Wait… aren’t the men on the right supposed to be the manly men?
Yeah, yeah, I get that Republican men are stereotypically big on guns, Chuck Norris, and being able to put up posters of Playboy centerfolds at the office without having to worry about that it might hurt the feminazis’ feelings and all. And because of this, I’ve been always been willing to concede to them the Uber-Testosterone Award at the Two-Party Bragging Rights Sweepstakes.
After seeing this, however, I am starting to wonder if all that other macho stuff isn’t an attempt to over-compensate some… er… um… well, let’s just say “shortcomings”:
According to the National Journal, Republican men skew toward Light Beer, mass-market pilsners, and whatever the hell kind of Madison Avenued, watered down, p**s-flavored monstrosity “Michelobe Ultra” might be. High Turnout Dems, on the other hand, lean toward microbrews, imports and pints of puts-hair-on-your-chest stouts like Guinness.
If I were still an undecided voter, this would definitely tip the scales toward the stealth-Muslim Kenyan.
(H/T: Andrew Sullivan)
I’m to the left of Dennis Kucinich, but I’ll take a Sam Adams over a Stella any day. And I vote.Report
Stella is friggin’ awful. Sam Adams is a decent beer, and often your only acceptable beer choice at a more mainstream bar.
Why is Shiner Bock such an outlier? That’s a good beer. Overpriced, now, but still.Report
Texas.
As I understand it from my friends who immigrated to Texas, Lone Star was swill that out-of-staters drank. Shiner Bock was the real deal.Report
There are conclaves of German immigrants in Texas that came over to ranch and farm. These towns have German street names, everything. Shiner Bock is basically a German beer, brewed in Texas.Report
Shiner is also cheaper here. I usually order it at a bar if I’m in a hurry or the beer selection sucks. Every bar has it.Report
Texas was definitely where I first had it, and for the reasons you describe (it was hella cheap at the time, and I was completely surprised at what a good beer it was for the price). It’s now possible to get it where I live, but way overpriced (but it is still a good beer and I will often pick some up).Report
How in the world do Labatt Blue and Molson wind up on opposite sides of the spectrum?Report
Signalling, natch. It can account for anything in pop culture.Report
But what can Molson possibly signal that Labatt’s doesn’t and vice versa?Report
It’s not what Molson signals, but what a person signals by being a Molson Man (or woman). It starts with one person signalling something, and grows from there, creating a self-reinforcing, self-perpetuating and potentially self-expanding loop of “signals” that can account for all behavior by everyone at all times.
If you don’t understand this, Mark – and I have to admit, I don’t – ask the signalistas about it.Report
I imagine that regional effects explain a lot of this chart. A beer may be roughly equally popular with Republicans and Democrats in any given locale, but if it markets primarily to a Republican state or region, then it will have more Republican drinkers.Report
Boring but totally true.Report
Yuengling is a pittsburgh-type brew. But pittsburgh is mostly D. Still, it’s sitting up there being “republican”.
Dunno?Report
Well, ignoring aquisitions and all, in the past the Labatt family were hearty Conservative supporters and the Molson family supported the Liberals (or so I was told).
Or, perhaps, it about sympathies for Quebec separatism. Molson was from Montreal and Labatt from Toronto (if memory serves).Report
Lone Star is without doubt the best of the “cheap” beers. Folks who drink it have exceptional taste but can’t afford to get to the polls. Shiner Bock is the best mid-range beer, but costs more. So … higher voter turnout for them. Both from Texas, acourse.
What’s the problem here?Report
The notion that Lone Star is the best of anything.Report
Lol… +1Report
Strikes me as very likely a class issue first and foremost and an accessibility issue after that.
Wealthy urbanites can afford and have access to a great deal of “hair on your chest” brews.
Poor rural folks of course are going to drink differently.
I’d be interested in seeing the same survey done with spirits.Report
“I’d be interested in seeing the same survey done with spirits.”
Not every voter drinks beer.Report
I don’t think I’m getting the joke.
Is it about the “light beer” thing? I suspect that’s a function of age.
