The thing I know best is beer. Your top 5?

[Pirate Eater]

Liquor laws in the US are a mess and there's lots of hands in the pie - so to export really becomes a nightmare. You are right that the smaller US brewers (and smaller Belgian brewers FWIW) make the best product in the US. Like music in the states - popular means generic and it's only those brewers that are not concerned with a massive audience that are really making great beer. New Glarus is probably the best brewer in the US and they can't even get their beer to most states. I have to drive about and hour north to Wisconsin to get their beer - but it's worth it - they are phenomenal. DogFishHead is a very well-known US brewer that exports - they trand toward the typical us overhopped style which is not to my taste - but it is well loved. Stone is another big US micro that exports - also pretty hoppy. What the US lacks is really good session-style lagers - nothing that compares with the clarity and balance of German beers like Spaten and Paulaner. No US pilsner is worth a damn. New Belgium brewery in Colorado makes decent beer - but nothing amazing IMO - just good when it's a good price - passable otherwise. They are VERY VERY overrated. Southern Tier has a strong reputation but they are too inconsistent and too hoppy for me. Lagunitas is more consistent - but also way too hoppy. Jolly Pumpkin from Michigan makes gourmet-level sour ales that just rule if you like the style - not sure if they export - but their products are about as close to Belgian sours as it gets. I do not care for Hennepin or the Canadian Unibroue fake Belgians. They are just bad versions of far superior Belgian ales like Het Anker, De Proef, De Dolle, De Ranke and others. Just get the real thing - it's the same price believe it or not.

[bhorrrr]

i love mama's (sp?) little yella pils by oskar blues. i love every goddamn thing oskar blues does actually. at this point, i'm not sure i'm physically capable of not having a 6 pack of dale's pale ale in the fridge.

sierra nevada's ruthless rye and the aforementioned dale's have absolutepy dominated my last 3 months.

also, i'm stuck with nothing but the high abv section in local liquor stores. nashville had an AMAZING store full of imports (where i was getting my ayinger, samuel smith's, weihenstephaner, etc. but it closed recently after 12 years of not doing better than breaking even.

my heart is broken. and i'm mending it with anything oskar blues will give me.

[spasgur]

Yeah, it was a long shot, but maybe I can find something at some of the dedicated beer shops. Sometimes the supermarkets have some "special" beers for a week or so, but I can't recall any of them being American. They're mostly Polish, Belgian or Czech.

Me and some buddies trying to build up a savings account for when we finally get it together and take a trip to the US. When we finally go I think it's gonna be something like a 3-4 month vacation, coast to coast kind of thing. Most likely we'll rent a car and drive the whole way and I would love to drop in on some of the local breweries along the way. We have nothing planned yet but if we decide to visit some breweries, here seems to be the perfect place to ask for recommendations.

[spasgur]

It goes both ways. I'm sure you don't consider Carlsberg to be a very good beer, but it is about the only Danish beer I can easily find here in the States.

Yeah, Carlsberg is pretty mediocre. Tuborg also exports to some countries, but they're owned by Carlsberg and their pilsners taste almost the same. There are some great micro breweries just in the greater Copenhagen area with beers of all sorts and alcohol levels. Its probably the same everywhere. I love Leffe but they're like one of the bigger Belgian breweries. I've tried a few of the minor breweries of Belgium and they're incredible. I would love to take a beer trip in that country.

[michaeld]

I bought a six pack of Carlsberg about 2 months ago now and I still haven't finished it off yet. To me it taste like a skunkier version of Heineken. I bought it because I remembered having it on draft in Europe and somewhat enjoying it. Definitely wasn't as enjoyable as I remembered.

[Pirate Eater]

Belgians make the world's best beer by a very very wide margin. No, Stella Artois doesn't count.

[spasgur]

I bought a six pack of Carlsberg about 2 months ago now and I still haven't finished it off yet. To me it taste like a skunkier version of Heineken. I bought it because I remembered having it on draft in Europe and somewhat enjoying it. Definitely wasn't as enjoyable as I remembered.

Yeah, in Denmark Carlsberg beers are only for getting drunk as it's pretty easy to devour a lot of them in a short time span.
They do make this one:



Don't know if you get that in America but it's by far the best beer they make. Carlsberg also owns the brand Jacobsen who also make very good beers.

[spasgur]

Belgians make the world's best beer by a very very wide margin. No, Stella Artois doesn't count.

If I had a Belgian beer in my hand I would toast to that!

[michaeld]

Anybody else tried Dogfish Head's Palo Santo Marron? It's probably the best thing I have tried from them so far. It has so much flavor that it is almost too much to comprehend. It looks amazing when you pour into into a glass. Taste like a mixture of wood, coffee, caramel, and smoke. It's a 12% so there is a bit of a bite to it as well on the front end. Overall it's a lot of fun to drink. Not cheap though, that's for sure. Think I paid about $14 for a 4-pack.

[michaeld]

Picked up one of these tonight. Wild Heaven is a local brewery. Pretty solid beer. 8.5% but it's hidden pretty well in this one. Very pleasant overall. Had an almost Banana bread after taste to it.