What's the best American Adjunct Lager?

PBR seems to be my #1 at the moment. In Jan I did a blind tasting and it did better than the Narragansett, which I expected to do better. It could have been an off day, so who knows?

The big cans of Presidente always seem to do well in these tastings for me, so that's another to keep in mind if we're counting imports.

I like Genny Cream on it's own; but once you put it up against a cleaner beer it's got a grape soda quality that tends to stand out too much, imo.

 

Regular Michelob isn't all that common anymore. Around here, there are normal macro-leaning stores that stopped carrying it completely. I know because I tried to get some a few months ago. Places that even specialized in Michelob specials (like Casino Royale in Las Vegas) stopped 'em because of the distributor. If you visit Michelob.com - it's nothing but Michelob Ultra. I'm pretty sure the normal kind still exists...or there's a shitload of old stock out there. Either way, isn't it (or wasn't it) all-malt? I recall that being something they made a big deal about 15'ish years ago.

 

Even in the 70s, when there were some notable differences among the AALs, drinkers couldn't very well differentiate them in blind taste tests. Now, when most of the brands are produced by just a few companies, they are probably even more alike. A lot of the favorites mentioned here don't exactly fit the definition. Some commenters have essentially rejected the AAL class and found refuge in imports, "ales", and craft-brewed macro-adjacent products.

 

Last summer I was drinking both PBR and Narragansett and came to the same conclusion.

 

I have plenty of favorites. My personal opinion on the best would be Coors Light. I say this because from a brewing perspective it's very clean and when I worked in a brewery and we would do off flavor tastings and spike beers with some organisms or faulty flavors, it was usually coors light as the control since its such a light and clean tasting beer.

My favorite being different from what's best would have to be Miller lite. I loves high life light but it's no more and the regular high life as it warms up u get a thick corn syrup type situation going on so its not a regular purchase anymore. There's other great ones like Genesee honey brown and I do enjoy budweiser, natty light, Yuengling and Famosa

 

Michelob lager. Michelob amber bock theres another too. Not ultra. Blue case. Black case. Brown case. Not the ultra in the white case. Not sure how old these are but i see them both at around $9-%10 a sixer .

 

As was discussed by another BA above it seems like 'regular' Michelob is being produced but I haven't seen it in my area. Perhaps a situation of slow sales volume and the Wholesale Distributor in my area chooses not to order it? They do order lots and lots of Michelob Ultra based upon the stacks I see at local beer retailers.

Sorta an academic discussion in this thread since Michelob is an all-malt beer, not an AAL.

Cheers!

 

Regardless I'll check the dates. Give them a shot

 

Yogi would disagree.

In 2004, a bear passed out after drinking 36 cans of Rainier Beer. After trying one can of Busch, he ignored the rest of the Busch cans in the cooler.

 

I am a fan of the AAL style. Like many I used to drink them, then eventually got into IPAs and drank mostly them, now I am drifting back into AAL beers occasionally; and throw in a lime and a pinch of sea salt and they can really hit the spot.

Yuengling and the Miller brand usually works for me e.g. MGD, High Life, Lite. Going more craft there is Founders Solid Gold (although the price on this went up and it's not as easy to find anymore, especially on the fresher end) and Sly Fox Reading Premium. PBR is decent too.

 

Not in any real order:
1) Old Style
2) Lenies
3) Schlitz
4) PBR
5) High Life
6) Grain Belt

I would add Point Special Lager but it is now 100% malt.

 

To me AAL beers are more about nostalgia really, more than taste. My granddad drank Pabst Blue Ribbon and would sometimes share one with me when I was in my teens if my grandmother was around. You'll always find a few in my fridge.

Growing up in Central Florida, drinking Busch was sort of a right of passage there. I'll always come back to it time to time as it brings back memories of good times and good friends.

My wife and I spent our honeymoon on Edisto Island, SC drinking Rolling Rock. I'll grab some every now and then.

I have a good friend who drinks nothing but Miller High Life (cans only). I've had some of the best conversations of my life sipping cans of cold Miller

I love and appreciate good craft beer as much as anyone, but for me beer appreciation is much more than just taste. Some of my favorite beers are those who were a part of some of the best times in my life even if they might not be my favorite taste wise.

 

Yuengling Lord Chesterfield most times of the year for me, but something about an ice cold Coors Light in the summer just hits right. Has to be out of a bottle, with the mountains blue as can be.

 

It's genius making an all malt beer taste like a 30% adjunct AAL. For my taste, a lot of all-malt craft brews lack the malt body I prefer -- possibly because of a high degree of attenuation. As an example: I first tasted Sierra Nevada Pale Ale in the 80s, and thought the body was too thin for me. I think my taste buds have shifted,and now I think the beer is just fine. (I'm echoing Gary Gillman at Beer Et Seq who has made generally similar comments.)

 

It works even if we don't count imports. Presidente in the US is brewed in the US.

Unlike others, I tend to dislike adjunct lager from Mexico and further south when compared to BMC. My preference for Presidente over most imports from that region just seems to confirm that preference in an unusual way.

 

Carib Lager. Honorable mention to Narrgansett.

 

Hamm's
PBR
High Life
Old Style
Schmidt
Schlitz

 

Ah, nope, all the PWP I had last year was imported … from Texas.

 

Beer Flavored Beer Olympics:

Gold: Hamm's
Silver: Coors Banquet
Bronze: Bud Heavy

 

The only two I can really palate these days are High Life and PBR. And I’m not trying to come off as pretentious at all, I’ve always hated Bud and just have a tough time going back to any of the other big AALs. Once you’ve had some really great traditionally brewed Lagers from some of the best, it’s hard to go back to what you were pumping from a keg in college lol.

