I've ordered a lot of Amberbock, sold a lot of Amberbock but I will NEVER try one. Just because I hate the name.

I just found out that the liquor store down the street sells cases of bottled Henry Weinhard's Private Reserve for seven bucks. It's the two-buck Chuck of beer: Not fantastic, but certainly drinkable and superior to the other cheap stuff.

You know, I don't even know what's in a 4 Corners. It could be Visine and Nyquil for all I know. I've learned my lesson to not just drink whatever is handed to me though.

OK, now it's my turn! What do y'all call Jager + Rumplemintz? Around here it's called a chipmunk, and it's really, really gross. Well, I guess it'd be gross anywhere, no matter what it was called.

Does anyone else vary what they drink according to seasons? I can pretty much drink beer year 'round, but if I want a liquor drink in the winter it's got to be whiskey and soda or a liqueur like Grand Marnier, while in the spring/summer I want something with vodka and fruit juice, or a G&T.

Booze needs no season, but Long Island Iced Teas are just the ticket in the summer evenings after mowing the lawn. And Scarlette O'Haras, Southern Comfort and Cranberry Juice, are great for piling up on the couch and watching movies with in the winter. Beer and Zima, Yes. I said Zima, are year round.

A booze thread! How could I have missed it?

The other day I was suggesting "girlie shots" to a friend, and I said that an Oatmeal Cookie was the best to do if you can't stomach alcohol-tasting-alcohol. She asked me what was in it, and I can't for the life of me remember. I think it involves Jager and Bailey's, but I can't be sure. Does anyone else know?

As far as martinis go, I make these blue martinis at home (blue curacao, sweet and sour, and vodka) which I can drink by the truckload, but whenever I go to a bar I'm never sure what to call it (when requesting one.)

Grand Marnier, Baileys and ButterShots are the way we always did them. Also good is the chocolate cake shot, which is Frangelico and vodka, sucking on a sugar lemon after doing the shot.

Alas, I'm just a straight vodka and tonic person. I try the other drinks, and if I'm in a fluffy LA kind of bar I'll try their specialty drinks which are usually pretty damn good (most recent one involved vodka and Chambord but I forgot the third non-alcoholic ingredient) but other than that, I'm sticking with Stella Artois now that she's taken over LA.

I don't generally drink according to season, but nothing beats an ice cold Corona when it's hot outside. Mmmm, Corona. Only eight more months until summer!

Right now I'm in a big red wine phase. It used to give me the worst hangover in the world, but apparently I've built up my tolerance enough that it doesn't bother me at all anymore. I don't know if that's good or bad. Plus, there's all this fun and interesting stuff to learn about wine, so that's exciting, too.

Since this is a new thread, and a.j. brought up the red wine, I'll share my cheap and easy sangria recipe that never fails to please.

2 bottles of red wine, chianti is my preferred type
1 c. Southern Comfort
sliced fruit (at least one apple and one orange for "tradition" but peaches and strawberries are more absorbent)
1 l. bottle of ginger ale

Mix the wine, Southern Comfort and fruit and chill overnight. Right before serving add the ginger ale. Eat fruit sparingly.

A heavier red wine works best because the sweetness of the fruit, SoCo and ginger ale lighten it up. And the combination is ridiculously tasty.

MMMM, that sounds good GB. And, in my case, it also sounds like a puke-fest waiting to happen. WAY to easy to over indulge.

I'm an equal opportunity alcohol drinker, regardless of season, but all alcohol doesn't love me equally. I've definitely switched favorites over time (currently I drink two, maybe three pints and I'm out -- I've become a weakling in my old age). Back in my youth, there wasn't a shot I couldn't do (cement mixer included -- which, what is this disgusting concoction anyway? Midori and like Bailey's or something?), but now - uh no. I hit 24 and I hit some kind of wall where I'd throw a shot back, and immediately afterwards I couldn't speak and I'd have to take slow, deep breaths for the next minute or so to make sure the shot stayed down. Yeah. No more shots for me.

And while I love red wine, egads, does red wine hate me. I've never had worse hangovers than I've had from red wine. Plus the stained teeth thing. Blech. If I have it, I have one glass and that's it. Although I do allow exceptions for sangria, but it has to be really good sangria because the risk of the truly torturous hangover? Just not worth it.

Vodka used to be my drink of choice. Martinis (filthy, like, just give me olive juice already), vodka tonics, and even those silly girly vodka-sweet drinks. But recently, I've steered clear from vodka because I find it unpredictable -- sometimes it makes me fun and social and others? I'll be one drink in and I'm off my head, begging to do karaoke. Yeah, it isn't pretty.

