For those too masochistic to take silenus’s word for it, here ya go.
Count me as another big PBR fan. The thing I love about it that it’s got a bracing taste unlike BudMillerCoors, while not having the offputting wheaty/whatever taste most microbrews have. Plus, in Tacoma and Seattle, it’s as likely to be on tap as the higher profile macrobrews. I think the reason cheap beers give the shaft is the same reason for hot pepper/raw steak snobbery–the notion food has to have a strong flavor to be good even if that flavor isn’t enjoyable. Some of us, strangely enough, don’t want beer that tastes thicker than motor oil or is bitter.
I nominate Rickards Red…how anyone can drink that stuff is beyond me.
On the excellent side, Modelo Speciale (unfortunately, not available here) and Guinness.
I guess Wiedemann, Stroh’s “Scumliner”* label, has disappeared beneath the waves. It used to be the volume party brew of choice in Michigan, going for like $3.99 for a case of longnecks. You never saw it except in cases of longnecks.
*The Scumliner was a fictitious 1946 car invented by Bruce McCall. “We’re Not Too Proud To Sell It, But We’re Too Proud To Put Our Name On It!”
Indeed! 
I’ll give a shout out to Genesee Cream Ale. It’s almost not crappy, though - the least crappy of the crappy beers, I’d say.
If someone offered me Natty Ice in the spirit of friendship, hospitality and goodwill, I’d think long and hard about the nature of our relationship. 
Robin
Huh. I have never heard anyone descripe IPAs as sweet. IPAs are for people who like bitter flavors, although some of the imperial IPAs have a sweet backbone to them to balance out all those ridiculous amounts of hops. Miller and Budweiser taste much sweeter than a normal IPA, to me at any rate. When I think sweet and beer, I think milk stouts, many porters, some bocks, that sort of thing. An IPA would be near the end of that last.
I’m an Old Style guy when I’m looking for cheap beer.
I came in here to post about Gennie Ice. Hoo boy did I drink a lot of that stuff.
As for the pictograms under Lucky Lager caps; they get easier the more Luckies (Luckys…?) you have.
In college Rhinelander http://cheepbeer.blogspot.com/ was our beer of choice - another of the $5 a case for returnable bottles. Only once did we try the truely ‘Crapulent’ Wisconsin Club http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/wisconsin-club/7032/ which was even cheaper. We tried to develop a way to choke down the wisconsin club by killing our taste buds, but just couldn’t do it.
If someone offered me one of those right now, I’d still drink it - although it is before 9:00am on a Wed…it’s noon somewhere.
When I was a young and broke underage drinker back in Pitsburgh, we went with Old German, the very lowest-quality beer out of the Iron City Brewery. When we had money, we bought Moosehead or Lowenbrau.
When I was going to school in Saratoga Springs, every Tuesday night the Tin & Lint would have Sticky Floor Night - $5 cover and all the free draught Meister Brau you could force down your gullet. And every payday, my roommates and I would buy one case of really good beer (rotated through a bunch of different brands) and three cases of Busch.
When I moved back to Detroit from Chicago in early August, I came with five 30-packs of Old Style for my wife and me. If figured that would last us til December or so. We’ve only got 10 left.
Old Style is the knig of cheap beers, IMO. Busch was my cheap beer in college, though.
This thread is a pleasure. I wouldn’t always want to post to this thread; in fact, I’d never start this thread myself. But, if you all are having a thread like this, and it’s okay if I join you, I’m there. Sometimes it’s more about the camaraderie and the experience of spending some time in the forum than the actual thread. This thread relaxes me; it’s easy to post to and it loosens me up. Plus, it’s cheap. I love you guys, man. We’ll have to get together for another thread soon.
I will take this opportunity to proudly proclaim my undying affection for the occasional case of Old Milwaukee. Surely one of the heavy hitters of the cheapo beer collection, Old Milky has a rich character with soothing overtones, whatever that means. This is tenth year of our annual Old Milwaukee 500 whereupon many costumed souls slug cans of O.M. and frantically pedal their oddly festooned bicycles about one of the swankier portions of town in an often futile attempt to recieve trophies.
This kind of fun cannot be had with serious beers.
My cheap(ish) beer of choice for home purchase is some flavor or other from Yuengling Brewery, which despite the name is not Chinese but from Pennsyltucky. It’s a steal around here, but I understand it’s sold as a premium beer far from its source.
