I used to feel similarly about IPAs. I remember first hearing about them several years ago and getting excited to try one, and then thinking they were awful. Then a few months ago I got a New Belgium Brewery sampler pack and decided to drink one of the IPAs just for the hell of it, and I aboslutely loved it. It tasted like liquid sunshine.
I’m not saying that their IPA is sooooo good it converted me (though after sampling many others, it is exceptionally good); my tastebuds changed in the intervening years without me knowing it. And I never would’ve known had I not on a whim decided to guzzle one. IPA is my favorite kind of beer now. Try one again sometime.
Several friends and I had an Uncommon Brewers Bacon Brown Ale at a brewfest a couple of weeks ago. Terrible tasting stuff, no one could finish even the sampler. And we can drink most anything…
OK, fair enough. I tend to like Belgians, and I especially like Gulden Draak and Piraat Ales. I’ve recently discovered the Surly line of beers (a local Minnesota brewery) which I think are great (the Surly Abrasive is my favorite). I also like the Sierra Nevada line. Sam Adams is perfectly acceptable to me as well, as is Bass Ale, Heineken and Beck’s. I like a lot of the New Belgian brews too
That particular version is not the tastiest concoction, but if you approach it from the perspective of drinking a bloody mary rather a beer, you should get a better idea of the point of this drink. The version I get at Mexican restaurants consists of lime, Worcester sauce, hot sauce, a light Mexican beer, and sometime tomato juice or clamato. Really, it’s just a bloody mary with beer instead of vodka.
For me, Busch Lite is the standard I judge all other bad beers on. Other than Busch Lite, I had a basil-nut flavored beer in Moscow which reaches the all-time low on my beer list, as well as some kind of American pizza beer (brand quickly and purposely forgotten.)
That is so funny because I just saw a Beer 30 in a cooler this weekend. Unfortunately, I declined to try it.
I am a hasher and I’m proud to say that I’ve had some of the worst beers out there. Dirt Cheap Beer, Fat Cat, Steel Reserve, American Beer, and the Turkish version of Tuborg* and many, many more have passed through me at one point or another.
Maybe the worst I had was when I was in college and tried some Brewski.
Ha ha, Brewskie Beer, that’s pretty funny we all thought. It’s cheap it says it’s from a “microbrewery” on the can. Why don’t we try it?
Drinking it was like putting an aluminum spike through your temple. It was an awful, terribly, vile concoction that as far as I can tell ceased to exist as a brewery 3 months after they started. Nasty stuff.
My best worst beer story isn’t even mine but it’s so good that it bears repeating. I had a friend who went to a barbeque with another friend and they were asked to bring some beer to it. At the liquor store, they chose a case of something that was a “carbonated, beer-flavored, alchoholic beverage.” That’s what it said on the label and apparently, they couldn’t even call it a beer. The carbonated, beer-flavored, alchoholic beverage was so bad that the people at the barbeque were fighting over the warm cans of Strohs that were in someone’s trunk.
As I understand it, the Danish Tuborg is pretty decent, yet the stuff they sold in Turkey when I was there was on par with Schlitz or Blue Ribbon. Maybe something’s lost in translation.
I like IPAs, red ales, most Stone beers (including Arrogant Bastard), pretty much all New Belgium beers except their porter (don’t like porter), Rogue Dead Guy Ale, and every beer I’ve tried in Europe. If I’m with friends or family who insist on domestic macrobrews, I’ll drink Bud Light or Landshark Lager.
I like Pale Ales and Belgians like all the Chimay iterations, as well as German Pils and Hefeweizen beers, but I regularly drink The Beast out of a shortage of cash for the beer fund.
Yuengling Lager is delicious, very true, and it’s what most of us around NEPA mean when we order simply a “Lager” or a “Yuengling.” The other varieties (especially plain old Yuengling, and except for Black and Tan), aren’t nearly as delicious but they’re also far from the worst there is. Lion’s Head, anyone?
After reading some other posts, I’d have to add Pilsner Urquell to the list although it appears that having a skunked bottle is not all that unusual. It was even worse than a highly skunked Lowenbrau I once drank. Also would like to add -
Rhinelander - extremely cheap and in returnable bottles !
ABC Stout from Cambodia. Very strong with an aftertaste that resembled Southern Comfort. Not to my liking (Although I do who enjoy Guinness )
I love Ruddles County, and I can’t even fathom how you could list it as the worst beer you’ve ever had. Great bitter taste, smooth enough for a session beer. If I could buy it around here, I’d have a case in my fridge all the time.
Unfortunately, the clear bottles mean that the longer it’s stayed in your fridge, the worse its going to get. Maybe that’s the problem?
A really hard drinking friend of mine favors Steel Reserve due to the high alcohol content. I’ve had a couple at his house. While it would not be my beverage of choice, I didn’t find anything actively offensive about it. Like a lot of cheap beers, it didn’t really taste bad because it didn’t have much flavor at all. It was just a cheap alcohol delivery system.