Below is a list that is sure to incite a minor riot here at The List Universe. I have assembled a list of 20 beers that should be tried at least once. Much like wine, cheese, or ice cream, people all have their favorites and are usually loyal to a degree to their beer of choice, so I am not saying that these are the best beers, but instead represent a nice variety from which to pick and choose.
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. –Benjamin Franklin
20. Budweiser
The biggest beer in the world (or at least it seems). I remember backpacking in Europe and seeing people sitting at cafes drinking Bud when a host of great European beers were inside waiting to be tasted. I hate having to include this, but it isn’t that bad.
19. Iron City
The logo is unattractive, the name does nothing, heck even the city conjures up bad images, but they make a pretty good cheap beer.
18. Amstel Light
Have you ever seen regular Amstel??
17. Red Stripe
Think Jamaica, reggae, and everything else rastafarian… oh yeah, and they have the best bottles. Hooray Beer!
16. Smithwicks
Ireland’s third most popular beer (and I think we can trust the Irish!). When pronouncing the name, the ‘W’ is silent. In Ireland, it is generally pronounced as ‘Smithicks’, ‘Smitticks’, ‘Smidicks’ or ‘Smeth-icks’.
15. Foster’s
Made popular by the “oilcan”, this Australian beer is served at every Outback restaurant but remains, ironically enough, unpopular in it’s native country.
14. Victory
For Pale Ale fans, their Hop Devil beer is a must. Super strong.
13. Corona
Ok, ok, I had to include this list simply because this beer is unique in that is almost entirely associated with summertime. Rarely do you see skiers downing a few apres-ski. Made popular by California surfers, this Mexican import is served with a lime. It is almost white and is rarely found in kegs.
12. Ommegang
One of the fastest growing US microbrews from Cooperstown, NY. Their five beers should be sought out if possible.
11. Chimay
These “trappist” beers made by Belgian monks are widely regarded as superior quality ales. They are not for everyone as not only are they pricey, but have a fruity flavor that some may have to acquire to appreciate.
10. Stella Artois
Quite simply put, a nice clean crisp beer that is widely available worldwide. A nice starter beer if you are looking at imported beers.
9. Paulaner
The highest ranking wheat beer (hefeweise) on this list goes perfect with an orange slice.
8. Newcastle
“Newcastle Brown, I’m tellin’ you, it can sure smack you down.” In Newcastle, the beer is often called ‘Dog’ (or simply ‘Broon’). The ‘Dog’ name comes from the euphemism “I’m going to walk the dog” or “I’m going to see a man about a dog” – meaning “I’m going to the pub” – and was further popularized by a 1980s advertising campaign. In southern parts of the country it is often referred to as “Newkie Brown”.
7. Samuel Adams
Named for a founding father of American independence, this Massachusetts brewery cranks out microbrew taste at macrobrew rates. At least one of their long list of quality beers is available at most bars in the US. They take pride in the many awards their brews have garnished.
6. Rogue
This Oregon brewery was one of the first to kickstart the “micro-brew” phenomena. Any beer called “Dead Guy Ale” deserves a spot on this list.
(rogue.com)
5. Sam Smith’s
Old school labels, gold foil, great taste, and sold in four-packs! Great porters and stouts at reasonable prices from this Yorkshire, England brewery.
4. Yuengling
Pronounced “Ying-ling”, America’s oldest brewery produces a truly great lager. Primarily available in the Mid-Atlantic area and recently in the south. You can ask for a “Lager” at most Pennsylvania bars and you’ll get one.
3. Guinness
This beer basically stands alone in the stout category. It’s truly the only beer that you can recognize from across the room. Just holding one makes you feel as if you are in a small pub in some quaint Irish town with a wool sweater on and the cold rain beating against the pub windows. Only a true bartender knows that in order to get a perfect pour, the glass should be filled to the middle, then filled once it has settled.
2. Sierra Nevada
If there is ever a beer that has it all its this. Intense flavor, great color, nice kick, and unique green label make this pale ale a must have in your beer collection.
1. Westvleteren
Ok, this is the greatest beer in the world. Don’t even try to argue. It can only be purchased at the monastery by call ahead reservation and at 1 case per car, you better make it last. I was fortunate enough to get a hold of one when my uncle raided his son’s stash on a random Sunday night (not the optimal time for such a beer). Unknowingly, we drank a few that his son had transported back from Belgium and only found out after they had been opened that this is what they were.
Contributor: BMault [tell me your username!]
