Why do you consider wine to be superior to drink than beer ?

Why do you (seriously or humorously) consider wine and any spirits
you also greatly admire, so much better to drink than beer ?

I don't. I like beer. I can't imagine pairing wine with wings. Welcome to the forum.

I agree with Howie - I don't really consider wine to be superior to beer. I do tend to drink much more wine than beer, I think because it pairs better with the food I like to eat. (At least it does for me.) I also like the fact that wine is stronger in alcohol than beer. It takes a couple of bottles of most beer to get the same mild, relaxing buzz that I get from a couple of smaller glasses of most wine. (Tastes great and it's less filling! )

Both have their place, though. Can't see how you'd drink wine with brats.

Great question, and welcome!

Don't equate either wine or spirits as better than beer. All depends on the occasion and attitude and what I want to drink.

Sometimes a fine beer/ale/lambic/kriek can be every bit as enticing and complex and rewarding as a fine wine. So can a good spirit.

I don't.

[Robin Garr]

I see a place in my life for both and would add that with the explosion of quality artisanal beer in the US since the early 1990s, it's not necessarily a matter of beer for burgers and pizza, wine for "fine" food any more. It's possible to send a well-chosen beer just about anywhere that a well-matched wine will go at the dinner table. (Although to my tastes, some of the classic wine pairings like rare steaks and Cabernet or Pinot, raw oysters with Muscadet, etc., are hard to beat.)

I think the problem is that US mass-market industrial beer - Bud/Coors/Miller and their Light/Lite companions - is generally even more horrifying than mass-market industrial wine - Mondavi Woodbridge, f'rinstance. I think maybe cheap wine is superior to cheap beer because it actually has some flavor.

But assume artisanal beers and wines, even in the QPR price ranges, I don't buy the concept that one is "superior."

[Robin Garr]

By the way, this topic really belongs in the wine forum, not the off-topic forum. I'll move it, but leave a pointer so people will be able to follow the bread crumbs to its new home.

I don't actually drink that much beer anymore (though I admit a great beer can be...great!). I'm a wine geek, and enjoy trying to find wine matches to even difficult foods. But in no way does that mean I think wine is "superior" to beer, it's just the place I decided to channel my geekiness.

Why do you (seriously or humorously) consider wine and any spirits
you also greatly admire, so much better to drink than beer ?

I don't.

Welcome to the Wine Lover's Page (accent on the wine)! I don't consider wine to be superior to beer, just different. I appreciate a well crafted beer. Stone IPA, Flying Dog's IPA, Flying Dog's "Raging Bitch" and Dogfish Head's IPA are at the top of my list right now. For better or worse, my son (who is a bartender) has guided me beyond Bud, Coors and other 'generally accepted beers'.

Like all the other posters, I wouldn't say superior. (There are probably just too many level-headed folks around here. You might choose another board if you want sparks flying).

But wine does consume more of my attention than beer because of its greater transparency in terms of vintage/weather, terroir, and the aging. Beer has too many other brewmaster elements that so strongly affect the taste, whereas with wine you can explore the interplay of nature, land, and of course human civilization. Plus the aging thing is much more developed. So it fascinates me more. But others might feel the reverse.

But wine does consume more of my attention than beer because of its greater transparency in terms of vintage/weather, terroir, and the aging. Beer has too many other brewmaster elements that so strongly affect the taste, whereas with wine you can explore the interplay of nature, land, and of course human civilization. Plus the aging thing is much more developed. So it fascinates me more. But others might feel the reverse.

A friend who had been a very well-regarded brewmaster and then fell heavily for wine said essentially the same thing.
Charles

I just don't have the fondness for beer that I have for wine or certain other alcohol-based drinks (rum punches, etc.) Even though objectively I know that beer comes in a number of varieties, it doesn't strike me as being as varied and endlessly fascinating as wine. Also, I think of beer in different contextual settings--the bowling alley, the hockey game, after a motorcycle rally, at a college party. I think of wine in more sophisticated settings such as Champagne for wedding receptions, wine with a gourmet dinner, Port by the fireplace after dinner, wine and cheese at a gallery opening, etc.

I love beer. And if you search with the prefix BTN (beer tasting note), you will find that several others here, also, are passionate about the beverage. My ex-colleague at the bookshop now runs a small importing company specializing in small Belgian producers. Though we aren't colleagues any more, he still kindly invites me to his tastings. I am as much a beer geek as I am a wine geek. The reason I write much more about wine here is simply that this a wine focused site.

This is an absolute case of apples and oranges. Apples and oranges are both very nice fruits. Wine and beer (my preference ale) are both very nice beverages to consume with food; other than apples and oranges.

Yes, I think so, if you look up all the various definitions of the word, superior. Value, accomplishment, significance and even spiritual connotations are associated with wine more than with beer.

It is a heck of a lot harder to make a consistently good wine than a good beer! You don't have bad vintages of hops or barley. You don't have to deal with the oak regimen! You don't have to deal with TCA. I don't know of any ageable beers (at least not for 10-25 years). And you certainly don't have "single vineyard" beers. And like many have already said, wine and food are made for each other, like "love and marriage". Beer on the other hand is more easy-going. I like beer a lot, but there might be 50 different beer experiences, while there are a thousand different wine experiences. Wine is not necessarily "superior" but it is surely a lot more complex and (I'll go ahead and say it) more intellectual!

You are all so kind and considerate, and politically correct. And wrong.

Wine is superior to beer because:
1) Nobody ever built a beer cellar.
2) Nobody pays >$100 for a bottle of beer.
3) Nobody buys a case of beer to put down for their newborn's 21st birthday.
4) Nobody swirls beer.
5) Nobody debates whether the '89 budwieser was better than the '90.
6) Nobody collects expensive beer openers. In fact, Oster doesn't even make an electric beer opener.
7) There is no "beer advocate," "beer spectator" or other rating system for beer.
Nobody debates the proper closure for beer.
9) Nobody spends weeks touring the beer vineyards of France, Italy, Spain or anywhere else for that matter.
10) And while I may be wrong on every one of the above reasons, no one can argue with this: There is no beer table at MoCOOL!!!

OW nailed it!!!


JB

OW nailed it!!!


JB

Although he was wrong about pretty much every one of the points. Except the beer opener part. And perhaps #10.

You are all so kind and considerate, and politically correct. And wrong.

Thanks. That was my feeling, too. I didn't say it because I have been trying to be more social and less confrontational and maverick. The question was ambiguous in its connotations: “Why do you consider wine to be superior to drink than beer,” begging both questions of whether wine itself is superior and whether the behavior of drinking wine is superior.

I told my wife after reading all the demotic statements that the raison d'être of almost everybody is to be social and liked and heaven forbid that anyone be thought of as feeling superior to anybody else. So the question was a curve ball. Forum members apparently felt they couldn’t address the obvious superiority of wine without presenting themselves loftily. I think this is the stuff of subconscious denial. Hitler liked wine and some of the most beautiful people in the world drink only beer, but wine is in almost every definition of superiority better than beer.

Well if we're getting all intellectual about this, how's about nuh uh as my rebuttal? Also as has been noted OW's list is almost completely incorrect.

Also as has been noted OW's list is almost completely incorrect.

But he has an excuse - he's a lawyer.

[David M. Bueker]

The potential superiority of wine is completely subjective, so while I am not a beer fan (I like one every once in a while, but that's it) I won't say that one is superior to the other. I will say I prefer wine.