Stillwater gets the Texas beers right. I’d only add that because of its price, Lone Star has a lot of younger drinkers who probably aren’t in to the whole voting thing yet. I’m not surprised Shiner is Republican, but I’m surprised it’s so far off to the right.Report
I’m apparently in the right position for someone who prefers Guinness. (I think Yeungling is misplaced – maybe the lager tilts GOP, but Black&Tan is for liberal drinkers).
btw, I guess this means a mother of two is more ‘manly’ than those right wing manly men. 😉Report
Some of this is probably also climate. I live in a hot one and so I generally only drink Guinness in fall & winter. Nothing better than Guiness, then.
But August? No freakin’ way. Give me a pilsner, or lager, preferably a kolsch.Report
This reminds me of living in Oregon. Love those heavy microbrews, but on a hot summer day, sitting in a canoe on the McKenzie River? Give me a Hamms or an Oly; they’re the only real choice.Report
Microbrews are a mixed lot (as they should be). My most common complaint about a lot of them is that they are an overreaction to how tasteless mass-market American beers were, so many of them overdo the hops, instead of seeking more balance between hops and malts – I am hoping the pendulum swings backs a bit.
Hot Sauces can have this problem too, sacrificing flavor for punch.Report
You are so speaking my language, both as to beers and hot sauces. Taco Bell’s “fire” sauce is the worst culprit of all, devoid of any actual taste (yes, towhomever’s smirking, I sometimes eat at Taco Bell, and if you have three children in six school activities, you do, too!).
I don’t know where to find it in the U.S., but there’s a great Belizean brand hot sauce, Marie Sharps, that gets the hot and the taste in just the perfect combination. (Belize also has a halfway decent domestically produced lager, Belikin.)Report
Ding, ding, ding! A number of hot sauces try to be the hottest possible, completely ignoring taste and the whole point of sauce.
The same can be said for a lot of IPAs. They go for setting records for hoppiness, ignoring the impact on taste.
James, I’ll have to look for that sauce. I’ve got a collection, which Zazzy can begrudgingly attest to. Yesterday, I reminded her I’d need her grab me one from the fridge for my tacos.
“Which one?” she asked.
“Tabasco for this application.”
“Why do you have so many?” she asks, referring to an entire shelf on the door dedicated to hot sauces.
“Because they all have their unique applications. Duh.”
“Okay, but which one?”
“Tabasco I said!”
“Which tabasco?”
“What do you mean?”
“The big bottle or the small bottle?”
“Oh. The small one, of course.”
“Of course?”
“The big one is for the Bloody Mary bar.”
“I’m leaving you.”Report
Yeah, IPAs got really trendy around here for a while and I found most of them overly-hoppy.Report
I heard an amateur food critic mention an “IPA bubble” but could never get him to elaborate on it.Report
I love a good pale ale, just the right amount of hoppiness, but the IPAs take that good thing and push it over the line (like bathroom humor in a Mike Myers flick).
Kazzy, I’m in awe. Let me know if you find Marie’s. And do you ever use sambal (SE Asian chili paste)? It’s awesome in a meatball soup, among other dishes.Report
I haven’t used it in the home, but it sounds like one of the many sauces I’ve been offered in pho restaurants. Is that possible?Report
I love that chili paste! A nice big bowl of pho, with equal parts Hoison and chili paste? It is to yum!Report
They should sell well in Calveraqs County, then.
(Once again, I’m counting on someone getting this..)Report
You mean because he translated it into French and back?Report
????
Is that a comment about the typo, or am I missing something?Report
He really did translate it into French and back: http://www.angelfire.com/nb/classillus/images/jumping/jumping.html . And I’m not going to explain the pun.Report
My wife would have a big one for the Bloody Mary bar, too. She like a LOT of Tabasco in hers. (She likes a LOT of Tabasco on almost everything!)Report
Personally, my heat of choice in a Bloody Mary is horseradish. I certainly use Tabasco but if I go “extra” on anything, it’s the horseradish. I also like to use a jalapeno infused vodka, which adds a real depth of heat in a way I can otherwise replicate.
