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[realjd]

Smirnoff Ice is a "flavored malt beverage" that tastes like lemonade. Wikipedia said that outside of the US, it tastes about the same, but is a premixed vodka drink rather than a brewed malt beverage. Smirnoff Ice, along with the other similar beverages from other liquor companies like Jack Daniels, were created partly for marketing purposes. For a long time, none of the TV networks would advertise hard liquor, so the liquor companies started making non-liquor products that they could advertise on television so they could increase brand recognition.

Corona is my least favorite Mexican beer. I'll drink it, but there are many better beers of that type out there. And the lime is essential to cover up the skunkiness that dominates Corona flavor. If you like Corona, go try Pacifico or Tecate (from Mexico), Presidente (from the Dominican Republic), or my personal favorite tropical beer, Landshark (embarrassingly, an AB beer from Jax).

[Scott5114]

Every time I've had one of the "common" household beers I can only think "God, this stuff is horrendous" and only choke down one or two sips. I'm nearly 21. Were I to start drinking, is there any sort of beer that would be better to start with than that? (I've tried Smirnoff Ice and didn't really like it either—too sour.)

[rawmustard]

Here is the perfect brew for a road enthusiast:  Route 113 Indian Pale Ale.  It is brewed where the SEPA Meet was held.

There's also Mixing Bowl Sour Fruit Beer from Southfield's Copper Canyon (unfortunately that brewer's site is under heavy redesign thus the Ratebeer link) and Lift Bridge Brown Ale from Keweenaw Brewing. We also have Woodward Avenue Brewers and Fort Street Brewery. I'm sure I could find more road-related brews if I wanted to do some digging, and maybe I could convince Founders to name something after the S-curve (just look at their location to see why ).

Every time I've had one of the "common" household beers I can only think "God, this stuff is horrendous" and only choke down one or two sips. I'm nearly 21. Were I to start drinking, is there any sort of beer that would be better to start with than that? (I've tried Smirnoff Ice and didn't really like it either—too sour.)

On my 21st, the beer I had was Arcadia Starboard Stout, which is about as full-bodied as you can get. If you want to start off with something smooth yet still full-bodied, I'd recommend Smithwick's, a very drinkable dark red ale and always my choice for St. Patrick's Day. At first, I wasn't acclimated to hoppier beers like IPAs, but I've grown to appreciate that style. If you want something a little sweet, there's always fruit beers. I always have thought beers like Leinenkugel's Berry Weiss were suitable for those who like wine coolers but disliked the more general beer styles.

[Duke87]

- Sam Adams.  An awful product, IMHO.  But regardless of your opinon, a triumph of meaningless marketing.  "Boston Beer Company" and those heavy New England accented "craft brewers" in the ads?  The beer never has been made in commercial qualtities in Boston.   Started out being made in Pittsburgh at the Iron City factory (one of the remaining regional brands still going), then by Miller, and today it is made in Cincinnati and in the Allentown suburbs in breweries abandoned by, Burger (a Cincy regional) and Pabst.  In giant steal vats, just like Budweiser.

That's totally the opposite of my opinion. Sam Adams is the only North American beer I drink in any volume. Maybe we have opposite tastes in beer.

It's not just you, it's a Europe versus America thing. Europeans generally like their beer heavy on the hops and bitter. Most Americans don't like stuff that strong and prefer the sweeter barley side of the flavor. Sam Adams is unusually bitter for an American beer.

[agentsteel53]

Every time I've had one of the "common" household beers I can only think "God, this stuff is horrendous" and only choke down one or two sips. I'm nearly 21. Were I to start drinking, is there any sort of beer that would be better to start with than that? (I've tried Smirnoff Ice and didn't really like it either—too sour.)

try some kind of mixed drink instead of beer.  Beer tends to be a "love or hate" taste. 

[corco]

Every time I've had one of the "common" household beers I can only think "God, this stuff is horrendous" and only choke down one or two sips. I'm nearly 21. Were I to start drinking, is there any sort of beer that would be better to start with than that? (I've tried Smirnoff Ice and didn't really like it either—too sour.)

I'd start with a decent hefeweizen. I hated beer for a long time before I started drinking that- it just seemed to go down more smoothly for me and after that I started enjoying most other beers.

[english si]

It's a flavored beer in the same vein that a wine cooler is a flavored beer. I like it mostly because of its sweetness and carbonation (or whatever makes it fizz/bubbly). If that is technically what an alcopop is (never heard that term before) then I guess we're both right!

I see that taxes on wine and sprits in the US vs taxes on beer mean that wine coolers contain no wine (likewise stuff that in the UK would be spirits and fruit juice/juice substitute), but use un-hopped beer as a base. When I hear the term 'wine cooler' I understand some kind of drink based on fermented grapes (wine), rather than fermented barley.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcopop - I think it's more a UK term, it's definitely not an industry one, but it's the common term for those kind of things in the UK.

"In Europe and Canada, alcopops tend to be pre-mixed spirits, including vodka (e.g. Smirnoff Ice) or rum (e.g. Bacardi Breezer). In the United States, on the other hand, alcopops often start out as un-hopped beers, depending on the state in which they are sold. Much of the malt (and alcohol) is removed (leaving mostly water), with subsequent addition of alcohol (usually vodka or grain alcohol), sugar, coloring and flavoring."

They are OK, but if I want a sweet drink, I go soft or have one of the sweeter brands of cider - most likely pear cider, rather than apple as the apple stuff tends to be not very good if it's sweet (teenagers in the park drink before alcopops came along).

