Worst Beer Scene on Earth?

Absolutely, there’s a huge variety across the country. Goa is an oasis of spicy pork/beef goodness. Some states are mostly vegetarian, the south where I lived for 3 years has its own microcosm of different styles. I don’t think I had a good beer the entire time I was in India. There are local brewpubs these days but quality is highly variable.

 

Read: Select jurisdictions.
Canada is big.
And there are neither many, nor any great, breweries in BC.

 

Quebec is indeed better than anywhere else in Canada. Beer laws there were relaxed decades ago, rooted in the widespread "independence from anything Canada" political mentality.
The best commercial successes out of Quebec have been the strong Belgian-style ales....notably La Fin du Monde & Maudite from Unibroue.

 

I'll give you credit for being able to keep a sense of humor about it!
The provincial government liquor store monopolies, the ridiculously restricted opening hours of those stores, the outrageous prices for the standard offering, a few brands of 5% abv corporate swill (fun fact: any beer over 5% has to be labelled "strong beer". True story!) ...and then the kicker: SALES TAX charged on top of the already egregiously high government-decreed shelf price!?
It is an utterly incredible racket there.

So all the posters here complaining about various states: you have (blissfully) no idea how good the any place in the US is compared to that.

 

Florence, Alabama in 1979 - A dry county, and the nearest places that sold beer were a couple of redneck package stores just across the state line in Tennessee. All they offered were overpriced cases of Old Milwaukee, Strohs, and Bud.

 

Any Place in the US?



Blue counties are wet, red counties are dry, and yellow counties are either partially dry, with some alcohol restrictions, or have municipalities within them that are dry.

Plus, some of the blue "wet counties" have abv restrictions, limits on opening hours, mandatory Sunday closing, limit the number of licenses, limit the amount of beer that can be purchased and/or charge state/city sales taxes.

 

Dry counties are inconvenient, but pretty easy to go around. you are picking at details. Canada is a country of government overreach and alcohol oppression.
Fun Fact: Canada's Supreme Court just upheld a national law that makes it illegal to transport ANY beer across provincial borders. So for example, Joe Canuck can't even buy a case of Labatts in Quebec and lug it back to Nova Scotia...how's THAT for oppression !?!?
(BTW....all those blue states bordering Canada have been the salvation of many Canucks looking for a decent beverage).
But I do encourage you to go to Canada for a beer experience you'll never forget.

 

Vacationed in Belize in 1992 - and I remember being impressed with a cold Belikan beer - seemed right in the tropic heat - more flavor than American lagers -

 

Lived outside of Canton, NY (where I owned a retail beer license) - just about 20 miles from the St. Lawrence River and did many weekend beer runs over the border to Canada and the Ontario Beer Store.

That was a while back, so a good score was Molson Stock Ale or Brador, Labatt IPA or Extra Stock or some of the Big 3's (Carling-O'Keefe was still independent) porters --- all in stubbies at the time.

 

No it was Windmills Craftworks. Arbor is there, but they were 11 miles away, which here is no biggie, but over there it was a 1hr cab ride on a good day

 

Quebec has extremely, very, totally different alcohol laws than the rest of Canada.
Quebec, though a province, is NOT Canada. It is a society and cultural island unto itself, and alcohol is one of many areas where it flexes its political muscle and pokes a finger in Canada's eye.

 

Best map of places in the US to avoid.

 

BYOB - it's not just for parties or unlicensed restaurants, it's for some towns or entire counties!

 

For the red areas, yes, but the yellow areas are misleading. Take a look at Michigan and Ohio. You don't want to avoid us and them where the beer culture is top notch. The restrictions that cause the yellow color rating for these states may be something as simple as no alcohol establishments within 500' of a church, school, etc. That's certainly no big deal. The beer is flowing.... come and get it!

 

Ecuador was pretty terrible, except for a couple of breweries in Quito (couldn't find bottles outside the city). Peru on the other hand had surprisingly good beer, at least compared to the rest of central and south America.

 

Domestically it has to be Gulf Shores, Alabama where Landshark is considered a craft beer.

 

I was in the Peace Corps in Burkina Faso. The beer there was no better. I kind of got used the village made beer called Dolo, its made from sorghum and kinda tastes like a dirty Berliner wiess or some thing