Boulevard Brewery, based here in KC, it is up there with the best of them, it truly is. If you cant find it however (one of there new billboards says “proudly not served in 43 states”) then something from Flying Dog comces in a close second.
Check out:
www.abita.com
The Abita Amber (an amber beer, natch) and Abita TurboDog (extremely dark) are excellent.
Also, Dixie’s Blackened Voodoo is certainly an interesting beer:
BeerAdvocate’s Blackened Voodoo Review
Pete’s Wicked Ale has a large variety of intriguing beers:
Pete’s Wicked Ale
I’d agree with an above poster’s comment about Shiner Bock as well.
Also, Killian’s Irish Red is a great beer, although I tend to prefer it draught instead of bottled. Although it calls itself Irish, it’s actually brewed by Coor’s Brewing Company; thus I include it in the “American” beer category.
–IDB
In the macrobrew (hefeweizen) category, you’ll have to put up:
And they even instruct you on how to say hefeweizen properly!
Oooh. Pyramid. Yeah, that’s good stuff. (Like I know what I’m talking about.)
On the Canadian side I’d like to toss the Brick Brewing Company into the ring, if only for sentimental reasons: it brings back memories of my alma mater. Waterloo was such a beer-happy town; must have been the heavy German contingent.