Taking into account differences in taste, I still allow that several beers here shouldn’t be on any list of quality beers. Period.
For a unique craft beer, you must go to Louisville, KY for Blue Grass Brewing Company’s “Bourbon Barrel Stout”. Kentucky is the bourbon capital of the world. Bourbon barrels can be reused for whiskey or scotch, but *never* bourbon (by law). BGB ages their stout for 3 months in used bourbon barrels. This imparts a subtle bourbon aroma and finish to an already smooth stout.
my favorite beer that is on this list is Stella Artois.
my favorite beer (which didn’t make the list
) is Sopporo
You have a beer list with American beer on it and not a single Canadian beer? There is a reason we make fun of it up here. And while I can’t judge against all of these beers, you can’t honestly sit there and tell me that Bud is better then Keith’s or Moosehead. And Corona as high up as it is?
Yay #7, Alexander Keith’s and Moosehead are from my home town!
I was gonna say, don’t see a single Labatt’s or a Keith’s anywhere.
Also Rickard’s.
Not one even on the radar. This list might have been lame 5 years ago, but today it’s simply tragic. No Stone?
Budweiser? It makes real beer drinkers gag! Iron City should only be served at sporting events in the Pittsburgh area. Yeungling is a good touch (oldest brewery in the US). Oh, BTW, Belgian beer is just a fad and will go bye-bye like all the “micro-brews” that were popular 5 years ago. It’s good brew, but it will be ruined by snobs and snot-nosed yuppies who want to look cool and drink it b/c it was written up in the New Yorker. Also, Aussies don’t drink Foster’s because it’s a gimmicky American beer.
This is the worst “Best Beer” list I have ever seen. Budweiser? Corona? Are you joking?
Why no love for Canada? Good list nonetheless. Smart move putting a beer a handful of people have ever tried as #1, this way nobody can argue unless they’ve tried it. God, I wish i wasn’t at work, I’d grab myself a nice cold one right now…
Anyone, ANYONE, that includes Budweiser on a list of ‘best’ beers opinion is automatically negated. Sir: Please enroll in some sort of rehab program, as your sense of taste has obviously been dulled by the huge amounts of low quality crack you smoke.
Westvleteren is just one of the most expensive beers, not necessarily the best (although I’m not saying I didn’t like it).
And the best beer is a three way tie between Pliny the Younger from Russian River, Houblon Chouffe Dobbelen IPA Tripel, and possibly Piraat Amber Triple IPA (because I’m on an IPA kick this year, which is a way of saying that ttastes can be subjective, although I still maintain that the author has terrible tastes).
WHAT ABOUT DUFF???
Kilkenny
Killians
Blue Moon
fat tire is my top for wheat ale….not much of a stout drinker but again this list isn’t a whose best but rather a must taste to know what’s out there.
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale #2??? You have got to be kidding. It tastes like it came out of a rusty pipe, and smells like urine.
shockingly this list is pretty good, my local watering hole has most of these….www.whiskeybardenver.com
except the last one
Pilsner Urquell, Staropramen or Budvar some Czech Pilsner needs to be top 5. (im not Czech) I cant remember seeing anyone drinking budweiser when backpacking myself but I guess any beers as well distributed and well known does deserve a place
capitol brewery, middleton WI.
i’ve had regular Amstell while in the middle east. i said the same thing (have you ever seen regular amstell?) and then i looked across the bar and there it was!
i dont understand Jfrater, What is Fark, a siren call? Is it a wave warning that is a precrurser to an overload of traffic? Or do you give up your site so it doesnt crash, in order to allow more attention to seep through? a clear sky of a bigger exposure?cutting off the fan base for a larger one?
do you make money out of a fark front page, based on a beer list? how is allowing your site to “go down and drown’”"great”‘?
Anybody with a tech answer (or anyone smarter than me) would be appreciated.
just interested in knowing. This is in all kind curiosity.
not what is fark,but all the rest that I brought up here.
The best beer I’ve ever had was an experimental called Cold Hop made by the Boulder Brewery in, where else, Boulder, Colorado. That stuff was awesome, can’t wait until it comes out again in like 2011 when the hops population recovers.
I can’t believe the crud in this list! Red Stripe? Bud? Come on! In addition to beers from Germany, Holland, Belgium, the UK, NZ, and Australia(one of the best beers I’ve ever tasted was available only in Sidney), I’d add a few from the US and Canada, and selected other countries. But I think the author was a bit tanked, as he included what he thought was, “a pretty good cheap beer,” as one of the world’s top 20!!! Perhaps he doesn’t get around much!
