Mass produced lagers

[slbunge]

Sprecher Black Bavarian is a nice schwarzbier but it isn't really mass produced. It's brewed (they would say 'craft brewed') in Milwaukee and may be available as far away as Indianapolis or possibly Cincinatti. You can find it reasonably easily from the Twin Cities to Chicago.

Another midwest lager worth mentioning is Point Bock from the Stevens Point Brewery. Similar in style to Shiner Bock, a bock beer brewed to appeal to a wide audience, perhaps a bit more smooth than what you find the small run breweries produce as 'bock.' Both Point and Shiner Bocks are worth a look.

[Brewery]

Carta Blanca is a great mass produced beer. Avoid the lime and enjoy the maltyness and crisp hoppy finish. If you have one that traveled well, it will have a decent head with fine bubbles.

We used to drink awesome Tres XXX in Mexico, but it seems to have vanished.

[erie1]

Back in the late 80's 4 of us did a blind taste test with Bud,Miller,MGD and Old Milwaukee. All 4 of us picked Old Milwaukee as the best. Go figure.

[John]

Raspoutine,

Just got around to reading your post, but the Harp I get in New Jersey is definitely brewed in Canada. Says so on the label. Wish I had a bottle here now, but haven't had harp in a few months. Is it possible that the beer you had was an old sample?

[@gentOrange]

In Canada, Moosehead.

Yeah!!!

Moosehead is a fine lager and it's my staple house brand. I'll drink other beers but, the moose always comes first.

[admajoremgloriam]

Agreed, Zyviec is really top quality beer and I believe one can say it's mass produced. Check their bottles, they have a cool logo that appears only when the beer is cool enough to be drunk.

[Lew_Bryson]

What's "mass produced"? Over 100,000 bbls. a year? Over 1,000,000? And what's "lager"? Pilsner knock-offs like Bud and Heineken and Corona, or ANY lager?

Assuming the million barrel mark and light, fizzy beer as lager...My votes go for:

Pilsner Urquell

Yuengling Lager

Fresh draft Heineken

Singha

Sam Adams Boston Lager (east coast production, preferably draft)

If we can go smaller production, my vote would be for Augustiner Edelstoff, one of the best liter-after-liter beers I've ever found. And Penn Pilsner's not bad either, Penn Dark's even better.

Lew

[john b]

Fresh draft Heineken

The first time I had Heineken on tap, I didn't know what it was. Someone handed me a glass and I didn't know what beer was in it. It was really tasty. I was surprised to learn that it was Heineken, since my only previous Heiny experience was skunked out of a bottle.

[mighty quinn]

yeungling

pilsner urquell

rolling rock

[mighty quinn]

gawd- singha is awful!! but the beers coming out of the penn brewery are great though i don't know how widely available

[Nathan P.]

sierra's sole concentration is on biere production vs anchor steam's larger product line: beer, gin & possibly other specialty items i am unaware of.

Sierra does have a line of mustards if that counts. On the Anchor front, I recently got a mini 1 on 1 tour of the brewery and got to check out the stills in the basement. This is definately a sideline and I don't think it affects the quality of Anchors beers.

I will also add my vote for Pilsner Urquell with an honorary mention for Tsing Tao which I think is surprisingly good as the default chinese restaurant beer. Not on the mass production scale, Lagunitas in California makes a nice pils.

Back in my college days when my social life forced me to pass a fair amount of bud/the beast/etc. across my micro-brew taste buds the German cousin of one of my roomates shared a bizarre trick with us. The 'Dirty One' involved adding a small splash of Coke to your mass market lager. This darkened the color a bit and seemed to cut thorugh some of those "alternative grain" flavors but we may have just been drunk

Nathan

[beerguyjim]

gawd- singha is awful!! but the beers coming out of the penn brewery are great though i don't know how widely available

Perhaps you could be a bit more specific about what you don't like about Singha.

[PDC]

For consistency, I'll go with Yuengling or Rolling Rock among the domesics though neither is my first choice if some good local or craft brews are available. Any of the mass-produced Canadian brews is fine in that situation as well (Blue, Canadian, Moosehead, Kokannee, but NOT Molson Golden).

Pilsner Urquell CAN be quite good, but has anyone else had as much trouble with skunky/spoiled bottles of that beer as I have? Even on tap the stuff seems to taste a bit off quite often. I guess it doesn't handle the trip well. Of course, part of me is ruined on that beer as well since I had it in the Czech Republic in bars and from a barrel at the very brewery itself in Pilsen (which is where the Plisener style gets its name), so any sip has to compare with those memories. As you can imagine there's no contest.

[Jason Perlow]

Brooklyn Brewery has some great products, but I don't know if they really qualify as "Mass Produced"

[k43]

All the Pinkus styles are excellent, particularly the Pils[ner].

Samuel Smith (I like the Winter Welcome, which should be coming into season).

[stephenc]

Yuengling Lager

[stephenc]

Michelob is a highly underrated lager.

[Okbrewer]

Since this post is still making the rounds, I will have to weigh in with fresh PU being at the top of the list, Yuengling lager, and I'm surprised nobody mentioned one of my all time favorites, brewed by Old Dominion, Tupper's Hop Pocket Pils!

[PoorLawyer]

In Canada, Moosehead.

Labatt Blue is the King of Beers!

[PoorLawyer]

Fresh draft Heineken

The first time I had Heineken on tap, I didn't know what it was. Someone handed me a glass and I didn't know what beer was in it. It was really tasty. I was surprised to learn that it was Heineken, since my only previous Heiny experience was skunked out of a bottle.

I totally agree with that. Heineken has such a skunky tin-like taste from a bottle, but it tasted great at the Brewery

[dankphishin]

Yuengling. I dunno if it's considered "mass produced", but it rocks. go into a bar in PA and just order a "lager" and that's what you'll get.

[Okbrewer]

OH! Almost forgot! When fresh, New Belgium's Blue Paddle Pils is great!