Sirened

Well, it’s another theme day here at the Travel & Culture Channel and this time it’s “time.” So with American Oktoberfest here along with Washington continuing its heated battle over the quagmire in Iraq there is really no better time to kick back, take a break from your rage and have a nice cold beer!

The USA gets a bad rap for our beers and compared to Belgium and Germany that is justified. But when you take our vast array of microbreweries into account, we are very underrated on the world scale.

We have so many great microbreweries in so many different regions of this country. My favorite city for American beer would have to be San Francisco; bar hopping in that city is a true beer lover’s delight. Despite all the walking I did in that hilly city I still managed to tack on a few pounds from all the heavy and delicious beers. If you’re going to San Francisco I highly recommend doing a pub crawl and SFBrewersguild.org lists a lot of the great breweries that city has to offer. 

Here in Florida, where I live, we have some good microbreweries as well (albiet not nearly as good as California) but if you go into a good pub here they will have several good Florida beers on tap along with more in bottles.

If your a beer drinker but usually stick with mainstream American or European beers I highly encourage you to try some of the wonderful beer produced right here at home that is not Samuel Adams. While Sam Adams beer is good, its popularity and vast marketing expenses have made it overpriced for a mainstream American beer. Plus, when you can support small businesses, why support the big guys?

But as far as the big guys, my personal favorite mainstream American beer is Michelob Ultra Amber. While it’s not fantastic, it actually tastes like beer for something very low in calories and only sets you back about $10 for a 12 pack. I think one of the most overrated American beers is Blue Moon. Now you might say wait, isn’t that a Belgian beer? Nope, that’s a common misunderstanding. If you look at the label it says “Belgian style” wheat beer. For a mainstream wheat beer, I much prefer Germany’s Tucher, just make sure the bartender puts an orange slice in the glass. But a good beer drinker’s pub will have lots of different wheat bears so just ask the bartender for some recommendations.

There’s a lot of overrated European mainstream beers too. A big one that comes to mind is Newcastle Brown Ale. That beer is way too expensive for its own taste. My two favorite mainstream European beers are France’s Stella Artois and the UK’s Bass Ale. You can almost always find them and in my opinion they are the best value for pricier beers.

When it comes to beer, you really can’t go wrong with just about any Belgian or German beer but Quebecoise beer is also excellent. If you’ve never had La Fin Du Monde (translated in English as “the end of the world”) I highly recommend it. Just be careful, it’s about 9% alcohol so it’s almost like drinking two beers in one!

Anyways, beer drinking is all about personal taste and what you’re in the mood for. I personally think Corona is a crap beer but if it’s a hot day on the beach an ice cold Corona tastes pretty good. Or if it’s $2 Corona night at the club and your looking to get trashed, again not a bad choice.

Anyways, these are some of my opinions on beer, for ratings on thousands of beers go to beeradvocate.com and look up the style of beer you most prefer. 

Drop me a comment and let me know what your favorite beer is!

Octoberfest girls from this place. 

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