Best Value Commercial Brews...

[FatMonsters]

LaBatt's Blue Light - Affordable and easy drinking.
Does Equis Amber

I will second the Pete's Wicked!

And I'll pay for Smuttynose Old Brown Dog, Sam Adams Octoberfest and Lake Placid Ubu Ale - I love 'em!

 

[LouT]

Negra Modelo, I love this stuff. I just picked up a 6 pack for 5 bucks.

One of my favorites, too! I ALWAYS order it when eating out at Mexican restaurant, only buy the sixpacks once in a while.

 

[waskelton4]

The Budget beers at my house are PBR and Amberbock..

It is what SWMBO will drink.

 

[zoebisch01]

In PA and Ohio, you can't beat Straub's for a good 'lawnmower' beer. You have to drink it fresh though. But @ around $15 for 24 x 16oz'ers (plus deposit if you use the bottles for homebrew) you can't beat it imo...at least not here.

 

[Evan!]

my favorite budget brew is Abita Brown. It's more like a porter than a brown, and it's damn fine stuff.

Another great inexpensive craft brew is Otter Creek. Their copper ale is great stuff for the small price tag, and their lager ain't bad either.

I dunno, though...to be honest, I have so much HB, it is my budget brew. But back when I wasn't brewing and I needed party beer, those two were always good ones.

Or you can get a mini-keg (5L) of various german brews for $20 at our shop. Those were always the BEST deal if you plan on high-quantity drinking.

 

[razyrsharpe]

Yuengling Lager is a good beer for the price. Not one of my favorites, but it is barely anymore than BMC. Sam Adams is also very reasonable for as good as it is. A buck a bottle off of the distributor, and in stores its about 14 dollars for a 12 pack. I know in bars you pay as much for these as you do beers that are $30 a case off of the distributor though.

i can find sammy at 12.95 per 12 pack...and i buy the heck out of it!
love the sampler 12pk.

 

[Rhoobarb]

Goose Island or Sammy, when it's on sale for $11.99 or $12.99 a twelver, is a pretty good deal here. BMC is never worth the price, IMHO.

 

[zonabb]

Nowadays, I guess I consider any good micro/craft that I can still get for $6.99 a sixpack to be a good deal. But I buy so little beer that I'm kindof out of the loop on that.

I think Saranac has some good beers for a very reasonable price. Availablility is hit and miss out here. O'Dells 5 Barrel Pale Ale is a good mainline micro IMHO.

Cheaper drinkable beers, better than BMC: Killians on tap, Shiner Bock.

Hands down, dollar for dollar, Saranac is the best brew for your buck. Being in NY might keep the prices reasonable (about $6.50 for a sixer and $11.50 for a 12) but I think the prices are pretty constant wherever you can get your hands on it.

In fact, the Washington Post had a 64-beer March Madness tournament and Saranac Pale Ale made the finals over all the major players you can think of from Brooklyn Brewer, Magic Hat, Sierra Nevada, Dogfish Head, Anchor Steam, etc.

Pretty worth praise from beer drinkers.

 

[rdwj]

I don't drink any of these very often, but for CHEAP beer, I have no problem with PBR. I also like a Miller Lite now and then. Blue Moon has come way down in price these days. It's tough to beat for entry-level wit.

Everything else I drink tends to be expensive.

 

[gonzoflick]

Yuengling is dirt cheap < $1 per bottle. Also on weekends we stock up on 12's of High Life for our drinking games.. man I love quarters. and at $7 per 12 you cant complain.

 

[Wolf]

When I'm feeling cheap and don't want to pay for the Capital, Sprecher or other 'good beer' at Miller Park I buy 6 packs of the plastic bottles of Miller and sneak them into the Brewers games, since their identical to whats sold there.

Comparing my $1 bottle to the $6.50 ones being sold makes it a great value. Yes, even though it is BMC swill.

 

[jlinner]

Very, very hard to find but,

Leffe Blonde Abbey Ale - $8.50 a sixer.

Greatest beer ever made. IMO

 

[rdwj]

Very, very hard to find but,

Leffe Blonde Abbey Ale - $8.50 a sixer.

Greatest beer ever made. IMO

They have a Belgian beer pack at Sam's club that's pretty cheap. It has Stella, Leffe and Hoegaarden. I'm not much of a Stella fan, but visitors seem to always drink it.

 

[Evan!]

Leffe is easier to find than most Belgians, truth be told. IIRC, it's one of those beers, like Hoegaarden or Guinness, that got bought out by some international cartel and now enjoys more widespread distribution. You wanna talk "very very hard to find", ask me about Westy-St. Sixtus or Fantome. Har har.

I've had Leffe exactly once. Tasted like a well-made but not terribly exciting belgian blonde ale. But, hey, drink what you like!

RDWJ: Stella is...dumb beer, to put it mildly. It's an unexciting lager. It's popular because it drinks like BMC, but it makes the drinker feel more "exotic" because they're drinking something from Belgium. So they can be "worldly" without actually leaving the comfort of their little BMC world.

Can you tell that I'm fed up with seeing people guzzling Stella with a look of smug self-satisfaction on their face?