IBC

I was a big beer guy until a few years ago, but I drink the occasional brew. Here goes (hard pops soon to follow):

1. Heineken (my all-time fave, I absolutely cannot believe no one has listed it yet)
2. Henry Weinhard's Private Reserve
3. Sierra Nevada
4. Budweiser (BBQ's only, somehow it works)
5. Becks

Indians wrote: 2. Henry Weinhard's Private Reserve

I forgot about this one--nice call!

1. Guinness
2. Goose Island Oatmeal Stout
3. Hacker-Pschorr
4. Old Style (only at Wrigley Field)
5. Sprecher Black Bavarian

In order:

Murphy's Irish Stout
Amber Bock
Harp
Red Dog
Natty Light

Rockies wrote:In order:

Natty Light

No way, John. Really?

Cubs wrote:

Rockies wrote:In order:

Natty Light

No way, John. Really?

I was actually more surprised by the Red Dog listing.

Indians wrote:I was actually more surprised by the Red Dog listing.

I didn't even know that Miller/SAB still sold Red Dog ... never see it up in Maine or New Hampshire and don't recall seeing on my trips back to Illinois or in Missouri. Must be a regional marketing item now ...

Yea i never see it at home, but i just took a tour of the Miller Brewing Company and they sell it only in the area.

Currently Sam Adams - Octoberfest, soon Winter lager.
Dos Equis
Peroni
Molson Golden
Stella Artois

Nationals wrote: Peroni

Peroni? Seriously?

Yup...if I am looking for something with a lighter flavor it works well. It is not one I would normally have it home though.

1. Heineken (my all-time fave, I absolutely cannot believe no one has listed it yet)

Wow. Heineken is the best marketed, worst tasting beer in the world. It tastes like someone left a High Life out in the sun for three weeks and THEN refridgerated it.

Royals wrote:

1. Heineken (my all-time fave, I absolutely cannot believe no one has listed it yet)

Wow. Heineken is the best marketed, worst tasting beer in the world. It tastes like someone left a High Life out in the sun for three weeks and THEN refridgerated it.

I'm inclined to agree... but then I remember Budweiser...

When you're a borderline alcy like myself, $10 18-packs are the way to go, especially if you're killing 8-10 per session....and that's sitting on my back porch by myself on weeknights....Damn irish.

Red Dog is definitely sold in the South East, and more for the highschool memories than anything else.

Royals wrote:

1. Heineken (my all-time fave, I absolutely cannot believe no one has listed it yet)

Wow. Heineken is the best marketed, worst tasting beer in the world. It tastes like someone left a High Life out in the sun for three weeks and THEN refridgerated it.

Never been desperate enough for a drink to chill a three-week old heated High Life, but if it tastes like Heineken I'm game. Like John and his Red Dog, it would be a cheaper alternative for my drunk ass.

Ha, we sell mad red dog at one of my stores.. Its a bit more "ghetto" than the one buy my house. We have a deal going on with the miller products.. Red dog only comes in 24 ounce single cans for us, but come on down.. Red dog, 211, PBR, miller high life and light.. 5 for 5 dollars.

Henieken isn't that bad if really cold, and drank from the bottle. Pour It in a glass it gets skinky. For shit cheap beer, for me I will drink busch. It tastes like budweiser.

God is in the beer taps

The Almighty could be found at last week's Great American Beer Festival – in the crassly commercial, in homage to religion's long history in brewing, in needling faiths that turn a suspect eye on drinking, and (if the prophet of home-brewing is to be believed) at the bottom of every glass.

By Eric Gorski | The Associated Press
October 18, 2008

DENVER – In the beginning, there was a long line for Judgment Day ale.

Shortly after the doors opened on the 27th Great American Beer Festival, a crowd congregated at the booth offering that and other pours from The Lost Abbey of San Marcos, Calif., where the tap handle is a Celtic cross and the legacy of beer-brewing monks endures.

Standing under a banner promising "Inspired beers for Saints and Sinners Alike," proprietor and former altar boy Tomme Arthur had a confession: He's using God to sell some beer.

"It's the oldest story ever told – the struggle between good and evil," said Arthur, 35, a product of Catholic schools in his native San Diego. "There is a battle being waged between those who make good beer and those who make evil beer."

Without question, unholy excess is in evidence anytime 18,000 gallons of alcohol is served to 46,000 people over three days. See: women in Bavarian maid outfits and "Beer Pong" tables.

Yet perhaps surprisingly, God could be found at last week's Great American Beer Festival – in the crassly commercial, in homage to religion's long history in brewing, in needling faiths that turn a suspect eye on drinking, and (if the prophet of home-brewing is to be believed) at the bottom of every glass.

While alcohol and religion don't always mix, no less a figure than Benjamin Franklin once said: "Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."

Charlie Papazian, author of "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing," the undisputed bible of the craft, can cite many intersections of beer and the divine. Mayan and Aztec priests controlled the brewing of beer in pre-Columbian days, monks in Bavaria brewed strong bocks for sustenance during Lent and the first brewery in the Americas was founded by Belgium monks in Ecuador in 1534.

