Heineken keeps a relatively high (average to high) reputation or imago here in the Netherlands, mostly by doing well in advertisement / advanced product placement. But I would say that the real beer degustators here probably don't rate it very highly, it's quality brewn but a bit bland, not very interesting compared to alternatives here.
Hertog Jan (Dutch) is probably the best normal pilsener beer (i.e. a pretty standard item in the assortment of common supermarkets) that I can think of, also one of the most expensive ones, ~2.30€/L in pint sized cans. I probably like it best just like my gf happens to! Jupiler (Belgian), also alongside Hertog Jan demands a lot of respect and is about as expensive, but in smaller bottles.
Brand bier (Brand is a owned name but it means "a fire") is pretty bitter but so much character - one of my favorites.
I would never buy Heineken or Amstel, because they are not that great IMO, I don't know of anyone who does drink it eagerly... but they are still not that cheap.
Bavaria is a type of beer that is not good but costs half of what Hertog Jan costs, ~1.15€/L. About the cheapest of the brands that actually 'try', advertise, and are commonly found as house-brand of a café. Pretty close is the homebrand of the major supermarket here. I think I read somewhere that among the cheaper brands, some have no quality difference since they are just made by semi generic interbrew factories.
I don't really drink anything below that, i.e. anything below category 1 beer. Lower is really for homeless / alcoholics IMO, even if there is the odd one or two among em that are acceptable.
Lager, that is just the major style of cold-temp brewn beer. Pilsener (originally from the Check place Pilsen) is a type of lager. I bet most beers in my country (aside from specialty beers) are pilsener.
So to sum up, I find it funny that Heineken is so popular. Apparently they just about won the international hype and were able to keep up, but not many other brewers from here can. By comparison a lot of beers you'll find elsewhere on earth (outside the Benelux, belgium + netherlands + luxemburg 8) ) are more watery or without much character. Maybe Heineken seems better and more interesting by comparison, but we here are used to the richer and more bitter taste...
so i guess it is about acquired taste. The world may on average not be ready for too many or our richer beers because before that beers like Heineken are more accessible. It is hard to debate acquired taste but I personally believe that if you train your sense of taste you can learn to appreciate tastes that are relatively intense, or unusual or complex. In terms of rich experiential appreciation acquiring taste seems like the way to go. But even if I find it better, that does not mean that I would judge anyone for their level of acquired taste.
I don't think that I myself have all that much acquired tastes, by the way. But just living here probably means that at the very least I am more used to bitter beers than the average earthling. Just making an observation.
I drove to Illinois today, 12 hour drive... listened to 3 hours of recorded jams that I did the past few days, on loop the whole time... it's EPIC, seriously, I can't wait to put it on Youtube so you guys can hear. I can't believe how good it is honestly, the last one I put up... is basically an amateur warm-up, the amount of improvement in all of us is tremendous. So excited about music.
So excited I can't even sleep...
Your name
is eric right? cause I was looking at that word 'epic' and then I started thinking that... it does sound epic, can't wait to hear it.
I tried learning some guitar basics tonight, one guy was constantly playing and virtually accompanied things that happened. We didn't get that far before the party was over, but he noticed I was using perfect pitch and that it's certainly nice as help. I wanna get into music again, asap. Should be a lot easier when that digital piano will be in my room instead of my roommate's (I am buying it), but I first need to assemble a piece of furniture. Terrifying last stage, the assembly.