Budweiser just doesn’t taste right without the longneck bottle, cigarette smoke, and a terrible band in front of me. I remember trying a Corona on a visit to California in the mid-80s, before it was available nationally, and figured out quickly it was a marketing scheme not based on the taste of the beer. People like the painted bottle, I think. Since I rarely drink more than one or two these days, I try and make it worth my while.
I lived in Austin for 3 years, never once drank a Lone Star (not with Shiner Bock and Balcones there for the asking), and the only times I had any Pearl was freebies (in cans!) in various East Side Mexican joints listening to conjunto (I’ve never had so many beer bought for me as a gringo in a conjunto bar). Pearl non-light is pretty freaking faint, and in the Spanish-speaking bars they would have their terrific slogan in neon signs: UNA PERLA, POR FAVOR. Catchy.
Heheh.
Heineken is the cheap ass beer of Holland.
Stella Artois is a step above Maes in Belgium, although it’s not a bad beer, it’s well below the Belgian ales.
Becks is the cheap ass beer, made upscale via import into the USA. Warsteiner is better, but still not a great beer, just decent, but not nearly as good as whatever is your local beer in Germany.
I think for France it’s 1664.
In the USA, I used to drink whatever was cheapest in college. When I moved to the midwest, I was introduced to Mickey’s Big Mouth, Hudepohl (and Hudy Lite), Top Hat (although I never actually drank it), Wiedemann’s and Leinekugel’s. Drank some National Bohemians when I lived in Baltimore, but I had 3 microbreweries and the Wharf Rat within a short walk of my house, so why drink that stuff? There was another one they sold a lot of in Cross Street Market, but I can’t remember the brand right now, because they sold it in big white plastic cups. They’re all fine when you’re hot and thirsty.
We don’t really have a cheap, local beer down here in Florida, although there is a Yuengling Brewery not far from my house. That’s good stuff, don’t think I can lump it in with the crappy beers.
Nice simulpost – you’re spoiled!
Also, I forgot to mention Dixie, which is, I believe, like a Louisiana version of Lonestar. A friend of mine went away to Loyola and came back with a taste for the stuff. He’d bring cases home from college, and I swear to Og it left a scum residue in the beer glass. Of course this is the same friend that once went temporary blind in one eye from drinking to much rotgut gin one night…
Maes isn’t a bad beer when you live in the UK, where crappy lager is the order of the day. Any kind of lager here is crap, it’s brewed badly and then they decide to make it extra gassy because we seem to like it that way.
As a Real Ale drinker, I avoid lager at all costs…except when in Europe, when Maes is a perfectly acceptable drink.
With so many crappy US beers to be avoided, I think when I travel over there in November I shall stick to cocktails and champagne!
I am ashamed to have touted the goodness of Tecate earlier in this thread. It’s like forgetting my kid’s birthday.
The other part of your post reminded me of a conversation I had with a Berliner a few years back. I was asking him for drink recommendations and said “What’s your favorite beer?” He said, in pseudo-broken English, “Whichever the beer is in my hand.” I love that.
Hehe…that’s probably a little safer bet in Berlin. 
This thread is bringing back so many wonderful memories.
My alcoholic grandmother drinking PBR like it was going to be outlawed tomorrow. She liked to leave the can out for a bit so it got a little flat.
Mr. Shelton, who lived up the street, and drank either Schlitz or Black Label (Hey Mable, another Black Label!). He must have lost 50 church keys in his back yard one summer.
Mr. Ellington, who lived next door to Mr. Shelton, and was a Old Milwaukee devotee. He put salt in his beer.
And for me - declaring my preference for Miller (The Champagne of Beers) at an early age. Of course, with the budgetary constraints of college I soon learned to drink (not like, but drink) Weidamann’s (oh, how I drank over you Jill Ginnetti - you hot-blooded Italian minx), Natural Light (“Hey, I think Scott’s pissed his pants again.”), Miller Lite by the tractor-trailer load, and whatever else was on sale. I seem to recall looking through the couch cushions to scrap up enough change to get a sixer.
And now that I’m older, wiser, and more financially solvent, I still like to drink Rolling Rock, cold as Jill Ginnetti’s heart, after a long day of working in the yard.
Excuse me … I need to go get a tissue.