Before Louis Pasteur pinpointed yeast as the culprit in the 1850s, brewers didn't know what caused fermentation, said Papazian, president of the Boulder, Colo.-based Brewers Association. So they invented one run-on word to describe the mysterious stuff at the bottom of the bottle: "Godisgood."

"As you drain a glass of beer, look at the yeast at the bottom and be reminded that God is good, because that's the way it feels," Papazian said.

Like most business owners, brewers tend to avoid politics and religion out of fear of alienating customers. At the same time, microbrewing has become an intensely competitive industry, so putting a saint on a bottle can help a guy stand out.

When Brock Wagner was looking to name his new brewery in Houston 14 years ago, his search took him to the library of a local Catholic seminary. There, he found"the story of St. Arnold of Metz, the French saint of brewers and one of many patron saints of the brewing arts.

As the tale goes, Arnold (580-640) urged his people, "Don't drink the water, drink beer" because he believed water boiled in beer was safer than tainted water sources.

Centuries later, St. Arnold Brewing Co. became Texas' first craft brewery, with a "divine reserve" single-batch beer and 21 fermenters named for different saints.

"One purpose of religion is the formation of communities, and our brewery kind of has that effect, of bringing people together," said Wagner, who describes himself as spiritual but wary of organized religion. "Some of our regulars say going on our brewery tour is going to church."

Jeremy Cowan, the marketing mind behind He'Brew (the chosen beer), was absent from his company's booth on the festival's first day; it was Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement.

Established in 1996 (or 5757), Cowan's Schmaltz Brewing Co. uses Jewish humor, scripture and imagery in packaging its beers, all of them kosher. There's Genesis Ale ("our first creation") Messiah Bold ("the one you've been waiting for") and Jewbelation ("L'Chaim!").

"I am passionately Jewish," Cowan said. "I don't get as caught up in the legal minutiae. I'm more fascinated in the project of Judaism as a civilization. This is the way I participate."

Some faith traditions reject alcohol as an intoxicant that invites bad behavior and abuse. Observant Muslims and Mormons, among others, abstain from drinking on religious grounds.

Last year, an evangelical church targeting young adults in the St. Louis area got in trouble with the Missouri Baptist Convention for holding a church ministry at a microbrewery. (The Southern Baptist Convention opposes making, advertising, distributing and consuming alcohol).

At Denver's Great American Beer Festival, four ex-Mormons who met at Utah State University ran a booth selling "X-Communicated Mormon Drinking Team" T-shirts, sweatshirts and other products.

"Our business model is to sell enough T-shirts to pay the cost of a group of our friends getting together and having fun for the weekend," said Mike Hansen, 36, of Whitefish, Mont.

Another entrepreneur peddled "WWJB: What Would Jesus Brew?" T-shirts, with an image of a smiling Jesus with a mash paddle in one hand and a pint glass in the other.

Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River Brewing Co. in Santa Rosa, Calif., brews a series of religion-themed beers that began with "Damnation." A strong golden ale, the beer's name is a nod to the great Belgian beer Duval, which comes from the Flemish word for devil.

A restaurant around the corner from Cilurzo's brewery refused to stock it.

"It all started with 'Damnation,'" said Cilurzo, who has no religious affiliation. "I felt like if we started with 'Damnation,' we needed to be redeemed. We needed 'Salvation.'"

Cilurzo's latest creation, Consecration, was a festival hit and an answered prayer – a richly textured sour ale aged for nine months in Cabernet Sauvignon barrels with black currants.

God is good.

I must say that Red Dog is only tolerable out of a short neck bottle. Out of a can or even a long neck, it tasts horrid. Not sure why, exactly.

Rockies wrote:I must say that Red Dog is only tolerable out of a short neck bottle. Out of a can or even a long neck, it tasts horrid. Not sure why, exactly.

There's no question in my mind that beer in cans tastes different than beer from bottles and I've seen it proven. I had a classmate at UC who swore he could taste the difference, we tested him and he nailed it (we used Heineken and Bud Light which we poured into shot glasses).

This is absolutely a fact, related to the chemical properties of aluminum (we learned about it in chemistry). It's much more obvious with Coke, which tastes 200 kajillion times better out of a glass bottle than out of a can or plastic bottle.

Everyone should check beeradvocate.com for liquor stores in your area. I read about one on there today about 25 minutes from my house and headed on down there. Not only did they have everyone of the Beeradvocate top 100 but atleast 1,000 other types of beer. It took me about an hour to finally decide on one and I went with Out of Bounds Stout which was very good. But I certainly will be there once a week trying out different beers.

If any of you ever get to Wells< Maine we have a delightful Beer & Wine place ... especially for a town of 10,000: http://tullysbeerandwine.com/store/index.php

New #1 for me... Mothership Wit by New belgium... just absolutely fantastic...

Can't believe I forgot this one.

Mac and Jacks' African Amber Ale


...had 4 of 'em yesterday after a round of golf, at least the beer was good.

Mothership wit is another good one from new Belgium, I agree. Have you tried their winter seasonal called 2 below?

I still say trippel is their best, followed closely by abbey or 1554. They just make good beer.