I’d recommend Boulevard too, but it’s only available in KC, St Louis and a few surrounding areas.
Shiner Bock is tasty stuff.
I’ll second Shiner Bock and Sierra Nevada (Pale Ale or Summerfest if you can get it), and I’ll add Sapporo as a brew that’s fairly easy to find, probably my favorite of the lot.
You’ve probably already trid it, but my fav is Leinies Honey Weiss.
A local brewery around here is New Glarus Bewery and they make a** Spotted Cow** that is probably the best. Their other stuff is top notch also.
Pulykamell, if you can tell me where to get ANYTHING from Westvleteren on this CONTINENT (with regularity, not ‘the guy at Bottleworks in Seattle smuggled in a case last January’) I will mail you a shiny dollar. That is both a daring wager and a would-be reward.
It’s almost December-- there should be some good odd things appearing. See if you can find a Samichlaus.
Anything ending in -ator is good.
Thanks for the suggestions, keep them coming. Feel free to suggest local brews as well, as I travel for business quite frequently all over the country and you never know when I may turn up in your neck of the woods.
BTW, a lot of beer terminology is over my head. I don’t know what’s meant by bock or stout or pilsner, or what hoppy is, or anything like that. Is there any good resources to learn some of this stuff? Any books or web sites to recommend?
[QUOTE=GorillaMan]
Bass? Boddies?
Crikey, looks like us Brits have gotten the “export all the undrinkable rubbish” tactic working well 
You may have to search pretty hard, but I cannot recommed beers from the St Peter’s Brewery highly enough. They do a big range, from dark porters to infused light ales and wheat beer.
[/QUOTE
I also recomend [St. Peter’s Porter]
(https://www.stpetersbrewery.co.uk/range/prod_detail.asp?CatID=1&Code=OSPCASE)
Even though I generally hate beer, I’d recommend both of those as well, especially the Boulevard. I had one while living in Lincoln, Nebraska last winter and it was quite tasty.
I get mine at Archer Liquors, which is conveniently located not far from my house. The guy who works there, Randy, only has a very limited stock. He gets maybe a case or so a year and when it goes, it goes. From what I understand and from what he’s told me, the monks only release as many beers as they feel like each year, so it’s not like there’s a constant supply. Last time I was in there, they had like four bottle of Westvleteren 8. Surprisingly enough, not many people buy it, so most of the year I do see it on the shelves.
I’m probably one of the few beer snobs who doesn’t go gaga over abbey ales. Don’t get me wrong. They’re fantastic, complex beers, but my tastes lean towards heavy hops.
Randy does regularly accept orders from all over the U.S. and perhaps Canada, so feel free to drop him an email if you need some Westvleteren.
Dogbutler-- don’t worry, St Peters and such can also be found, just not too easily. I look for the funny-shaped bottle.
I’ve been drinking a lot of Fullers ESB and London Pride because the local store has it cheap, thank God (sorry, but most Canadian beer is pissy. My one complaint).
Whoops. I just checked. Your Westvleteren is out of stock. Actually, it was the Rochefort #8 I was thinking of that they always seem to have. I actually may have been the last person to buy their Westvletern, but I’ll keep an eye out for you.
Another great brewer that I’ve grown to love is George Schneider & Sons, who in particular make an absolutely awesome hefe weissbier called “Edelweiss” that clocks in around 6.2%. An added bonus if you care about that sort of thing is that it’s organic.
I second the Hoegaarden as well, but try and make sure you get the Hoegaarden White, because they do at least two other beers that might be a bit much for someone just starting out.
Sorry to go over your head like that, I forget some people aren’t as obsessive about beer as I am.
We’ll start with the basic ingredients of beer. Water, malt, hops, and yeast.
Water, for the purposes of this discussion, is not a major flavor component, so we’ll skip it.
Malt is the backbone of beer. Generally when we refer to malt we are talking about malted barley. It provides the beer’s color, depending on what colored malts you use. It is what provides the sugars needed by the yeast to produce alcohol (more on that later). The sugars and proteins that remain after fermentation are what provide sweetness, body, and mouthfeel. When we call a beer “malty” we generally mean it is sweet and full-bodied. Spaten Optimator is a malty beer.
Hops are a beer’s “spice”, so to speak. Hops provide a bitter counterpoint to the sweetness of malt. Some beer styles have just enough hops added to keep the beer from being cloyingly sweet, others have so much hop characteristic that they completely dominate the flavor of the beer. Arrogant Bastard is a (very) hoppy beer.
Yeast is a living organism that eats the sugars created in the brewhouse from the malt and converts them to alcohol and carbon dioxide. There are hundreds of yeast strains and each will add a characteristic of it’s own, but generally we separate them into two categories, lager and ale. Lagers are fermented at cooler temperatures and are generally cleaner, more neutral yeasts that do not contribute much flavor. Ales are femented at warm temperatures and add more character, often fruity or spicy notes.
When we call a beer a Bock, Porter, Stout, etc, we are referring to the beer’s style. A style of beer is a generally recognized combination of ingredients and process that creates beers that are relatively similar in color, bitterness, alcohol %, and flavor. For example, a Pilsener should use soft water, light colored 2 row malt, be moderately hopped with a “noble” hop, and should use a lager yeast. A Stout would use hard water, roasted barley for the dark black color, some oats or wheat to create a dense creamy head, a small amount of a British hop, and an ale yeast.
You can look at this site to get a general idea of beer styles. But be aware that it is aimed toward the judging of beer and so is going to be pretty technical.
Hope that helps and didn’t just confuse you more!
I will add to the list of reccomendations of Rogue. I love their Chocolate Stout.
McEwans Scotch Ale is great. Great flavor and texture, with no aftertaste.
My favorite is Black Out Stout, which you can only get if you live close enough to the Great Lakes Brewing Company. Best beer ever.
Also, I tip my hat to you for being the type of guy who likes to go out there and try everything to find out what you like best. Kindred souls we are.
Is it true that dark bottled beer is better than clear/green bottled beer?
What about beer that is brewed locally vs beer brewed domestically? Any difference?
I cannot find a cite for it, but Dark brown preserves the beer the best from UV light. This may not be fact but rather common knowledge that is not confirmed.
Jim
Recent thread where this came up
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=338876&highlight=Brown+Bottles
**Silenus ** in particular had some good cites http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6667552&postcount=13
Jim
Brown bottles are much preferred over green or clear because the reduce the amount of light that reaches the beer. UV light reacts with compounds in the hops to produce ethyl mercaptan, which causes the distinctive “skunky” odor and flavor. It doesn’t take long either. Put a glass of beer in the sunshine for 5 minutes and it will already have a noticeable lightstruck character.
As far as local beer vs imported beer, once beer is in it’s package it’s quality can only diminish.* So your local brewery may have a fresher product, but this can also depend on turnover at the store. But as a general rule I would prefer to “drink locally”
- The only exception to this is high alcohol beers like barleywines or imperial stouts that can benefit from aging
Damn, beaten to the punch. I should have previewed.
Mmmm … Old Nick.
GorillaMan (or any other British Isles Doper) – is Watney’s Cream Stout still around. Can’t get that stuff locally anymore 
The Celis labels are also unavailable locally (though I’m not sure they’re as good as they were a 10-15 years ago).