In the contemporary global market the majority of beer is American adjunct lager. It’s everywhere: Coors, Budweiser, Corona, Miller, PBR, and many more. This is not a coincidence. The American adjunct lager is a product of consumer demand matching corporate strategy. All adjunct lagers are variations on the original Pilsner recipe popularized by Pilsner Urquell in the 19th century, with one large variation.
Adjuncts are what distinguish macrobreweries from microbreweries. Microbreweries brew beer with hops, barley malt, water, and yeast (sometimes wheat too) and that is it. These are the traditional ingredients in beer going back hundreds of years. However, in a quest to satisfy the consumer demand for lightness American macro breweries created the adjunct lager. Adjuncts are grains such as corn or rice that are added to the beer recipe to lighten color and flavor. This is the only function of the adjuncts, and they are reviled by craft beer enthusiasts for their role in making bad beer. But, it is the mass consumer demand for adjuncts (or the light beer created from them) that drives their popularity. Adjunct lagers are cheap to make (corn is cheaper than barley) and in high demand, a recipe for global market dominance.
American adjunct lagers are a pale straw color with a low alcohol content. They contain very little hop or malt flavor and are easy to drink in mass quantities, just the way people want them.
