# Best Beer-Category: Lager **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** beer\ **Created:** [July 24, 2014, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-beer-category-lager/693948 "2014-07-24T17:24:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2014, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-beer-category-lager/693948/61 "2014-07-27T03:16:02Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Natty Bo is actually owned by Pabst and brewed under contract by MillerCoors in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, but upwards of 90% of its sales are in Baltimore [cite](http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-01-26/entertainment/bs-ae-natty-boh-20110126_1_national-bohemian-historic-baltimore-brew-halethorpe-brewery). I’ve never seen it outside of Maryland, myself, not even in Pennsylvania, Virginia or the District. Yeah, I saw it all over the place in Baltimore. But I also saw it in New Hampshire and in a suburb of Philly. I thought it was pretty "meh"even for a cheapass brew. [Ronald Theriot](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iovvp7efd70) gave it a C minus. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2014, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-beer-category-lager/693948/62 "2014-07-27T14:16:47Z")
> [@typoink](#): > > PBR’s cachet isn’t an accident – they CHOSE to be hipster beer, and have reinforced it with branding and promoting hipster-y clubs and music acts. > > Old Style aims for a more generalist blue collar crowd (their cans here have the skyline on 'em and SAY “Chicago’s Beer”), and I think they do okay. > > I first noticed Hamm’s “coming back” when my local bodega started carrying it, priced cheaper than anything besides Natural Ice. Only thing I knew it from was old bar signs at my old barber, and my dad saying he liked it in the 70s. Since then, I’ve noticed at least a couple hipster/dives with Hamm’s signs in the window. I’ve also seen the occasional Blatz at some of the more hipstery places I go to. That’s a beer I haven’t seen outside Wisconsin in godknowshowlong. I think I missed most of the PBR marketing push. I was living out of the country from '98-'03, and I seem to recall upon my return PBR suddenly being popular. I just assumed it was some hipster irony thing, taking something “uncool” and making it “cool,” or just being “unique” and contrarian and settling on a cheap macro lager that wasn’t the usual Budweiser or Miller everyone else was drinking. I would have figured Old Style in Chicago being pretty set for that role, being the local (in the sense that it’s what locals drink) blue collar beer alternative to the more universally popular BudMillCoors products (and, yes, I know Old Style is part of the Pabst Brewing Company now and contract brewed by Miller, so it’s all related anyway.) If you really want to get old school, you can get La Cross Lager, which is supposedly the old Old Style as brewed in La Crosse, Wisconsin. And, besides, [Dennis Farina!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibnp5lpqzlc) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2014, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-beer-category-lager/693948/63 "2014-07-27T14:27:23Z")
Incidentally, that Dennis Farina set of commercials is a good example what a genuine Chicago blue-collar accent sounds like. (As opposed to accents exaggerated for comic effect, a la Da Superfans.) ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2014, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-beer-category-lager/693948/64 "2014-07-27T17:17:26Z")
Upland makes an excellent lager called Champagne Velvet. ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-beer-category-lager/693948/65 "2014-07-29T21:05:21Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > We usually have Sessions or Negra Modelo in the fridge. I like Dos Equis and Sam Adams, as well. One of the best I’ve had was Budweiser Budvar, which is a Czech lager. I don’t even know if you can get it in the states, but it was my first choice in Europe. Also, I never met a German lager I didn’t like. It’s [Czechvar](http://www.czechvar.com/index.html) in N.America and it’s definitely my favorite! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-beer-category-lager/693948.md?page=3)