Well, since people are going international here, I'm voting for some Belgians. In particular, check out La Chouffe (www.achouffe.be). Their song is very inspirational. Vive la Chouffe!

I don't "prefer" Bud by any stretch of the imagination, but to its credit, at least it's just rice, malt, yeast, hops, and water (and tannin?). I'd happily take it over anything in a green or clear bottle.

So what's the punchline?

When in doubt, a Sammy will do quite nicely. ^

The Best beer in the US?
The one sitting in front of me

My favorite American brew is a Sam Adams Cream Stout. On a hot summer's day I favor Pete's Wicked Strawberry Blonde.

My preference above all else is a tall Guinness draught at our Little Rock Flying Saucer. Then a Young's Double Chocolate Stout.

Our local brewery is Diamond Bear (available at the LIT airport!) and they make a really nice Irish Red. They also give an awesome tour on Saturdays that involves 4 free pints of beer!

We have a beer tasting group in Athens, GA named "The Yeastie Boys" that has met for well over 10 years and have sampled several thousand beers from around the world. My vote for best beer brewed in America is by far Ommegang from the Ommegang Brewery in Coopertown, NY. They are wholly owned by the Belgian brewery Duvel. Their Belgian style ale is very reasonably priced, considering it's over 8% abv (alcohol by volume). Other favorites are Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine Ale, Hog Heaven Barleywine from Avery (Boulder, Co.), Old Stock Ale by North Coast Brewing (Mendicino, Ca.). The beer I'm enjoying currently is also damn fine: Black Chocolate Stout by the Brooklyn Brewery. It has been like Christmas in Georgia for beer lovers since July 1, when Georgia repealed it's antiquated 6% law which pretty much ruled out all my favorites. Now instead of making the 10-hour r/t to Tallahasse, FL every couple of months to stock up I merely visit my local beer store. Prost!

[QUOTE=The Juiceman]We have a beer tasting group in Athens, GA named "The Yeastie Boys" that has met for well over 10 years and have sampled several thousand beers from around the world. QUOTE]

That is awesome, Juiceman! How did you guys get started?

I belong to a home brewer's club, which is tons of fun until someone wants you to sample their homemade watermelon wine!

Surprised no one has mentioned Sam Adams Utopia....

http://www.samueladams.com/world_of_beer.aspx

with 25% alcohol......it tastes like a cognac more than beer

Sells for about $100 a bottle but is virtually unavailable....bottled in 2003, none made in 2004, but they do expect to make it again in 2005.

Had some last week at the Party For the Senses Food and Wine Festival in Epcot.

I've had Utopias a few times (even had Jim Koch himself pour me a glass of it once) and while it's an impressive achievement, I wouldn't put it at the top of my list of "favorite beers". It's not even at the top of my list of favorite 15% alcohol and up beers. That list would include, probably, New Belgium Brewing's La Folie wood-aged Belgian-style ale; Hop 15 , a double IPA from a Solana Beach, California brewpub called the Pizza Port; and a couple of beers from the most innovative brewery in Delaware.

The two high-octane offerings from the Dogfish Head Brewery, World Wide Imperial Stout and Raison D'Extra (the brewery's Raison D'Etre Belgian-style ale on steroids) are both dangerously drinkable, hard to find, amazingly expensive -- and worth each penny. Raison D'Extra is out now, the 2004 edition of World Wide Imperial Stout will be released in November. The last World Wide Stout was over 18% ABV (alcohol by volume) and when I spoke to one of Dogfish Head's brewers in September he told me that they didn't yet have a definite measurement on the Raison D'Extra but by calculating from what they'd put into the brew, the resulting beer should be between 25 and 26% ABV.

See more at http://www.dogfish.com/beer/index.cfm

Both of these Dogfish Head beers taste more like beer than Utopias, although while World Wide has definite roasty, chocolatey stout notes, it also tastes somewhat wine-like. Raison D'Extra reminds me of Straffe Hendrik Bruin, an ale brewed in Bruges, until you try to stand up and are reminded that this beer has three times the alcohol content of 'Strong Henry'. A couple of weeks ago I shared a 750ml bottle of Raison D'Extra with two other people; all three of us write about beer and are experienced professional drinkers used to high-octane beers and who've built up a tolerance for alcohol. That one bottle gave all three of us a serious buzz.

Gregg Wiggins
Columnist/Correspondent
Brewing News/American Brewer magazines

(Edited to fix a typo)

[QUOTE=Nymph]We started our tasting group in the late 80's during the craft-brew revolution. Seemed that every other new beer sucked (Naked Aspen comes to mind) and we all got tired of having 5 undrinkable beers in the fridge. So we started pooling our resources and sampling a large number of beers together. Next thing we knew we were local legends and people went out of their way to bring us back beer from vacation. As well I am a beer tourist planning most vacations around beer selection and once brought back 84 beers. My number one spot is Amsterdam because it is the crossroads of many cultures and has an incredible beer selection from the U.K., Germany, Belgium, and of course, The Netherlands.

Now my vote for best beer in the world: Westvleteren 12. Anyone else? (And Heineken is not an acceptable answer.)

1. Yuengling Traditional Lager (oldest continual use brewery in the country - 1824)
2. Samuel Adams Winter Ale
3. Flying Fish Pale Ale
4. Mirror Pond Pale Ale
5. Pyramid Apricot Ale

Alaskan Amber
Mirror Pond Pale Ale
Jolly Roger (Maritime Pacific's winter seasonal)
Pyramid Hefe
Fat Tire

These might be a bit hard to find outside of the west coast.

Terminal Gravity IPA
http://www.terminalgravitybrewing.com/

Hammerhead Nitro from Mcmenamins (ok -- so finding it on Nitro is unlikely)
http://www.mcmenamins.com/index.php?loc=75&id=415

Arrogant ....... Ale from Stone Brew http://www.stonebrew.com/

Yum!

LOVE the Arrogant ....... from Stone! Wish they would sell Stone products in Illinois, they have it elsewhere in the Midwest and on the East Coast too.

Here in the Midwest (Chicago), some of my favorites are the following, although not all are available in Chicago:

New Glarus Brewing (New Glarus, WI) Fat Squirrel, Yokel, all really are good
Three Floyds (Munster, IN) Alpha King
Two Brothers (Warrenville, IL) The Bitter End IPA
Goose Island (Chicago) India Pale Ale
Bell's Beer (Kalamazoo, MI) Amber Ale - BELLS IS NO LONGER IN CHICAGO