No Heineken, Gordon Biersch or Crown’s? Nothing beats a Crownie!!
No Heineken, Gordon Biersch or Crown? Nothing beats a Crownie!!
Hmm…I keep getting “duplicate comment detected”. Nice, but it’s not showing the first one…
Oh, should have read the above comments. Well, sorry for adding on this comment to the slow-down.
Nice job for getting on the front page of Fark though! Woot!
Dead Guy Ale is the worst tasting thing ever made. An actual dead guy would taste better.
Oh, my god. Budweiser is asswater. Somebody needs to stop listening to ads and start tasting beer.
Stone’s Arrogant Bastard Ale or Ruination IPA… now, THAT is beer.
My favorite is “Arrogant Bastard”
no UK ales……..get on the ball man, Adnams Broadside, London Pride, CHB Flint Knappers, Old Speckled Hen…..and don’t get me started on having an ice cold Bintang in Bali on a supper hot day……….travel son, travel.
An impressive list. However, I would’ve put Yuengling Black & Tan number #1, followed by Yuengling lager draught as number #2,, and never included Budweiser. It results in a headache. Also comments #6 and #16 apply. One word of caution for all beers sold in green bottles. Keep out of the sunlight or bright showcase lighting. The result is skunky beer. No, that is not how any beer should taste.
Love the list. Hey different tastes for different folks.
My top five…
1) Angkor Wat (A Cambodian beer)
2) Pilsner Urquell
3) Prankster
4) Negro Modello
5) Newcastle Brown Ale…
Sam Adams Winter Lager. Yum.
the budweiser available in Europe is not the american swill it is brewed in the little town of Budveis. Anheuser may well be in the process of buying and contaminating the beer just for the sake of buying the rights to the name in Europe. Surely a dark day for beers of the world
Oh and light beer should never ever be on any list of top beers its swill and is suitable only for pig feed
IF you go to Hlland, all the Amstel they serve is just Amstel.
“The biggest beer in the world (or at least it seems). I remember backpacking in Europe and seeing people sitting at cafes drinking Bud when a host of great European beers were inside waiting to be tasted. I hate having to include this, but it isn’t that bad.”
This site is going way downhill. I am reporting this as abuse to Jamie!!!
Budweiser!? Aside from their Bud Light Presents radio ads I see nothing more than ***** in a bottle.
Then again…I created that controversial list of mine. Maybe this is karma biting me in the ass!
My personal favorites are:
Rolling Rock
Honey Brown
Guiness
Red Stripe
PBR
and the infamous Tres Pistoles ale
FAIL!
This is a pathetic list for quality beers!!
Bud and several others should NEVER be listed as beer, as they are RICE WATER.
Missed a lot of Belgian, Czech and other imported beers.
Submitter fails, as he/ she has not tried enough brews from around the world to be a VIABLE CRITIC!
Come back when you have grown a few more hairs down there…
Spaten Optimater.
What are this guy’s credentials? He’s got to be kidding. ‘Popular’ (e.g, Bud, Corona, Fosters) is not a synonym for ‘good’.
In any case, you are going to get better beer at your local brewpub than virtually anything bottled.
I realize that this beer is considered a “near beer”, but I like COORS’S Light as my 1st choice, and KEYSTONE ICE as my second choice. It may be noted that I am not a true beer drinker per se, I am more of a liquor drinker.
Hey what about Tusker Lager? A quality Kenyan brew
Many good beers on this list. Some that I like include…
Anything by Stone breweries (Arrogant Bastard, Ruination, Old Guardian Barley Wine Style Ale)
Spaten Optimator is a MUST try, dark beer, alcohol at the front with this sipper.
Skull Splitter by Orkney is awesome
Goose Island summer time ale
By Far though Arrogant Bastard is the most flavorful, NOT for the faint of heart!
Yeah, that Budweiser you saw them drinking in Europe? You should have paid attention, that wasn’t American Budweiser, it was Czech Budweiser. All sorts of legal battles over the decades over there about that, plus the fact that Europeans think that your major American beers (Bud, Miller, Coors, ect.) all taste the same. I gave a Michelob to my landlord when I first got to Germany (before I learned what good beer tasted like)… he politely drank some, made a face, and told his son it tasted like *****. Budweiser wouldn’t sell over there.
Interesting topic to broach as a teetotaller. You must be to have Fosters, Newcastle Brown, Corona and Budweiser in your list.
