I’m hypervenilating at the thought of your local.
On second thoughts, no Gale’s HSB ? What a crap pub 
A lager uses a bottom fermenting yeast, usually requiring that it is cold fermented. Lager comes from the german word “To store”, as they were generally tucked away in caves over the winter, pulled out in spring (“Maibocks”, especially), and consumed.
Ales use a top fermenting yeast that works best in slightly warmer temperatures.
As a general rule of thumb, most (but not all) German/Czech beers are lagers, and most English/Scottish/Irish (Do the Welsh have many beers?) are ales.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, choosing a favorite is nigh impossible because good is good. I can’t really say I like Guinness better than Pilsner Urquell because it depends on the setting. That being said, Porters are my favorite session beers.
You and me both.
My favorite watering hole, who’s location is affectionately given as “Directly above the center of the Earth” is a wonderful place for beer lovers. They have over thirty beers on tap (unfortunately including some of the mass produced swill that some in America refer to as beer) and a huge assortment of bottled beers as well. I would be surprised - nay, shocked - to find out they have less than 100 different beers at any one time.
The selection includes many steady regulars, and a large number of rotating friends, visiting for a short engagement only to be supplanted by a new acquaintance. If only I had the money, I would spend weeks at a time down there in my subterranean slice of heaven slowly sipping the sweet nectar of the gods that goes by the all-too-humble name of beer.
I’m going to be talking names most of you have probably never heard of. Being from Australia, pretty well most of us enjoy a good beer.
Here’s my top 5
Cooper’s Original Ale
Cooper’s Pale Ale
Hahn Premium Light
Heineken
West End Draught.
Now, I bet most of you are none the wiser?!! 
Hmm, definitely prefer Ales to Lagers, so much so that it’s tough to find 5 great lagers and settle on only 5 ales. But here goes:
Lagers
Paulaner Salvator
Victory Prima Pils
Penn Dark
Penn Oktoberfest
Spaten Oktoberfest
Ales
Rochefort 10
Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout
Duvel
Stone Ruination IPA
Troegs Mad Elf
I learned to appreciate beer in the U.K., so I prefer ales, with the tops going to:
- Old Peculiar - jeez, 2 pints would put me down
- Dryborough’s 80 Shilling - 8 pints would put me down
- Old No. 3
- Any number of great ales in London - too many to choose
As for yellow beers
- Grolsch - easy and smooth
- Spaten - it’s Spaten - questions?
- Anchor Steam - okay, not yellow, but not an ale - wonderful
- Sierra Nevada Pale Ale - again, a standard…
I’m a beer man mostly. If I’m really hot I’ll drink lager, and have no choice out here 
Bitters:
Fuller’s London Pride
Adman’s Broadside
Greene King IPA (a crime I know to you real ale buffs)
Badger’s Bitter
Sam Smith’s Museum
Lagers:
Budvar
Hoegaarden
Michelob (when in the USA unless I have a local expert with me)
Cristal (Portugese brew imported here - best of a bad bunch)
Well Sir Doris and Angua, my local is here, you’re welcome any time!
You can get at least one of the Cooper’s beers in the UK (can’t remember which, or it may be both). Hahn is quite common in the Aussie chain pubs too. Heineken is pretty ubiquitous. Haven’t tried West End though - that’s going on my list…
Actually, I’ve had the Coopers Sparkling Ale, Pale Ale, and Bext Extra Stout. The stout was actually quite good, and though the Sparkling and Pale Ales weren’t world-beaters, they had a very nice citrus character to them that I definitely appreciated.
I was going to mention the same as Rugby Man – Cooper’s is available at select locations in the U.S. Most folks will have to hunt around quite a bit, though.
…
notquitekarpov, my understanding is that the usual Hoegaarden varieties are all ales. Let me do a check on that.
I sure don’t know. In the New Orleans area, Watney’s CS was available on tap at a handful of places through 1994. After that, it was just bottles – and those ran dry eventually as well.
I had seen Watney’s CS at a specialty store in New Orleans as recently as about 1998. Haven’t turned any up since then, though.
Cooter Brown’s, a New Orleans beers-of-the-world pub, used to carry Watney’s Cream Stout. Now they sell only Watney’s Red Barrel and Watney’s regular Stout.
Here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, we’re blessed with an abundance of incredibly fine microbreweries. My faves:
MacTarnahan’s Amber Ale
Mirror Pond Pale Ale ( DesChutes Brewery)
Rogue Brewery Dead Man Ale
Obsidian Stout (DesChutes)
MacTarnahan’s Black Watch Cream Porter
Lagers:
Widmer Hefeweizen
Widmer Sommerbrau
That’s really about it for lagers…I much prefer ales, and this time of year, porter and stout.
Okay, my favorite beer is like having sex in a canoe…You know the joke.
I’m a big fan of the cheap american beer.
Rolling Rock
Michelob
Leinenkuegals Honey Weiss
Micholob Golden Draft
If I’m feeling rich and I can find it, Fischer LaBalle
A quick Google on “Hoegaarden” confirms this – Hoegaarden’s varieties are top-fermented.
Who’s making Watney’s beers these days? It’s not something I’ve seen in a British pub as far back as I can remember. I’d like to have tried something reputedly so awful that:
(from Man Walks Into A Pub: A Sociable History Of Beer, Pete Brown)
Is is still the same beer? And how bad is it, really?
From what I can Google, Sleeman Brewing in Guelph, Ontario was brewing “Watney’s Cream Stout” after the original Watney Truman brewers of London, UK went belly-up. Apparently, they just went ahead and used the name “Watney’s”.
I don’t know if Sleeman still brews this or not. Do any Ontario Dopers have the info?
My favorites are all ales, but a good pilsner (Victory Prima Pils or Pilsner Urquell) does crop up on occasion. My favorite ales are:[list=1][li]Victory Hop Devil IPA[/li][li]Guiness Stout[/li][li]Bass[/li][li]Sierra Nevada Pale Ale[/li][li]Weyerbacher Hops Infusion[/li][/list=1]