Grain Belt Premium (Schell's Brewery - MN) FTW

www.grainbelt.com

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I can't find it in my next of the woods now, But man I loved me some Red Dog. Some great ultra cheapo beer. Beer snobs need not try.

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Fly to Germany or Belgium, drink local beer there.

Well, the beer will be cheap. The journey... maybe not so much.

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Michelob Craft Collection

12 12oz beers for about $10

3 Porter
3 Pale Ale
3 Irish Red
3 Marzen

I don't work for the company ... not even close ... I actually called a friend when I saw it because it looked good but it was Michelob which made me skeptical.

Love the Porter and the Irish Red. The Marzen is good but it needs to be drunk fast because the flavour becomes skunky pretty quickly. The Pale Ale does not taste like a Pale Ale but a very basic American beer - maybe a step up from the regular Michelob lines but not sure because I don't drink Michelob.

They also have two other beers in the craft collection but they did not come in the sampler pack. Honey Lager (which I saw on their website later but did not see in the store) and Dunkel Weisse. 6 pack for about $5.50, the Dunkle Weisse is a good one also.

And just for the record my beer preferences lean towards porters, brown ale and some other darker brews typically. People who prefer their basic Bud, Miller, Michelob, Milwaukee Best etc are probably not going to like these.

A little more expensive but still not too expensive at $8-10 a six pack, 12oz bottles, I like Kona Brewing Company Pipeline Porter which is seasonal (Fall only) and made with Kona coffee.

And a bit more expensive than that is Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale. $10-$14 for a four pack, 12oz bottles. This one might taste like a regular beer at first but it "opens up" and you get a nice hint of bourbon flavour after it sits for a bit (might be that it's a little warmer.)

I have others I like but they tend to be more expensive.

I'm looking forward to seeing what other people's responses are to this question though!

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Pabst Blue Ribbon is the finest and cheapest american beer around.

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I was a big fan of Red Dog for a 'cheap beer' experience. They stopped selling it around here though.

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My husband and I have found that an oldie but a goodie is the best cheap beer ever: Carlings Black Label. (Oh Mabel.....Black Label!) The issue is we can only find it at one location in our area, and we're afraid they may drop it evenutally. It's only $12.99 for a case of 24 cans!! And really good beer.

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Homebrew is really the only option if you want a beer that is both cheap and good. I would define cheap as being less than $1 per beer, and while good is a subjective quality, I've rated over 1500 different beers, so it's something I feel qualified to assess. Homebrew has received a bad reputation by many unskilled novices using Mr.Beer kits. But I can say for certain that skilled homebrewers are producing the best beer in the country.

My routine is to have eight hour brewdays every other month where I brew 20 gallons. The cost per 12oz is approximately 40 cents, including barley, hops, yeast, water, and propane. When you factor in the sunk costs of equipment and your time, it starts to be on par with the cheaper macrobrewed selections. Still, there are few things more gratifying than enjoying your own creations. Cheers!

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I suspect the best cheap beer is one that you brew at home yourself. Certainly when I was in graduate school I could homebrew better beer than I could buy. (This was in the days before microbreweries.) I used quart beer bottles to bottle the brew. Very tasty.

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In the words of Frank Booth in Blue Velvet:

"Pabst Blue Ribbon!"

This has always been my go-to cheap beer if we're having a party or something; it usually works out to be under 50 cents a beer. I love the taste (for the price), but an old housemate said that Pabst was "like nails going down his throat." Two 30-packs would fit on one shelf in our fridge - we called it a "Rack of Nails."

But actually, Yuengling Lager is my favorite cheap beer. It ends up being around 9-10 bucks for a 12-pack of bottles, but there is a place around here that sells a 24-pack of cans for 14, which isn't bad at all.

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I second the PBR and Yuengling. In some parts of the country Leinenkugel's is cheap, but down here in the South, it's definitely not! Miller Lite is my mainstream beer of choice, when there's nothing else.

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Yuengling in cans is an amazing deal for a good product. Unfortunately I can't get it out west. PBR is a solid choice among the countless, similar-tasting, watered down American lagers.

I've always enjoyed Old Milwaukee though. Maybe it's just because its what my dad drinks, but I think it's actually decent for what it is.

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Shiner Bock is one of my favorite beers period, and at around the same price as Miller or Budweiser.

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PBR and Old Milwaukee are good cheap beers. So is Yuengling but I can't get it her in the midwest.

But, my favorite cheap beer is Stroh's.

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Golden Anniversary Beer.
Hamm's is good and cheap.
I wish 'Gansett was cheaper... cuz it's better.
but hell i'll even drink the beast.

course it's hard for me to buy corporate booze (or those with ties to them), so as a rule i try not to.

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Guinness and Samuel Smith, but also, Chimay. These may not be "cheap", but certainly inexpensive, great beers.

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Being a lover of Guinness (the best of the best) and anything not brewed in the U.S. (Canada, Germany, Japan, Thailand, Mexico, and etc., it is with great agony that I must admit to some domestic guilty pleasures. I grew up on the West Coast and had only heard of Pabst and Hamms; but now I live in Wisconsin and have finally had a chance to sample them. Hamms apparently sells for at least $2.00 less a 12 pack than Pabst here. So I would say Hamms is my cheapest guilty pleasure and Pabst is my second.

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Ice House is surprisingly not terrible! It is our go-to cheap beer. The flavor is a bit richer than High Life, PBR or Old Style, and it isn't sour like some of the other cheaper brands. The other three I named I love as well, mostly for the cachet the names have. I mean, how can you deny the pleasure in drinking something that calls itself the "Champagne of Beers"?

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'm not sure how widespread it is, but Lionshead is a pretty decent cheap beer. I live in SE PA, and have little to no problem finding it, and it's only about $11 or $12 for a case of bottles.

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Natural Light. Clean taste. Refreshing effervesence.
No disagreeable aftertaste. $1.59 for 32oz. Cheap and hard to beat.

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