>>>>>Beer truly is a drink of habit. The best beer is not the one that satisfies any criteria, it's the one that's always uniformly bad. Anything, just as long as it stays the same.
>>>>
>>>>Your time in the US seems to be making you very cynical.
>>>
>>>The "best beer is the one that's always equally bad" is from my roommate back home... :).
>>
>>Then the one my father in law likes must be best. I can't remember the name but its sweet and beer should not ever be sweet.
>
>When I worked in Manchester for several months it was on a team comprised of my company's English and U.S. employees. (Brits and Yanks together!) One of the U.S. guys had a father in law from Wisconsin who was unaccountably convinced Hamm's is the best beer in the world. Lord knows why because it is about the best example you could find of bad American assembly line beer. But Paul was a Hamm's fan, to the point of offering (read: insisting) to bring along a case when he came to visit in Manchester. My buddy Rob had mentioned that we had all found a nice local and Paul wanted to help the enterprise out with some Hamm's. I was there one night before the visit when Rob shared the happy news with Pete, the proprietor. "Hamm's, you say?" Pete said. "Never heard of it." Well, of course not. But he went along with the gag and put Hamm's on sale for the duration of Paul's visit, the stock limited to the case Paul carried from Wisconsin to Manchester. He had a laugh marking it up higher than any of the other beers and slapping a sign on the till saying something like "Imported Hamm's Beer, Limited Time Only!" Someone actually bought a can of it and Pete was in stitches for days afterward.

It could have been worse-he could have insisted on Old Milwaukee or Pabst Blue Ribbon... :o)