Every time I've had one of the "common" household beers I can only think "God, this stuff is horrendous" and only choke down one or two sips. I'm nearly 21. Were I to start drinking, is there any sort of beer that would be better to start with than that? (I've tried Smirnoff Ice and didn't really like it either—too sour.)

Common household beers in America are pretty ghastly. Palettes develop and you learn to like stuff. Looking at what you're saying, try something European(-esque) that's wheaty or fruity (or both).

For the beer geeks - there's a gastropub (ie a pub that specialises in food more than being a bar) near me that serves 83 (IIRC) different types of beer (the cask ales rotate, like in many English pubs, so I'm only counting that as one, though there's probably two at any one time). You won't get most of these in the States, and most of them are expensively imported. Also has a guide to which beer to drink with what food: http://www.sausagetreepub.co.uk/Beers.asp . For Scott, something like Hoegaarden is the kind of thing I'm recommending - it's what got my brother into beer.

[Mr_Northside]

My at-home regular beer is Straub; Brewed in St. Mary's PA.  (Fast fact about St. Marys:  In terms of geographical size, it is the 2nd largest city in Pennsylvania (behind Philadelphia).  Obviously, by population, it's nowhere near that "big".)  They have 16 ounce returnable bottles ("Brownies", as opposed to the non-returnable "Greenies".), which when you actually do return them, makes them a really good deal for a beer I like.

Though usually at the bar, unless I'm spending more $$$ on something different, I usually end up with some Yuenling.

If it's bowling night, or band practice, usually someone just gets some PBR or High Life for the group.

Though I wasn't the biggest fan of it, I used to have a soft spot for Rolling Rock beer, since it WAS brewed across the Loyalhanna creek from where I was born.  Ever since A-B bought it (from the company InBev, who then went on to buy A-B) & moved production from Latrobe to Newark, I haven't paid for a single one.

[PAHighways]

My at-home regular beer is Straub; Brewed in St. Mary's PA.

A friend of mine from college grew up a few blocks from the brewery.  The only time I drank Straub was as his house since his dad had a keg in the basement.

Though I wasn't the biggest fan of it, I used to have a soft spot for Rolling Rock beer, since it WAS brewed across the Loyalhanna creek from where I was born.  Ever since A-B bought it (from the company InBev, who then went on to buy A-B) & moved production from Latrobe to Newark, I haven't paid for a single one.

Here I thought I was the only road enthusiast to have been born at LAH.

I also refuse to buy Rolling Rock that is produced from "the mountain stream" known as the Passaic, or any Anheuser-Busch product for that matter.

[triplemultiplex]

Living in Brew City, I'm surrounded by breweries of all sizes.  And it's great.  Lakefront Brewery (ironically located on the Milwaukee River, not Lake Michigan) a few blocks upstream from downtown has the best damn brewery tour because you don't have to wait until the tour's over to get samples.  Their best brew is the "Riverwest Stein," a creamy, full bodied red lager.  I don't think they're distributed outside of southeast Wisconsin, however.

Trying new beers is one of life's little pleasures.  Nothing better than sitting down in a brew pub with a couple of friends and getting a sampler of all their handiwork.

I'll be a lifetime fan of Leinenkugels since that was the local brand where I grew up.  I think I'm also a sucker for their Northwoods-y advertising campaign with the canoes and stuff.  Leinie's used to be our thing in northern Wisconsin, but Miller has done a good job of distributing them; maybe a little too good.  Just didn't seem right to see Leinie's at a liquor store in San Diego a couple years ago.

I'm a big fan of Octoberfest beers, so I'm pretty happy right now as they're in season starting now.

My choice for cheap beer has gotta be High Life.  That's what I get for tailgating once the sixer of good beer is down and we just wanna catch a buzz before the game starts.

[corco]

is this actually as bad as those who are in some way, shape, or form hipsters?

Real hipsters don't exist. Even if it can be indisputably proven that they do, I'll still vehemently deny it.

[bugo]

I'll be a lifetime fan of Leinenkugels since that was the local brand where I grew up.  I think I'm also a sucker for their Northwoods-y advertising campaign with the canoes and stuff.  Leinie's used to be our thing in northern Wisconsin, but Miller has done a good job of distributing them; maybe a little too good.  Just didn't seem right to see Leinie's at a liquor store in San Diego a couple years ago.

You can get Leinenkugel's here in Tulsa.  I had a Red Lager a couple of weeks ago.

[realjd]

My choice for cheap beer has gotta be High Life.  That's what I get for tailgating once the sixer of good beer is down and we just wanna catch a buzz before the game starts.

Little known fact: High Life and MGD are the same beer! Draft beer is not pasteurized the way bottle/can beer is. MGD is just unpasteurized High Life in a bottle. In a keg, MGD and High Life are the exact same product.

[tchafe1978]

^^Speaking of different brands being the same beer...

My dad worked for the Pabst Brewery in Milwaukee for 30 years before they closed it down back in the mid-1990s. He used to come home with I don't know how many different brands of beer. But somehow most of them tasted the same or very similar. He would tell me how they would put the same beer into different labled bottles or cans, and then ship the different brands to different parts of the country. That way they could save money by only brewing say a half-dozen different recipes, but be able to market say two dozen brands. I don't know if this was an actual example, but they could brew one recipe and put some in Stroh's packaging and some in Hamm's packaging, and no one would be the wiser. My dad and I used to be loyal Pabst drinkers until he lost his job there, now he homebrews most of the beer he drinks and I've gone to drinking mostly MGD as my regular beer. I also like Leinie's, Stevens Point Brewery, and New Glarus Brewery among others.