Jax has been gone....at least from New Orleans....since the 70s. Although for a while, a version of it was brewed in Texas. Don't know if it still is. I certainly haven't seen it anywhere for a long, long time.

Like (similar tasting) Dixie, it used to be dirt-cheap and people either loved it or hated it.

I happened to like it.

Wirelessly posted (Nokia N97 / Palm TX: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; PalmSource/Palm-D050; Blazer/4.3) 16;320x448)

Discuss......

microbrew?
Ballast Point out here in SAN
Stone Brewing out here in SAN
Deschutes up in Oregon
Anderson Valley Brewing up in Napa

but there are literally thousands, I think it's impossible to pick a clear winner.

Wirelessly posted (Nokia N97 / Palm TX: Mozilla/5.0 (SymbianOS/9.4; Series60/5.0 NokiaN97-3/10.2.012; Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1; en-us) AppleWebKit/525 (KHTML, like Gecko) WicKed/7.1.12344)

microbrews dont count me thinks

Why not? For reasons I've stated before I dispute the premise that there is a single best beer in the United States any more than there's a single best wine in Argentina, but if there is such a beast it more likely than not comes from a small and artisanal brewery, not a large operation.

i think then it's important to make that distinction. i know you can get some of our local brews around the country, but they're still small production, 50k cases or less. to me that should be enough to include them in any discussion of quality beers (aside from their obvious superiority to mass produced beers)

As I write this, I am enjoying a Dogfish Head 90 Minute Imperial IPA. This beer has too much of everything. Too much hops, too much malt, too much alcohol. But somehow they get it to balance out into a magnificent brew. Highly recommended.

I find Sam Adams to be the most drinkable of the readily-available American beers.

However, there's a German proverb that, in my opinion, sums up domestic beers in America quite nicely:

"Among the blind, the one-eyed man is king."

There's also a popular saying in English about American beer that I could post here, but doing so would probably get me banned...

Anchor Steam for my dollar, though Alaskan Amber is a close second.

Any Sam Adams except the White Ale for me.... I just love how the seasonal beers perfectly fit the moods of the season. Nothing better than a Sam Summer on a hot summer day.

Another beer on the list that I am ashamed to admit is the Boston Beer Works Blueberry Beer.

+1 on Anchor Steam. Plus, you can take a nice tour of their brewery in SF.

So any other good microbrews in or around San Francisco? I'm heading their in a few weeks.

Are you going to be in SF itself? ThirstyBear (http://www.thirstybear.com/), just south of Market, and the SF Brewing Company (http://www.sfbrewing.com/) in North Beach, are both pretty good...

Raison D'Etre by Dogfish head brewery in my home state of Delaware. I am so glad World Market is stocking this brew for us here in florida, was tired of wrapping bottles of beer in my socks to get them home safe in my checked bags.

I've got Otter Creek Copper Ale in my fridge that I bought at the local liquor store... in Houston. It is tasty, though.

To all the woefully uninformed people who claim the U.S. doesn't have good beer... you are completely, utterly, embarrassingly wrong. I live on beer. The engraved plate under my tongue plainly states: "Fill With Premium Beer Only." I have made beer pilgrimages to Brussels, Bruges, Praha, Alsace, Scotland, Munchen, and Salzburg. From Dubbels to Tripels to Schwarzbier to Wei�bier (Unfiltered and Dunkel, too) to K�lsch to Strong Beer to Imperial Stout to Scottish Ale to Barleywine to Doppelbock to Porter and beyond, I love them all.

Despite being an inveterate beer snob, I can state, without hesitation, that America makes great beer. The great beers are not produced by Anheuser or Miller or Coors. That stuff is just cheap in a can, like Tennent's Super or Carlsberg or Beck's or Heineken (each country has its own variation).

The search for the "best beer" is like a quest for the grail. Doubtful you will ever find the "best," but the search itself can be very rewarding.

To American beer neophytes, I suggest you begin by sampling a few of the following, listed in no particular order, to start you on the road to enlightenment...

Abita Pecan Harvest
Allagash Tripel
Avery Old Jubilation
Edmund Fitzgerald Porter
Great Lakes Brewing Co. Blackout Stout
Hennepin Farmhouse Saison
North Coast Old Stock
Ommegang Three Philosophers
Rogue XS Imperial Stout
Saint Arnold Winter Stout
Shipyard Pumpkinhead (great for Halloween)
Sisyphus Barleywine Ale

If you try all of those, and don't like any, I regret to inform you that you are defective, and should take up drinking tea as a hobby.