Battle of the Beers

We tasted 20 affordable North American lagers to find the best ones to buy now.

- Dylan Garret

FOR GENERATIONS OF AMERICANS, lagers were synonymous with beer. Major brands like Coors, Budweiser, Busch, and Miller built empires based on easy-drinking, adjunct-packed lagers (those that include additional non-malt fermentable ingredients such as corn, rice, or wheat for clarity or taste). And though the modern era has brought us the resurgence of IPAs, doppelbocks, Belgian-style ales, and so on, most of the best-selling beers in the world are still macrobrewed lagers.

Beer fans tend to stick to a favorite brand—it’s rare to hear someone who usually drinks Budweiser say, “I think I’m actually in the mood for a PBR tonight instead.” But with so much similarity between mass-market brews, can most people really pick their favorite lager out of a lineup? To put it to the test, we sampled 20 top-selling North American lagers, rating them sight unseen, to see which would truly be crowned best. (Visit foodandwine.com/lagertest for the full ranking.)

BEST OVERALL

BROOKLYN BREWERY

BROOKLYN LAGER