Re: You lot have spent so much time ...
Actually, its because the "central Europeans" (wherever that is) brought lager recipes with them, and pretty much took over brewing here in the US in the 1800s. Prohibition drove brewing underground, and as often happens with unregulated industry, profit became a prime motivator, which lead to watering down the lager. Post-prohibition, the large companies saw no reason to spend money making a brew using more ingredients. Thus the insipid "American Lager", which is to all intents nothing more than preserved water.
Thankfully, Carter signed the homebrewing bill into law in 1978, leading to Americans rediscovering real brews, so we're pretty much past that now ... There are over 2,500 micro- or craft brewers here in the US, all making real beer. Comments about US beers being crap here on ElReg do nothing more than display the ignorance of the commentard.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