 

Odd that Molson Coors (and maybe Miller and MillerCoors before that?) went with "EST'd 1903" since, to me, that implies the year the brewery was established, and Fred Miller started his brewery in 1855 (buying the existing the Plank Road brewery) and, more to the point, Miller is a brewing company that no longer exists.

"Released 1903" or even "Since 1903" for the brand Miller High Life seems to me to be the more accurate way to put it, but I could see some disagreement - I suppose one can "establish" a beer brand? There's really no industry standard for such things.

Pabst Blue Ribbon labels say "Established 1844" but that was the year the (Jacob) Best Brewing Co. was founded, renamed Pabst decades later, while the actual "Blue Ribbon" beer brand came later as Pabst Select and renamed (IIRC) by the late 1890s/early 1900s.

Jim Koch likes to use 1984 for Boston Beer Co./Samuel Adams but Boston Lager didn't hit the retail market until 1985.

 

Hah!

Then I can officially say that it's still not as good as what I had in the DR.

 

Agree with Founder's Solid Gold for the best AAL. Has hints of citrus and a creamy, drinkable malt profile.
Would pick Stella Artois for the best European import honorable mention. Nice delicate lemonflower notes from the Euro hops.

 

Limiting choices to surviving macro AALs:

Iron City (assuming it still tastes the way it did 20 years ago)
Schlitz
National Bohemian

Including resurrected brands:

Reading
Narragansett

 

I’m not sure Yuengling would meet the OP’s criteria as it’s not technically an AAL at least per BA styles, but…… if it is allowed that is 100% my answer. I’d no joke rather hve a Yuengling that most of the mediocre or below average IPA styles that are everywhere. In fact, if Im at a random bar and it has 1/2 dozen “local” IPA spectrum beers from breweries i’ve never heard of, I’ll order a Yuengling. I’ll take that odds on bet that the Yuengs will be better than the majority of those other beers.

If Yuengling doesn’t count and we’re strict BMC AAL Id probably go Coors Light cause it’s pretty benign. Although admittedly I can’t think of a reason where I’d volitionally choose to drink one of those BMC staples. I do think there’s a spot for some mexican lagers as I’ll dabble with a Corona every once in a while. And hell I’d even drink a dozen seltzers before I’d consider one Miller Lite or Bud Light.

 

Lots of ambiguity in brewery dates. Another example was Blitz Weinhard, who's bottles and cans stated "since 1856". Weinhard brewed in Vancouver (now in Washington, a Portland suburb) as an employee, then a partner, and finally moved to Portland (a short hop, to be sure) in the 1860s and bought out a partner. I guess he was making beer in the general vicinity since 1856. The 1856 was used in advertising as the establishment date of the brewery, and that's just not true.

 

Yuengling Beer is indeed an AAL. I last tasted it in the 70s and thought that it tasted a little like Bud then. Yuengling Lager is only a close cousin of an AAL.

 

Is Yuengling Premium distributed outside Pennsylvania? I've never seen it in Maryland.

 

Stroh's used/uses 1775 - the date that their ancestor supposedly started brewing in Germany.

 

There is one Old Style. The current beer has the classic lager packaging.

 

I'd have go with
Birra Moretti
Rolling Rock

 

Now, either PBR or Hamm's, they're both good and cheap. I would've said Keystone Ice if it was still around, for the same reasons.

 

I'd have to say PBR

 

I've been drinking quite a bit of Coors Banquet on draught lately and I do enjoy it.

Rainier packaged was probably my favourite, but I have not seen it in many months.

 

Not to sound like a dick, but how can you have an opinion on a beer that you could literally get nearly anywhere, anytime
yet you haven’t had it in nearly 50 years?

Yuengling tastes nothing like Bud to me. But regardless of our individual tastes I was more referring to the Beer Advocate styles which lists Yuengling as a “Lager- American Amber/Red”.

That being said I do assume that it has the typical “adjunct” ingredients we expect in an AAL, So for the sake of this discussion I could see it being both included or excluded.

 

I have many times in past threads advocated that Yuengling Traditional Lager is an AAAL (American Amber Adjunct Lager) which needless to say it not 'recognized' as a BA beer style. There is zero doubt that adjunct is used to brew this beer brand.

There are also other Yuengling brands that are AAL beers.

Cheers!

 

I am pretty sure he is referring to Yuengling Premium Beer:

https://www.yuengling.com/our-beer/premium/

I understand that it is 'popular' to only think that Yuengling = Yuengling Traditional Lager but the fact is Yuengling makes a number of other brands of beer.

Cheers!

 

Miller lite is my favorite. It taste great (that might an overstatement) and less filling. It’s only have 96 calories so when I am crushing a lot of them I don’t feel so bloated.

second is Miller high life then hamms.

 

Well yeah and Yuengling also makes Hershey’s Chocolate Porter and Lord Chesterfield Ale but when someone says Yuengling 99.99% of people are referring to the same beer: Yuengling Traditional Lager.

 

Two different beers. What Moodenba's referring to from the 1970s is these days called Yuengling Premium by the brewery- and it was and is a pretty standard Bud-like AAL. Today it has a very small distribution region*, compared to their now-flagship beer, Yuengling Traditional Lager, which was first brewed in the late 1980s. Before 1987, when people said "Yuengling Beer" they were talking about their standard AAL flagship beer.
See Yuengling's Beers

* PA, obviously, we get it in NJ (it's around $12-14 a case, last I looked) maybe NY and MD?

Also, you couldn't get Yuengling's beers "nearly anywhere, anytime" in the 1970s. They were a small 100k bbl. brewery and into the late 1980s, 50% of their sales were in 4 PA counties, and only 10% of their annual barrelage was shipped out of state.