What’s the best beer that is widely available in most supermarkets?
Depends on your tastes and budget.
And the supermarkets in your area.
Whatever is on sale.
If I’m buying beer for people that I don’t know their tastes all that well, I stick with a variety pack of schell. I’ve never met anyone who turns down schell across the board.
I would answer you but it just wouldn’t be fair-I live in Portland, Oregon, where farmhouse ales, barleywines and Rogue Dead Guy Ale can be found on just about any supermarket beer aisle.
Just buy a case of various Bud Light Lime-a-rrrrritas or Straw-brrrr-ritas and it will last you a lifetime. Everyone will quickly learn to BYOB.
Someone did a blind taste test of mass domestics on the AV Club a little while ago and the winner was Bud Light. It depends on what you want, but the purchase of various small breweries by MolsonCoors and AB-InBev have expanded what’s out there even without the real local stuff. And there’s always Samuel Adams.
There are about 15 billion beers in our supermarket, you can ‘craft your own six pack’ for $10 or $15 bucks. Those are fun - banana bread beer? chocolate beer?? hard cider? … As for beer for ‘pick up a six pack’ there are different Sierra Nevadas that we like, Sam Adams, Red Stripe, or good old Budweiser.
Sam Adams
Blue Moon
Dos Equis
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
Exactly.
I noticed you are in Sacratomatoe. You been to the brewery in Chico?
I gave up on buying beer in supermarkets because the only one that wasn’t sex in a canoe is Blue Moon. I can drink it, but if I’m in an actual liquor store, I’d never buy it.
Yep! And you get so much beer for free at the end of the tour. Like 8 four ounce tastings. Plus they have varieties there for sale that you can’t find in stores.
Sierra Nevada, Bells, or Founders are all pretty widely available around me.
When I’m buying for parties, I buy Killian’s Irish Red. It’s always popular, and I never have trouble finding it.
Personally, I don’t like beer, but I like most hard ciders, and a lager called Wild Blue. It has a slight blueberry flavor, and while it isn’t exactly sweet-- not nearly as sweet as hard ciders, it is a lot less bitter than beers. Marsh and Meijer always have it. Just putting in a plug for your non beer-loving guests.
Mickey’s wide-mouth bottles (possibly NSFW) are easy to drink from, each cap has a rebus on the underside, and after you’ve knocked down a six-pack, you can take the empty grenades into the backyard, throw them into the treehouse, and pretend you’re storming the beaches of Normandy.
“Best” is kind of relative.
In my supermarkets, some brands that are typically sold and that are considered solid, if unspectacular are:
[ul]
[li]Sam Adams[/li][li]New Belgium[/li][li]Ballast Point[/li][li]Shiner[/li][li]Guinness[/li][/ul]
just to name the ones I can think of off the top of my head.
If this is a question that means"hey, I am having a lot of people over for the holidays, what would be a decent enough beer that is readily available somewhere that I am already shopping?"
Sam Adams (their basic product will be labelled “Boston Lager” and then the store might carry their seasonal “Winter Lager” so a mix of those would work well for holiday entertaining)
For a broad appeal, for a middle-of-the-road crowd – if you think your guests lean a little more toward fancy beers, I would go for Stella Artois. If you think your guests lean more the other way, the “I don’t like those fancy beers, I just want a real beer” crowd, then Dos Equis.
If I’m buying beer for a holiday party at the house, it’s going to be Yuengling Lager. It’s acceptable middle ground between a cheap lawnmower beer and Sam Adams. I’m not breaking my budget on craft beer for more than one or two guests.
