What’s inside a craft brewer’s beer fridge? Answer surprises

I’m what you might call a snob. One might even venture to refer to me as an obnoxious snob. Before I go out to dinner, I study the drink list. Once I’m there, I steer clear of non-drinkrelated conversations until I’ve decided what to have first and what might go well with my dinner.

I enjoy thinking about what I’m drinking. I might go so far as to say that’s why I drink. That’s also why I can’t remember the last time that I had a beer that I didn’t need or want to think about. You know, like a Budweiser, Miller High Life, Coors Banquet — or heaven forbid, a light beer.

But I get it, not everyone thinks that way. Not even John Laffler, co-founder of Off Color Brewing in Chicago, thinks that way. In fact, Laffler often drinks Miller High Life when he brews.

“High Life is exactly what it’s supposed to be,” he says, while sipping a High Life. “It’s light, it’s crisp, it’s technically perfect. And it’s very consistent, which is something that we in craft beer aren’t as good about. I like that I don’t have to think about it. I know what it will be, and that’s super comforting to me. There’s something to be said for that.”

Laffler’s love affair with High Life runs deep. So deep, in fact, that he spent roughly 21⁄2 years lobbying Miller to collaborate with him on a beer. Those efforts paid off this fall when Off Color collaborated with Miller brewers for a one-off beer called Eeek! It combined Miller High Life ingredients and Off Color’s wild yeast (and was bottleconditioned with Champagne yeast) to produce a cloudy, farmhouse version of High Life.

Laffler is hardly alone among craft brewers in occasionally imbibing a mass-produced beer — long Sometimes, a beer that you don’t have to think about is just what you want. At those times, a mass-produced American lager is just the thing. depicted as the enemy in craft cycles.

And that’s perfectly OK with Laffler because, as far as he sees it, the war between craft and macro beers is over. After all, macro sales are falling, while craft beer now represents a 12 percent share of the overall beer industry, according to the Brewers Association.

“Craft isn’t an underdog anymore,” Laffler says.

Though other craft brewers may not be quite as enthusiastic about macro beers as Laffler, Doug Hurstof Metropolitan Brewing in Chicago says he appreciates Miller Lite, in particular the beer’s “delicate crispness” and “barely perceptible hop aroma. “It’s a well-balanced beer,” he says. “It’s quite refreshing and thirst-quenching.”

He also likes the taste of Schlitz, which was reformulated in 2008. “The revamped version is very good,” he says. However, Schlitz’s relatively high price tag means he doesn’t drink it often.

The thing about macro beers is that they’re “iron clad” in quality, adds Gabriel Magliaro of Half Acre Beer Co. in Chicago. He turns to Budweiser whenever he’s “in a far-flung place where I know the list is terrible or craft beer is likely getting beat up.” There’s good reason for that. “You can bet if you order their beer it’s going to deliver profile and be as they wanted it to be. Head to a remote piece of sludge in the middle of an ocean, and belly up to their most out-of-the-way watering hole, and order a Bud long neck — chances are it’s going to hit.”

There’s something to be said for knowing what you’re going to get.