I use the large bottle for the BM bar because that is usually a social event. Also, it is a bit of showmanship to whip out the liter-sized bottle.Report
the BM bar
I hear that bar stinks.Report
Heh, one of my favorite running jokes with my friends right now. It really is a great double entendre, primarily because…
A) One BM usually causes the other
B) A great variety of adjectives can apply to both
We’ll start email threads, with our fiances/wives on it where we’ll never really clarify which BM we are talking about. Usually, it’s both…
“Oh man, I can’t wait to get together next weekend. BMs all around!”Report
The thing is, I like the FIRST BM to be hot; but the second BM, not so much.Report
I’m a connoisseur of BMs and can appreciate all varieties.Report
TM(BM)IReport
Or,
TMI RE: BMReport
I enjoy a delicious Bloody Mary to start my Saturdays. Just the other weekend I had a bacon Bloody Mary. Variety is the spice of life! What gives?
😀Report
That’ll teach me to start reading a thread in the middle…Report
U funny, McSnark.Report
We’ve been toying with the idea of making a flavored vodka (it’s not that hard) — jalepeno would be a way to go.
The wife isn’t much on horseradish. She doesn’t like gefilte fish because the idea of something being a neutral platform for horseradish is foreign to her.Report
Have you tried Southern Tier’s Harvest Ale? If not, you must. Let’s just say that it’s a beer that takes your objection to lack of balance and hoppiness for the sake hoppiness to heart. It is as well balanced a beer as I’ve ever found.Report
We’ll all be expecting our cases in the mail.Report
No, I will look for that, thanks.Report
My favorite beers tend to be more malty than hoppy. I am not a fan of IPAs but love Porters and Stouts. I can do an Imperial Hopped Pilsner like My Antonia from Dogfish Head though. For beers in the non-dark family, I go more for Pale Ales or regular Ales.
That being said, the best beers in America are still produced by microbreweries. Sometimes they do produce beers that are too “interesting” but they make some really damn good variety as well.Report
Tried a Troeginator? Think you’d like it. It’s my favorite beer.Report
So as a Leinie drinker, apparently I’m a high turnout Republican. But I skip half or more of all elections and have voted for only two Republican candidates in my life. That proves polls are false and Mitt Romney is actyally going to win by 10.Report
Is Leinie good? They used to have a bunch of the different varieties at DC bars, which made me suspect it was local, but I don’t think it was. I never really enjoyed it, though I had only begun to expand my beer palette. Seemed like they had 9 billion different types.Report
Leinie’s is from Wisconin. I like a lot of their varieties, but not all (as a brand increases the number of its varieties, the probability of not liking one of them approaches zero). I really like their Red, their Honey Weiss, their CreamyDark,and their Classic Amber(which may be indistinguishable from Newcastle’s Brown). I’d like to try their porter, but I’ve never found it around here.
But everyone’s taste buds differ, so if you don’t like it, that just means more for me. As long as you’re drinking something beyond Bud, Miller, Michelob, you’re doing all right.
And here’s a beer I just recently discovered, Breckenridge Brewery’s Vanilla Porter. Great flavor, perhaps a little heavy on the hops (almost IPA hoppy). I’m pretty sure it puts me in the “‘too busy to vote ’cause I’ll be snowboarding, dude,’ liberal” space of the lower left quadrant.Report
I remember they had a bunch of fruity (as in actually flavored to taste like fruit) ones. Is that accurate or am I getting mixed up?
I tend to drink Bud Heavies if I’m going to for something light, cheap, and predictable. Sometimes I just want something I can suck back for an extended period without getting wasted. I find Bud to be the best of the major “domestic” macro brews.
If I’m going fancy and want something to actually savor and enjoy, I’m usually going with IPAs or pale ales in the fall and winter and heffs in the spring and summer. Overall, I prefer the hoppier ones, but they don’t really satiate the way I want them to in the heat. I can enjoy most any style if it’s well done. I’ll see if I can find the Breckenridge. If the vanilla isn’t too sweet, I could see myself really enjoying that… especially in a ski lodge while I smartly park myself indoors watching football while my friends tumble down the mountain.
