Gin and tonic, with a slice of lime, please!

Well, I have a number of favorite beers for different occasions. I like dark beers, so of course one of my standbys is Guinness - it's one of the few "good" beers that chain-type bar and grill places often have on tap, so it's usually a good choice if nothing else is available. I'm from central PA, so the beer I "grew up with" is Yuengling Lager (and also Black & Tan, Porter, and to a lesser extent their awful "Premium", which is only available in central PA and has the main virtue of being very, very cheap - like $8 a case cheap). Now that I'm living in Delaware, I've become a fairly big fan of Dogfish Head, particularly their IPAs. I also enjoy some of the Philly-area micros, including Stoudt's and Victory. There are a ton of other PA breweries that are good, including Troegg's, Lancaster Brewing Company, Penn, Straub, and Lion, plus a ton of brew pubs that don't bottle. Probably my favorite brew-pub ever is Selin's Grove Brewing Company - it's a very small operation - only do about 40 barrels a year - but I've had by far the best quality beer I've ever tasted there. It's out of the way for most people, but if you're ever in the area it's very much worth the trip.

It all depends on the season, I guess.  I always look forward to fall, when I can get some Nosferatu.  Hoppier than any other IPA I've ever had, and pretty high in alcohol as well.

Yuengling's is a favorite as well.  Every summer, my friend and his wife go vacationing in Cook forest in Pennsylvania, and he always brings me home a six-pack.  IIRC, that's the oldest brewery in the US.

But, come the dog-days of summer, a plain-old Budweiser just seems to hit the spot just right.  Maybe it's the rice they mix with the malts, but it just seems better when it's 90+ degrees outside.

there's only one way to find out...

Grolsch, Becks, Okanagan Springs Pale Ale, Heineken, San Miguel dark, Guiness (extra-chilled Guiness on tap is heavenly), and pretty much any beer that comes out of a tap in Germany...but always order two, because they take seven minutes to pour, the first one disappears in a nano-second, and you won't want to wait another seven minutes for the next one.

OK, now I'm thirsty.

My favorites are either a good ol' rum-and-tonic (with lots of lime) or a mojito.

As for beer, my girlfriend has recently gotten me onto Land Shark.  It's light without tasting like water, so that's a good summer beer.  I also like a honey ale they sell around here (can't remember the name), as well as just about any flavor of Mike's.

Q: What do you think of western civilization? Gandhi: I think it would be a good idea.

I've come to realize that what I'm looking for isn't the same as even other microbrew fans.  Mostly people who like microbrews seem to be looking for a porter or even a Belgian abbey-style super-porter.  Even at microbreweries, the selection tends to jump straight from their darker ale to a dopplebock (if they have it), and then a porter.  Other people's ratings are singularly unhelpful.  The comments and ratings always down to "I don't like bitters, and I hate it because it's not a porter".  I don't actually mind a porter, but it's not really what I'm looking for most.

What I'm looking for is something with more strength than the typical darkest ale without a great deal more carmel/malt flavor, with significantly more hops, but not enough to overpower the grain flavors.  This means that I don't like the typical overhopped lighter ales generally sold as a "bitter".  Alcohol content of the beers I like best is always 5-6% by volume.  Below 5 gives a result way too light, and 6-7 is o.k., but is getting too much residual sugar.

Deschutes Bachelor ESB is a slightly light and as seen in mass distribution tastes a bit much of metal, but is still excellent.  The cask-aged version at the brewery in Bend is better.  It's easy to find when I happen to be in the Western US, and reasonably priced as well.

 Theakston's Old Peculier isn't really a bitter at all and would have too much malt flavor except for a very strong earthy flavors to balance it which most porters don't have.  In any case it's delicious.

In any case, those are my two favorites, and after having my father take me to a ton of microbreweries around the country, I haven't seen anything to change my mind.

I should put in a good word for regular old Sam Addams ale.  It's far too light of a beer for me, but despite being cheap and available everywhere, with the solid grain taste I find it to be the best in its class, which admittedly I try to avoid sampling in the first place.  In any case, anyone interested in beer should be sure to try it.

For some reason, I've had consistently better luck with a number of different NY state breweries than with anything else east of the Mississippi.

I guess I'm a beer simpleton.  My go-to beers throughout the year are Rolling Rock and Fosters.  The Rolling Rock especially since it is inexpensive and consistent.

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

    Why yes, I've answered to that label more than once, and gladly. Now, mind you, just about everything has gone down the gullet when it was party time (except for ice beer), so I feel like I've paid my dues on that front. It doesn't look like they make Rhinelander in bottles any more, which is a pity. If you're looking for a cheap(er) beer that still has both taste and durability, you could do worse than the new Henry Weinhard's Ale, though it's vastly inferior to what the company produced before it got bought out. (Now that was a beer for a sunny day. Alas.) Now it's pretty much that, and something Trader Joes carries called Mission Street pale ale.
    As far as microbrews go, a few names that stick out over the years include Anchor Steam, especially the pale ale, Redhook is always good, and if you get a chance try the Double Black stout-- it may not be the best stout ever brewed, but it's pretty tasty nevertheless. Grant's beer out of Yakima used to be pretty good, but I haven't had any in years; they had an interesting mix you could get at the pub called the Snakebite, which was half stout and half apple cider, at least until Grant's was forced to stop making cider. You can create the same thing at home with Guinness and cider, and I'd recommend trying it once just for kicks.
    Other names to consider include Rogue, out of Newport, Oregon. If you get a chance, try the Old Crustacean barley wine at least once, if nothing else because it's a great name :) I may be the only stout fan on the planet who doesn't like Guinness poured with a nitrogen tap-- straight from the bottle for this kid, or I'll go looking for something else that doesn't have a rubbing alcohol aftertaste. Otherwise, beer is beer, and the colder the better.

Ex ignorantia ad sapientiam; e luce ad tenebras