I can’t believe that not only did Blue Moon not make the list, but it has only been mentioned once (I skimmed quickly) in the comments page. It is easily the best beer I’ve had. As a college student, I drink mostly Steel Reserve and Old Mil, but Blue Moon is the best of the “good beer” that I have had.
something by Dogfish Head needs to be on there.
Diogenes: it is a warning of impending traffic – in a wave so large that the site has gone down everytime it has happened. I figured people would prefer the site to stay up and not have comments than have the site go down in 5 minutes and – well, still not have comments
My personal favourites (as a Belgian) are:
Barbar (made with some honey, very good)
Duvel !
Leffe
and many more actually…
As a normal beer i prefer Jupiler (more then Stella)
is this a joke? worst list evar. i could name 20 beers brewed within 25 miles of me that would beat out more than half this list. budweiser? amstel light? corona? come on, are you kidding me? in the top 20 beers in the world?, I agree with Thomas… I could probably think of 20 belgian beers that would smoke everything on this list. waste of time
where the f is heineken
should definitely made the list.if you get the opportunity visit the museum in amsterdam,good afternoon and a couple of free beers with the admission.you also learn how it should be served,never knew what a difference it could make.the layer of water deposited by the knife keeps it fresh to the last drop.
Clearly a beer novice. Terrible beers throughout with the exception of a few. Any Bell’s beers or Stone beers would blow half that list away. Not picking you apart, though. It’s interesting to see what beginners think is good. Cheers and keep trying more!
Beer is like pizza toppings: get twenty people and you will get 20 different opinions. I can’t believe people are arguing over this.
I like my beer just like anyone else, and if I lived in the States, for a regular brew, I might (might I do say) drink Bud. Right now I’m having an Australian XXXX cuz that’s the cheapest decent brew here in Osaka (thanks Costco).
Personal favorites include Minoh’s Pale Ale (small microbrew north of Osaka, hoppy with a crisp finish), Kilkenny (I like the subtle caramel taste), Maudite (Unibroue, hometown brew from which I have been sick a few times from drinking too much, too quickly, but it is still my favorite from the excellent brewery) and Tucker Hefeweissen (very refreshing).
Instead of blasting others for their selections, tell us your favorites and try to be constructive with your replies…
You folks obviously don’t know yer beer.Pikers!
When you grow up, maybe you can drink real beer.
San Miguel
Interesting list, though a topic like this is highly subjective.
Personally, I have found a beer at one of the local establishments that blows me away. I’d be surprised if anyone else has had the priveledge to try it; its known around here as “Natural Light”.
With aromas that hint at midnight urine and vomit in the springtime, the texture of chemically enhanced engine coolant, and a taste that conjures memories of when my cat peed on my toothbrush, this american ale brings us all back to the age when we weren’t really sure of what we are supposed to be putting in our mouth.
From the first sip to the last cup in a 12 game rally in beer pong, this beacon of liquid luxury provides an experience that will certainly not be forgotten…until the next morning.
gotta com to nova scotia and try Alexandr Kieth’s, people who love it love it a lot
and yes my “e” key sticks
i have that problem with my “” key. see
your list sucks a fat one dude. you don’t ***** about beer
Ok im skimming the list here and i barely see anything about bud light! It’s the greatest beer. hands down end of story. you can shut down this forum now mr admin guy. No one in the south likes that european crap anyway.
what an absolute joke of a list!?
Good to see someone mentioned Little Creatures Pale Ale from Perth. Someone else mentioned a beer from sydney and i’ll hazard a guess at one of the Nelson’s range, just up from the Rocks. Or James Squire’s Malt Shovel range.
Fosters is a non-event in beers. Someone mentioned drinking XXXX in Japan as a last resort and i had to laugh.
You can’t really include an “international” beer in a list that is actually BREWED UNDER LICENCE (BIL) at a brewery down the road. This applies to Heineken, Lowenbrau, Budweiser, Corona, Stella, even guiness. Check the side of the bottle, folks, they’re all made locally to whereever you are, under licence.
Anyway without a doubt the best beer in the world is….
My own homebrew, because i know exactly what goes in it, including homegrown hops etc….
Seriously if you can’t brew it, then don’t bother critiquing it. It’s really hard to make good beer.
all guiness is brewed in dublin now, the london site stopped production a few years ago.dont think you will find heineken brewed under license either.just on a personal note stella must be the most over rated over priced over publicised lager in the world.reassuringly expensive must need the money to pay for all the marketing.