that might have been   
   > >> too close to home.   
   > >>   
   > >> No one should begrudge Mexico the foreign exchange, but it is a   
   > >> shame that Corona proved such a conspicuous success where better beers   
   > >> had fared less well. Only after the success of Corona were Mexican   
   > >> beers taken seriously in the United States. Before Corona, they had   
   > >> suffered from the belief that they might be as well-made as the local   
   > >> water.   
   > >>   
   > >> In fact, Mexico has a long tradition of producing beer, and some   
   > >> well-equipped breweries. It is said to have had the first commercial   
   > >> brewery in the New World, in the 1500s, during the period of Cortes,   
   > >> and has been making lager beer since the 1880s or 1890s.   
   > >>   
   > >> The appeal of Corona has not encouraged Mexican brewers to   
   > >> emphasize their more characterful products.   
   > >>   
   > >> -- MJ, in his New World Guide to Beer   
   > >    
   > > So, essentially what the author said was that corona is piss water   
   > > that people use a lime for to give it taste.   
   > Yet what kyle still can't comprehend is that something like beer is an    
   > individual taste. It doesn't matter how much he thinks he is a 'beer    
   > expert', people will like what they like, regardless of his 'expertise'.   
   > Michael Jackson understood this. I met the man once before he died    
   > (courtesy of where I work), and while I was being razzed by some of the    
   > beer geeks here for not liking Flying Bison's Christmas Ale (I think    
   > that's what it was), Mr. Jackson made it a point to say that something    
   > along the lines of, what is undrinkable to one can be sweet nectar to    
   > another and vice-a-versa.   
   > --    
   > When a naked man is chasing a woman through an alley with a butcher's    
   > knife and a hard-on, I figure he isn't out collecting for the Red Cross.   
      
   I'm coming late to this (beer) party, but I've got something worthwhile to   
   contribute.     
      
   So the debate seems to be over whether beers' quality is objective or   
   subjective.  If it were completely a matter of opinion, then there would be no   
   such thing as expertise.  Yet everyone seems to agree that Michael "the Beer   
   Hunter" Jackson was an (or    
   maybe even the) expert on the subject.     
      
   Michael Jackson appeared on Conan O'Brien's show once.  It might even be on   
   Youtube.  At one point, O'Brien asked Jackson what his least favorite beer   
   was.     
      
   Jackson's answer?   
      
   Corona.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)