[aeberbach]

James Boag's Premium is the finest Australian beer for summer but I've never seen it outside Australia. It's probably the best looking label on a beer bottle too. Coopers is OK but it's heavy and tastes too bitter after a few. I'd rather drink Guinness, "proper" or not. Or there's Boddingtons in the same kind of nitrogen-widget can.

It's true that most Australians avoid Foster's. But what they're not drinking and what you're not drinking are probably two different things. The Fosters that you buy in North America is probably brewed in Canada, just as some "Japanese" beers like Sapporo (that you might find in a sushi restaurant) are probably brewed in Milwaukee. Find one of the large imported cans of Sapporo and then find a domestic can and you'll see they are quite different. Read the fine print. If it doesn't say "imported", or even if it says "imported and bottled by" then reserve your judgement because you haven't had the real thing.

The difference can be even more dramatic. Buy Beefeater gin in the USA and you have a premium spirit, quite a good martini. Buy it in Australia and you have a watered-down imitation, sold at 40% alc/vol to keep it inside a certain tax bracket. Same goes for Bombay Sapphire and many others. If the Scots had their way they wouldn't even be allowed to label the whisky "Scotch".

Strangely enough, yuppies in Australian pubs choose to pay up to $10 for Bud, Miller or Corona. I couldn't believe it when I first saw a Whole Foods beer fridge, I had no idea there was such good beer brewed in the USA - meaning there's just no reason to drink Bud. Even Sam Adams is way ahead and on tap just about everywhere! I'd drink light beer but I'd rather eat and drink what I like and then make up for it in the gym.

 

[Matthew-Spaltro]

Bass ale
Newcastle brown
Rolling Rock
Molson
Miller light
Moosehead
Killians Irish Red
Budweiser and I don't care who knows it

 

[srapps55]

Pacifico
Grolsch
Pilsner Urquell
La Fin du Monde (at 9% alco, be careful)
Paulaner Hefe Weiss
Moretti Dark

 

[kelly]

Matt
Miller Light in the same list as Bass?? ...

Someone had to go and mention asian beers and I have this to say. Wherever the ones they sell here are brewed, as far as I'm concerned Asia on the whole owns the only beer and cholocolate companies on earth that make crap as bad as our big companies do. Ok, that's all--thanks for listening.

 

[Matthew-Spaltro]

Originally posted by kelly
Matt
Miller Light in the same list as Bass?? ...QUOTE]


He he. What can I say?

 

[Polygon]

I'm not a beer drinker mainly cause I don't really like the taste of any of them. The best tasting is Fosters IMO, though I think they are all gross. I'll stick with a nice frosty glass of ice water.

 

[kelly]

Well I can certainly see how someone thinks Fosters is the next best thing to water.

 

[Kubernetes]

My favorites;

Fat Tire (a standard)
Trippel Trappist (also New Belgium, and very, very strong; a bomber will knock you on your ass!)
Spaten (favorite German beer)
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (simply very drinkable)
Magic Hat #9 (funky flavor, but very drinkable)
Bass (classic)
Tupper's Hop Pocket (favorite east coast beer)
Budweiser (underrated; actually a very decent beer)
Sapporo (nothing better for sushi)
Tiger (best in the orient)

Quote:

I heard it is season beer (sirup) with 26% alcohol.

That's not really beer, then, is it? Beer should be created by natural fermentation, and the maximum you can get is around 15%, same as wine. Any higher than that, and you're either dealing with distillation or other concentration methods. Either way, that's not real beer.

 

[Clay]

I grew up on Heineken. I like them very cold - freezer for 10-20 minutes. Now I drink water and Latte's.

 

[geom_tol]

Quote:

Originally posted by Kubernetes That's not really beer, then, is it? Beer should be created by natural fermentation, and the maximum you can get is around 15%, same as wine. Any higher than that, and you're either dealing with distillation or other concentration methods. Either way, that's not real beer.

I'm even more picky than that.
If it's not a lager/pilsner it's not beer for me.
And if it's not made in the Czech republic or Germany there's a good chance there will be something wrong with it.
Even many German lagers are dubious, they put their damn 'Kreuters' or whatever they call it in the beer. Don't do that please.

There are some exceptions of course. Sometimes a beer can be really good on tap, while it's bad on bottle. Some Danish beers are like that.

Lower alcohol Lager varieties can be pretty good (ones with around 3% alcohol) they're common in Germany, eastern europe and scandinavia.

Ale and other English/British stuff is undrinkable IMO. Especially when had in England, stale and lukewarm. No thanks.

So to summarize what a beer should be:
Clear golden colour. Cold. Bitter.

 

[redshifter]

Quote:

Originally posted by Kubernetes My favorites; Fat Tire (a standard) Trippel Trappist (also New Belgium, and very, very strong; a bomber will knock you on your ass!) Spaten (favorite German beer) Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (simply very drinkable) Magic Hat #9 (funky flavor, but very drinkable) Bass (classic) Tupper's Hop Pocket (favorite east coast beer) Budweiser (underrated; actually a very decent beer) Sapporo (nothing better for sushi) Tiger (best in the orient) That's not really beer, then, is it? Beer should be created by natural fermentation, and the maximum you can get is around 15%, same as wine. Any higher than that, and you're either dealing with distillation or other concentration methods. Either way, that's not real beer.

if you want real beer, then you need to remove budweiser from your list:
"Budweiser beer is named after a Czech town and the battle of the Buds continue. The EU says the Czech brand is the legal owner of the name but German regulations say the American version is not beer so allowed to use the name."
www.beer-411.com

 

[geom_tol]

Quote:

Originally posted by redshifter if you want real beer, then you need to remove budweiser from your list: "Budweiser beer is named after a Czech town and the battle of the Buds continue. The EU says the Czech brand is the legal owner of the name but German regulations say the American version is not beer so allowed to use the name." www.beer-411.com

The Czech beer is made in a town called Ceske Budejovice, the German name of the town is Budweiser. The name of the beer in Czech is Budvar, for all other countries it's always been Budweiser.
It's a pretty nice town. The beer is on the lower end of Czech beers imo. Too much sweetness.

The American Budweiser has rice in it. I think that's why it's not classed as a real beer. It doesn't really taste like beer either imo.
The funniest thing about it is the text on the label. Something about the most expensive beer to make and other drivel about it being the best beer in the world. Funny stuff.

 

[fredpb]

My favorite beers I discovered when I lived in England. Theakstons was made in Masham, near me, and my local pubs had it in WOODEN KEGS, using the ancient hand pumps. Wonderful stuff. Nothing like it. I lived in Germany for a couple of years, and nothing there matched it.

But here in reality, USA, my favorite beers come from Samuel Adams. I love their stuff on draft. And I like Fosters on draft.

But to me, alcohol is a depressant, so I don't drink much of it.

 

[elipsis]

That's interesting. I suffer from depression, too (enough to be medicated), and alcohol has no depressive effects on me at all. It's meant to be a big no-no, but to be honest, in moderate amounts I think it's beneficial for its stress relieving qualities.

 

[millerdog]

Back when I had a job:
St. Pauli Girl..named my dog after this beer
Castlemaine(fourx?)
Asahi Super Dry
San Miguel (the bottled stuff from PI)
Watneys Red Barrel Beer
When I took a cruise vacation, I drank Redstripe almost all the time.

Back in school with a sometimes job:
Budlight by the case..my dog Bud died, Pauli Girl is still kicking.
I let my mom name my present dog, hence....
md