It’s the most wonderful time of the beer. Just the other day, I commented that MillerCoors’ Blue Moon “doesn’t suck, but I don’t really care for it.” So I was surprised to find myself buying a six-pack of their seasonal beer called Full Moon.

The Boston Beer Company, known for many quality beer styles and a cult of craft beer that now borders on being mainstream, recently released their 2009 batch of Samuel Adams Utopias. Utopias is the flagship brew of their “extreme” beer line.

As I sit here, leaves are beginning to fall from the trees… some of them right into my beer mug. Although the crisp days of autumn are not quite upon us yet here in New York, I recognize that the Octoberfest is the perfect beer for today’s climate. This seasonal German style lager is hitting the spot.

Spaten Ur-Oktoberfest is one of the finest amber lagers that you can buy. Taste a bottle and I think you’ll agree.

Looking for something with a nice, malty, nutty flavor but that’s not too strong? Paulaner Oktoberfest Marzen might be the brew for you!

B.J. King’s Wingwalker Lager is a bit of an odd man out.
It is called a “fully krausened” pilsner, but right in the name is the word lager. The label says both, and adds that it has smooth hops. I have to say that it is more like a light IPA gone wrong.
I was dissapointed [...]

Superior is not among my favorite Mexican beers, and I can’t say that I’ve ever gone out of my way to buy it before. I don’t avoid it either.

Most of us have seen Tecate. Most of us have not tasted it, though. It’s the beer in the ugly red can that someone at the table across from you is drinking in the Mexican restaurant. Starting to ring a bell?

Negra Modelo is one of the richest tasting, most robust beers in Mexico. A complex beer, redolent with caramel and chocolate flavors from the malt, the beer is perfectly balanced with a bit of spiciness or nuttiness in the hop aspects of its flavor profile.

Light and spritzy with just the barest hint of grassy hops and a very slight tingly mineral scent that’s probably from the carbonation (carbonic acid). Generally clean with nothing offensive, but neither is there anything enticing.

Dos Equis Amber is actually classified as a lager, but it has the body and bouquet of a fine amber ale. It’s something like a Newcastle Brown Ale mixed with Sam Adams. Most interestingly it seems to have less carbonation and/or gas than your average lager.

A lot of folks who either don’t know much about beer, or who don’t care much about flavor or the quality of what goes into their mouths, seem to have stuffed the ballot box so to speak, with dozens of glowing reviews of what is, in fact, one of the worst beers brewed in Mexico.

This is a very light-bodied American style pale lager (an offshoot of the pilsner style). This is, in my view, probably the blandest, least interesting style of beer on the market, although it probably accounts for 90% of beer sales in the U.S.

Like most beer drinkers I look forward to March and St. Patrick’s day as an excuse to get sloppy. But it’s also an excuse to try some beers with an Irish heritage that you may not always drink on a regular basis.

For St. Patrick’s Day every year the buddies got together and honor our favorite saint by drinking ourselves into a stupor that would make any off-the-boat Irishman proud.