I've taken to drinking beer on some of my flights, as my onboard Bombay Sapphire intake was dehydrating me a bit too much on longer flights. The choice (of palatable beers - and I use the term loosely) appears restricted to Heineken and Fosters.

Given the abundance of whingeing about wine, I'm surprised little has been made of the beer selection. This could be due to OP error, as I only scanned through the first page of search results containing the term "beer." Apparently, the word itself comes up very frequently on the CO board .

I'm not saying CO should have Belgian Style Trappiste Ales on every flight (though it would result in an undying oath of loyalty from myself). However, a decent selection of mass-market pseudo micro-brews would be nice (e.g., Pete's Wicked, Anchor Steam, Abita, even Sam Adams). Heck, St. Arnolds (Houston's micro-brew) would be great as well, though I doubt they have the capacity to stock all of CO's flights, having visited the brewery.

In BF, it sure would be nice to see more beer selections tailored to specific regions/destinations. The Scottish/English flights could feature Caledonian, McEwan's, Deuchars, Theakston's Old Peculier and/or many more. Kronenbourg for Paris, Stella and Maredsous for Brussels. One could go hog-wild with the German destinations. Kolsch for Koln, toss in some Weiss, Dunkelweiss and Doppelbocks for the rest and you're good to go. It's a bit odd that only certain Asian destinations feature specialty beers from the region.

Doubt this is high on any priority list, but there are devoted beer afficionados regularly plying the skies with CO. I'm also a wine fan, and look forward to any improvement on that end...but it sure would be nice to offer some fine brews to the BF pax.

I wouldn't want to see Sam Adams, but it would be a slight improvement over Heineken and Fosters. I think selecting one or two mass-marketed pseudo-micro brews would be most efficient; while a good idea (and one that I would like to see implemented), I think carrying region-specific beer on international flights might be a bit too complicated (but what do I know about airline catering?). My highest priority is improvement of the wine selection on both domestic and international flights.

That would be fine, but at least there are beers served that are tolerable. The same generally can't be said for the selection of wines.

Having said that, I would appreciate more diversity in beers. CO serves white and red "wines," so they should also serve dark and light beers.

I certainly would! Sam is one of the better domestic beers around,and I would perfer it to the current eer selection on CO. I've never figured out why CO serves Foster's? Is there really that large of a demand for this beer, especially when CO only serves one destination down under?

The Texan in me would like to see Shiner Bock!

They used to have Sam in a bottle back in the day. It was great. Unfortunately it was replaced with Fosters.

Shiner Bock, as Shiner is only 115 miles from IAH, as the crow flies.

Yuengling, as Pottsville, PA is only 100 miles from EWR, as the crow flies.

What are famous local brews around CLE?

Any local brewery on Guam?

Maybe an ignorant question, but does any airline serve bottled beer on board?

Off the top of my head I can't think of any airline where I've had a bottle, as opposed to a can... (obviously the weight issue)

Shiner is available in cans, but somehow I don't see CO adopting Shiner system wide...

Mmmm...wonder if they have this at Spec's.

They used to serve Sam Adams in a bottle on CO. Nothing like a cold Sam to say 'welcome aboard!'.

More info on the switch to Fosters

My guess would have been yes, but I couldn't find it on their web-site listing

Agreed!^

From what I read, currently Yuengling is only distributed in:

PA, NJ, NY, DE, MD, DC, VA, NC, SC, and FL.

Well, at least that's 9 more than just PA, like it was for years.

Great Lakes Brewing Company is the world class microbrewery here in Cleveland (and thus the reason it was part of the CLE mini-do!).

Great Lakes: http://www.greatlakesbrewing.com/

There was a big fiasco around Sam Adams a few years back, which is why CO no longer offers it -- something about Sam Adams supporting a pro-choice group, which was a bit too much for the conservative folks at CO to swallow (I know the logo is blue, but they're very much red in Texas).

Shiner Bock isn't bad, and it's available in many places (heck, I have some in my fridge right now in CA). I wonder if they could serve something like that.

NW serves James Page (out of Wisconsin, I think), but NW double caters at their hubs, so remote supply is not really a concern. OTOH, CO caters everywhere, so doing a micro-brew of sorts may pose a logistical challenge, especially if CO wants to have a consistent offering. Imagine the annoyed F customer who ordered his favorite beer on the outbound, and couldn't get it on the return because it just wasn't loaded from there. It could get ugly -- you see how people can get when they just run out of stuff!

An easy way to offer variety while still maintaining on-board consistency would be to have more local brews in the clubs. There's ZiegenBock at the IAH clubs, for example, and DL often does a good job at stocking their CRC's with local or smaller brews. At least when you're on the ground, you have an understanding of where you are, and presumably the food/beverage is sourced locally, so a local flavor wouldn't be out of place. Nobody's going to complain that you can't get Anchor Steam in Newark.

So, CO, how about micro brews in the clubs?

MBM3 and mwarden - Thanks for the info about Cleveland's brewery. Cleveland incidentally is my birthplace, though I have not lived there or even stayed a night inside city limit since I was 4 weeks old.

Thanks - I developed a taste for it in MD, but was surprised to find it in the Huntsville, AL airport!

FWIW, DL offers Shiner in their DFW lounge.