While we’re naming good brews, I’m increasingly enjoying the brews made by Yards and Victory, both out of Philly. Victory seems to have wider and more far reaching availability, but both make a pretty good variety of well-crafted beers.Report
They have a berry Weiss and a lemon shandy I don’t care for. Their Sunset Wheat comes off a bit fruity for me, too. If I want fruit and grain together I’ll slice some bananas onto my Wheaties, but I don’t want it in my beer.
I doubt I can find your Philly beers, but I’ve got a good liquor store lesson half a mile away, so I’ll take a look tomorrow.Report
Yea, those sounds like some of the ones I saw. Sunset Wheat was a popular one. The odd thing was, they were often on special or otherwise one of the “cheap” beers, which is partly what led me to believe it was local and shitty.
You should be able to find some Victory… Hop Devil and Prima Pils are pretty popular and I’ve seen in quite a few places. Regardless, grab something tasty! I’ll (hopefully) be tripping balls on vicodin.Report
Hey, I had some of the Vic last Sunday. Fished up my sleep through Tuesday. Hope you recover quickly.
And, yeah, Sunset Wheat, while an attractive name, isn’t a satisfying beer.Report
The one and only time I took vic before this, I was up all night convinced my computer was trying to kill me. I sort of saw it the way Kevin saw the furnace in “Home Alone”.
“How old were you?” Zazzy asked when I retold this story.
“22.”Report
A friend of mine once took vicodin in conjunction with some wacky terbacky, and it made him extremely, extremely paranoid (he was riding in a car and was convinced that he was going to die in a fiery crash at any moment; every intersection was sheer terror).
I don’t really care for opiates at all.Report
Last night I imagined elves in the room. Not Santa elves. Evil elves hell bent on psychologically torturing me all night. They weren’t really aiming to physically harm me, as they maintained a primarily hidden presence. But they were there. And they were plotting.
I’m fine during the waking hours with the stuff. But once I try to sleep… all hell breaks loose. Probably switching over to ibuprofen until the real pain sets in. Also, that should allow me to drink (cue Dr. Saunders BMing on my BM plans).Report
I’ll vouch for the rec on Yards.Report
Are you down in Yards country?Report
I’m pretty much a microbrew drinker with a strong preference for IPAs. And, coincidentally a high turnout, generally Democratic voter.Report
I don’t see either of my beers (Newcastle or Negro Modelo dark) here. I guess that makes them both upper-left beers.Report
Sorry, Jeff, I drink a lot of Newkies. Mostly because that’s the only good beer at my local bowling alley. (FYI, I don’t bowl.)Report
I find at least one drinkable beer in any quadrant except lower left.
So if I find myself in a low-turnout Democrat bar, I am gonna be out of luck, ‘cos that is a totally crap selection.Report
I see two Mexican beers there, which shows the Dmocrats’ promised peril with the Latino vote. They side with the Dems…if they vote.Report
I never remember which of the two Dos Equis varieties I like, but it is pretty solid. It doesn’t help that my buddy used to work for the ad agency that represented them and we always drank it for free (he’s since moved up to Diageo, which represents a great array of quality spirits, ho hum). Corona is always a solid option. I don’t love Heineken, but find Heineken Light highly drinkable.
In addition to the two “Mexican” beers here, I will say that my anecdotal experience tells me Heineken and Corona to be popular among African-Americans, for what that’s worth.Report
I’m just seeing a bunch of noise. Interesting read though.Report
Microbrews = metrosexual = Democrat
No surprise here. Republicans have jobs and if you recall the original Miller lite commercials, can’t afford to get filled* up.
