If you’re in the great lakes area, Michigan has got some stellar beers. Founders puts out a porter that puts Edmund Fitzgerald to shame, and I love Edmund Fitzgerald. Shorts Brewery puts out a ton of different varieties, including a really nice pilsner.
When you come on to here, or Beer Advocate, or any other place on the internet asking for beer advice, the beer nerds, no offense to anyone, come out of the woodwork and start throwing around a lot of technical language and general snootiness, all information of which is both perfectly true and completely worthless to someone such as yourself (again, no offense to anyone).
The only way to really find the beers you want are to try them. What you want to do is find a bar with a large draft beer selection and talk to the bartender/server. Go on a weeknight when it will not be busy. Tell them what you’ve had and what you’ve liked and disliked; they will be happy to talk it over with you, and more importantly, most will be happy to let you sample what they have, (on tap; they probably won’t crack open a bottle just to give you a sip).
Have fun, and good drinking to you.
Snooty huh?
If I were interested in a subject, I would learn the terms that describe that subject. Is that snooty, or just fighting ones own ignorance?
When you reach a certain level of minutiae, yes.
I’m not even saying anyone has done that in this thread, and no one has. There’s a huge difference between learning about something and knowing the terminology, and that information being useful in a practical manner, especially regarding matters of individual sensory enjoyment.
My point was that the only way to figure out which beers you will like is to go and try them. You could know everything there is to know about french fries, from ingredients to preparation to cooking methods to the molecular structure of the starches that make up a potato, but the only way you would know that the fries at Wendy’s suck and the fries at McDonald’s are delicious is because you go there and you try them. It’s certainly interesting to know things like what beer is made from and how it’s produced and Reinheitsgebot, but it’s ultimately useless in telling you whether you’re going to love or hate Beck’s Dark vs Warsteiner, which are similar but very different beers. I’m not a fan of Beck’s, but I like a Warsteiner when I can get it, and the reason I know this is because I went out and tried them both.
I agree with you. I also think that its worth having at least a basic knowledge of the subject. It will help the bartender steer you away from hop bombs if you dont like bitter, and it might keep him from just dropping a Fat Tire and caling it a day.
I guess I took offense to the snooty comment. While I thought that many of the replies were helpful.
A certain amount of jargon is unavoidable but here’s a basic cheat sheet. I highly recommend the OP (or anyone else interested in the subject) pick up a copy of Beer for Dummies). From the book:
You can say that ales generally
[ul][li]Include more robust-tasting beers and aromatic[/li][li]Tend to be fruity[/li][li]Include more bitter beers[/li][li]Have a pronounced, complex taste and aroma[/li][li]Are enjoyed warmer (45 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit)[/ul][/li]And you can say that lagers generally
[ul][li]Include lighter-tasting beers carbonated or crisp[/li][li]Tend to be highly[/li][li]Tend to be smooth and mellow[/li][li]Have a subtle, clean, balanced taste and aroma[/li][li]Are served fairly cool (38 to 45 degrees Fahrenheit)[/ul][/li]When it’s eleventy billion degrees in the shade, I prefer a lager. Other times I will have an ale.
Higher than usual alcohol content too. A good book that is part beer history and part travelogue is Hops and Glory: One man’s search for the beer that built the British Empire
A bit of terminology that often trips up newbies is the word ‘beer’ itself. Beer is at the top of the taxonomic tree. Any drink fermented from grain is beer. So all barley wines are beers, but not all beers are barley wines.
Any bartender who gives a Fat Tire to an unsuspecting customer ought to be fired. That stuff is vile.
I’d never heard of Fat Tire until just this past Friday night: I was out playing poker, and one of the guys had a 6-pack of it. He and one of the other guys swore up and down that it’s better than Stella Artois, which some of the other players were drinking – and which is my beer of choice 2-3 nights a week. I didn’t try any, because I wasn’t drinking that night. Thoughts on how it compares to Stella?
Comparing Fat Tire to Stella is like saying Riesling is better than Merlot. Different things, and if you prefer one less, it may just be that it’s not your style.
I wouldn’t call Fat Tire swill but it has a certain taste which requires getting used to. However, their 1554 beer is like liquid Jesus.
Stella is ok, but IMHO is is glorified Coors light. It would be much better if it were cheaper, but a light lager should not be $8-9 for a six pack.
I thought Watney’s had gone the way of the dodo.
Interesting. I would’ve had to have a Stella and a Fat Tire at the same time to be able to say which one I preferred…now I kind of wish I had!
If my regular bar had Sam Adams I’d drink that instead. 
I’ve had bad luck with skunky Stella Artois, so I steer clear of it unless there’s nothing else to drink. Fat Tire is OK, if there’s nothing more interesting to drink. One of my favorite local sandwich shops serves both Stella and Kronenbourg 1664. I find the Kronenbourg superior to Stella.
I like Fat Tire. I cant imagine anyone calling it swill. Its a decent inoffensive session beer for anyone that doesnt want to drink the bunny piss that is American macro brews.
Is Stella seen as a premium product in the US? In the UK it’s known as ‘wife beater’ and is seem as the preferred drink of tattooed football hooligans. That said, it’s a decent beer in a light lawn-mower beer sort of way.
Swill it is, and swill it shall remain. 
Give me a Sierra Nevada or Rogue or a Stone any day. I can drink those all night long (and have!).
I once lost a bet and had to buy a keg of Sierra Nevada. That was a good party. 
Still one of my favorite beers, too.
My name used to be on the wall of my old pub (may it rest in peace) in three places: one plaque for drinking 100 different beers, one for drinking 100 pints of the same beer, and one for drinking the equivalent of an entire keg of the same beer. The last two were Sierra Nevada.
You might like Newcastle Brown Ale. That’s an English ale that is a bit darker than Bass, but is still an English ale. For me, it has hints of nuts.
I am slowly but surely bring my various family members around to good (or at least decent) beer. My sister got hooked on Dos Equis and Modelo from eating/drinking at our local Mexican restaurant, and that then brought my brother-in-law around.
Between the three of us, we got my niece and her husband to drink something other than Bud Light, and we have now all teamed up against Dad, who still insists that Old Milwaukee is good beer, but allows the Amber Bock is “alright.”
I did a Black & Tan last Xmas at our family dinner/get together, and my Dad tried one as well. He wouldn’t pass judgement (good or bad) but he did order a few refills.
To the beer purists out there, please realize that I am fighting an uphill battle against people who have drank PBR, Old Milwaukee, Oly, etc. for decades.