The best lager beers to buy: Spaten Premium Lager, Pilsner Urquell, Schneider Aventinus Weizen-Eisbock, Victory Prima Pils, Idyll Days Pilsner, Coors Banquet, Miller Lite. Lagers are more than just the light, bubbly beer you drink while watching sports; they're much more varied than you might think. Kirwan also approves strong beer with “notes of raisins, plum and spices”, which is a “real treat” during the holidays. Introduced in 1890, Narragansett Lager beer is one of the most traditional beers in the United States, crushed by Quint in the movie Tiburón and formerly the official beer of the Boston Red Sox.
The best in its class is the long-lived Eliot Ness from Great Lakes, an amber beer named after the famous Prohibition law enforcement agent. But what if we told you that there is a Mexican beer that is so good that it doesn't need more citrus fruits? Since the early 19th century, this Mexican brewery has been brewing Czech-inspired Bohemia beer, which has a little more bitterness and a strong flavor than the average Mexican beer. If you're not a big fan of hops, you'll want to fill your fridge with plenty of this pale German beer. The 14th century German brewery Aecht Schlenkerla is the world's leading producer of rauchbiers, or smoked beers, that are aged “in the same caves where they have been used for centuries,” says Colm Kirwan, partner at The Jeffrey, a beer bar in New York City.
Instead of smoked malts, this golden beer gets its mild flavor on low heat thanks to copper teapots and homemade yeast from the brewery. With a “completely dry and bitter finish” and a slightly spicy hop complexity, it's a “perfect” beer, Schwartz says. If you like beers with improved aromas and bitterness, look for Prima Pils from Victory Brewing in Pennsylvania. Nowadays, it may seem like everyone drinks IPAs, but the reality is that lagers are still the most popular beers in the world.
Belgian-style beers are the specialty of Brewery Ommegang, where this beer is brewed with European barley malted on the floor, corn flakes and a traditional Belgian beer strain. Amber lagers are often overlooked for the flashiest beers, but they are among the most popular beers. With so many beers to choose from, which literally come from all over the world, it can be difficult to reduce them. In 1966, the Rheingold Brewery introduced the first light beer in the United States, a 99-calorie beer called Gablinger's.
Made with corn from Iowa and produced the same way for the better part of a century, this fast beer has that holy trinity of flavor, value and refreshment.