Among Repubs who ain’t got jobs–and I don’t deny there are many, the 47% notwithstanding—it’s Wild Turkey or meth. Both. Yum. 😉
The Urban Dictionary gives me hope there is common ground betw Dem and GOP, though. It goes something like this:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=natural%20ice
Natty Ice, the Lowlife Common Denominator. Let’s all split a Dirty 30. This one’s for you, Uncle Sam. 8-P
__________
*I mean like F***ED-UP. Everybody knew what Dick Butkus was saying with that wink—“I can’t afford to get filled-up.” I hearya, brother.Report
I don’t know the physiology, but Miller Lite gets me blitzed like no one’s business (well, when I used to drink that much…), where High Life or MGD (skews Dem, is that weird?) seems to be a little bit more of a laid back buzz cuz of the calories that they put in the belly. Could be just me.Report
Michael, Miller Lite is sort of like Midol in reverse.Report
Sure.Report
I’m an Anchor Steam guy, largely for patriotic reasons, but Anchor Porter, when you can find it, is delicious. And I don’t understand why Stella gets such a bad rap; it’s a very drinkable, smooth, lightish beer.Report
Love Anchor, especially the Porter. Learning about that was one of two things that made my time in San Francisco worthwhile (that and meeting my wife, not necessarily in that order).Report
There’s an old friend of mine who taught me to write structured code many years ago. Anchor Steam is what we drink together. We’re still friends.Report
Nice saveReport
And you took her from San Francisco to Michigan? Man, do you owe.Report
As a midwesterner, if I had to live in any city west of Indiana, San Francisco would be second from last on my list, just above Phoenix. I had lots of fun the few years I lived there, but it’s really not my kind of place at all. It’s only saving grace is proximity to Muir Woods.Report
Like all good Socialist, Big Government, Anti-Capitalist Liberal stereotypes, I prefer microbrews.Report
Alas, Dixie Brewing was damaged beyond repair by Katrina, so my favorite microbrew, Dixie Blackened Voodoo Lager, is no longer available. That was Good Stuff — with a nice taste and depth, without the bitterness I find in most dark beers. Man, I miss that beer.Report
I have been swilling up Abita’s fine products since I arrived in NOLA.Report
Abita Amber is another basically “German’ beer brewed here, in terms of its flavor. I really like that one and snap it up when I see it here.Report
There’s considerable distortion inherent in this study. Put aside the partisanship for just a bit: most of us drink. Our current president brews a honey brown ale in the White House and reconciles policemen to professors over a few glasses of beer. Trying to lump “Any microbrew” into a single statistical entity on the Democratic side just won’t do: what sort of beer’s being made? Ale? Stout? Lager? Surely a discriminating palate is not concerned with politics of the brewer or his fellow drinkers.
A microbrewery is no different than a local bakery. They’re cropping up here and there and everywhere. As for Leinenkugel products being a far-right thing, it’s just not true, at least it wasn’t in Eau Claire and Chippewa, where it’s made.Report
I can’t find Alaskan Amber Ale here in the national capital region. Sad. Always quite liked.Report
I drink a lot of Trappist beer, which probably makes me a religious conservative.Report
Who can harmonize really well?Report
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rcyAF4lz04Report
When I do drink beer and I have the option, I always go with Trappist beer, that stuff is fishin’ delicious. And I’m pretty far to the left, as far as I can tell.Report
Accepting the premise of the post i.e. heavier beers are more manly, consider this: What’s more manly than pounding 10 beers with your buddy? You can’t do that with microbrews (I’ve tried once or twice). Pale lagers facilitate over-consumption, bar fights, etc which is SUPER manly.
In all seriousness though, this chart is nuts. Who puts Guinness and Micholb Light in the same group? That’s criminal…Report
I prefer craft brew, very much so (my favorites among such tending towards huge imperial stouts, btw). But at times I will slum it, and in those moments I prefer malt liquor over anything that would have the word “lite” on it anywhere.
So where am I?Report
I wonder if someone’s put together a similar chart for liquor; I’m a near-socialist and I love a good single-malt scotch (I’m drinking a tumbler of 15-year Glenfiddich as I read this).Report
Funny, as I prefer Henry Wineharts (if only for the memores) and Guiness and I don’t vote. 🙂Report