Common Beer recommendations?

bell's oberon is a little below your abv request but it's hard to hate, golden monkey from victory might work for you, other than that your question is a bit vague, if you could narrow it down a bit you might get some better suggestions

 

Bud Light with a splash of Jack Daniels

 

Piraat, (since you live in alabama) avondale spring street saison or miss fancy's tripel, Henneping from ommegang, unfortunately, if you are looking for less hoppy things with higher alcohol content, in my experience you are mostly looking at saisons and golden beers, most lagers do not reach that high and in terms of darker beers you start getting into things like stouts and just things that are less of general interest, you might like andygator from abita, it's easy to drink and has a higher abv

 

I'm pretty sure cigar city distributes to Alabama, they have a bunch of good brews, namely jai lai fits your description

 

Chimay Grande Reserve (blue cap) at 9% seems to be widely available, and is really good. Lagunitas makes a ton of great brews in that range, easy to get, most everywhere. Maximus, Sucks, Brown shugga, and last but definitely not least, Hop Stoopid.

 

Sierra Nevada - Torpedo

 

Do you have any idea what styles you like, or is that what you are trying to figure out? Do you like bitter hoppy beers such as IPA's? Do you like lighter and easygoing beers such as lagers? Or maybe more robust beers such as stouts? Why the ABV requirement? Many or most of us select beers based on taste and the ABV is an aside, not a selection criteria. I tend to like beers that happen to have high ABV, but I would prefer them to be lower. Lastly, how widespread are you wanting? If nationwide, then that limits craft since not all breweries distribute nationwide. If locally widespread then most craft beers should be in every local craft store.

 

Old Chub, La Fin Du Monde, Ommegang Abbey. Different styles, all 8 or above ABV.

 

And here I thought this thread was going to be about the California Common style.

 

Prairie BOMB! in any of its various incarnations.
Ballast Point Sculpin in any of its various incarnations.
Stone Enjoy By in any of its various incarnations.
Monkeynaut.

 

Steel Reserve 40's are available everywhere at 8.1% and are like a dollar fifty. I'm not sure if that's where you're going with this though.

 

Just buy a Barleywine, the brand doesn't matter.

 

Tank 7 is pretty widely distributed. It's a little more pricey, but it hits the higher ABV area. It's a notoriously dangerous beer because it's so smooth but hits at 8% or something along those lines.

 

The larger Alabama stores where I have shopped usually have a good selection of Belgian beers (as well as the domestic clones) and I suggest you might start with them.

 

I strongly second both the Torpedo and Tank 7 recommendations. Torpedo even more so because it's even easier to find fresh in 12 oz bottles and very cheap for how good it is. The Ballast Point is pretty easy to find but hard to find fresh.

 

Duvel (as an import) seems rather widespread. Belgian Strong Pale Ale . 8.5%. 4 acks are a touch pricey but nothing out of the norm.

 

Welcome to the BA site, @PCRevolt. Since you just joined this website, can I assume that you are fairly new to this craft beer-drinking community? If so, my experience in reading many threads from newbies who ask the question about how to get started tells me that we all need to know your answer to a basic question about what type of beer you like before we can provide good recommendations. Have you reached the point in your experience where you can say whether you prefer malty beers or hoppy beers?

Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale or their Porter would be two beers that I recommend to satisfy your preference either way.

 

Delirium Tremens...

 

Steel Reserve