Beginnings
The brewing traditions of England and the Netherlands (as brought to New York) ensured that the colonies would be dominated by beer drinking rather than wine. Until the middle of the 19th century, ales dominated American brewing. This changed when the recently developed lager styles; brought by German immigrants, turned out to be more profitable for large-scale manufacturing and shipping.
Names such as Miller, Pabst, and Schlitz became known through the breweries they founded or acquired, and many others followed. Czech and Irish immigrants also made their contributions to American beer. The lager brewed by these companies was not the extremely mild lager now associated with modern US mega-breweries. Instead, the classic American pilsner was a significantly stronger beer, both in flavor and alcohol.
Prohibition
All American brewing came to a halt when Prohibition was imposed, though the temperance movement had already reduced the number of breweries significantly. Only a few breweries, mainly the largest, were able to stay in business by manufacturing near beer, malt syrup, or other non-alcohol grain products, in addition to soft drinks such as colas and root beers.
Production and shipping of alcohol was largely confined to illegal operations, which could deliver compact distilled beverages — smuggled rum and domestic moonshine — more efficiently and reliable than bulkier products such as beer.
Post-Prohibition
Before the American beer industry could re-establish itself, World War II began. This further inhibited the re-emergence of smaller breweries, and pushed brewers to use lower-cost ingredients that were not rationed. For more than fifty years after the end of Prohibition, the United States beer market was heavily dominated by large commercial breweries, producing beers more noted for their uniformity than for any particular flavor.
Beers such as those made by Anheuser-Busch and Coors Brewing Company followed a restricted pilsner style, with large-scale industrial processes and the use of low-cost ingredients like corn, or ingredients such as rice that provided starch for alcohol production while contributing minimal flavor to the finished product. The dominance of the so-called “macrobrew” led to an international stereotype of “American beer” as poor in quality and flavor.
Ring the bell and prospective beer drinkers reflexively reach for cases of light or premium American lagers. They associate yellow, fizzy pilsner derivatives with beer. Consumers are conditioned to reach for these beers through calculated campaigns for big brewers. Without belaboring the point or further stretching the tortured Ivan Pavlov analogy, the association between macro-produced lagers and the greater classification of beer is well-embedded in American alcohol culture.