So these days if I go hard, I go tequila because hot damn, there's nothing better than a huge, fat, salted, super unhealthy on the rocks margarita. Margaritas = true love.

And least favorite? Aside from shots that are designed to make you throw up? Mint juleps and mojitos. Not a fan of chewing the drink. Not at all.

Juxta, my favorite margarita recipe is

1 cup tequila
1 cup triple sec
2 cups sugar water (1 cup water dissolved in 1 cup of sugar in the microwave)
a couple of those bottles of lime juice (I can never remember the exact amount of lime juice)

stir and serve over ice.

From the Barefoot Contessa
1 lime, halved
Kosher salt
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (5 limes)
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (1 lemon)
1 cup Triple Sec
3 cups ice
1 cup white tequila

If you like margaritas served in a glass with salt, rub the outside rims of six glasses with a cut lime and dip each glass lightly into a plate of kosher salt.
Combine the lime juice, lemon juice, Triple Sec, and ice in a blender and puree until completely blended. Add the tequila and puree for 2 seconds more. Serve over ice.

If you prefer frozen margaritas, halve each of the ingredients, double the ice, and blend in two batches. Serve with a cut lime.

Ina says use the cheap Tequilla. Just be carefull, you will wake up somewhere. If you're lucky, it will be the lounge chair on your own porch.

The pumpkin martini was pretty good, and the flavored vodka looks really cool in a decanter. I haven't had a drink with Amaretto in probably 20 years (for reasons best left undiscussed) so it was time to get back on that horse.

I don't drink but I always think winter is for Irish coffee and hot toddies. The toddies sound so proper and la dee dah. Mint juleps are for the summer while sitting on the porch fanning yourself. Beer I always associate with sports and the 4th of July and any cook outs. Champagne is for New Years, Valentine Day and any special occasion.
Hard Cider for the fall. In my family wine was year round as you drink it with meals, I think they drank different kinds but I don't think it had to do with the time of year but with the type of food.

A question for pinruT and other Bud drinkers out there: Why? (Not intended in any sort of yanking-chains sort of way, though, as you'll see in a moment.)

I'm not a huge fan of mass-market American-style lagers in the first place, but there are times when nothing's more refreshing than throwing back a cold 12oz can of the wateriest piss you can find. My own guilty pleasure in this regard is Miller Lite. It's the wettest of wet air, but it's almost wholly inoffensive: It retains a vague but unmistakeable beer-like flavor, goes down remarkable easily when chilled, and has no offensive characteristics that I've ever been able to detect. Plus, if I'm not mistaken, Miller seems to have debuted the wide-mouth beer can, surely one of the seminal inventions of the 20th century.

But everywhere I turn, it looks like Anheuser-Busch is stomping poor Miller into the dirt. Costco doesn't even carry Miller products, although it usually has two or three different varieties of Bud, and out here on the Left Coast it's harder than it seems it should be to find the cheapest 30-can cases of Miller Lite at supermarkets and liquor wholesalers like BevMo.

All of which would probably lead me to switch my crap-beer preference were it not for the fact that I can't stand the equally taste-challenged alternatives. Bud Lite always seems to have an odd metallic aftertaste, and Coors Lite comes off as slightly but bizarrely sweet to me. So I've always wondered what it is that attracts people to Bud. Is it the Clydesdales? The beer of the fathers becoming the beer of the sons? (I'm guilty of that myself.) Did A-B manage to leverage a slight edge over other brands into a massive lead with massive marketing and distribution control?

Or does Bud just taste better to people who care about such things? It's hard for me to believe, but maybe I'm just a taste-challenged mutant.

I think it was the great Clydesdales Campaign. Best beer jingle ever. But, I don't think even JayZ and Danika Patrick are going to make Bud Select a hit. I saw whole cases of the stuff on sale at the local gas and go for $6.99.

I grew up where almost the only thing ever served was Coors. Every freaking bar had Coors. I can't stand that taste, and I am from the Rocky Mountains. Anyway, after a while, a few bars started serving Bud. I haven't had Bud Light, so I can't comment on that, but, given a choice between Bud and Coors, I would pick Bud everytime. Stronger taste, and (to me) far preferable. (In pricier beers, I prefer porter or stout, so maybe that's why?)

Miller was always the "cheap" beer, similar to Coors in taste, so I never really bought it, although old cowboys often drank it. I thought it was more for the price, but who knows? Maybe it was for the taste after all.

Yeah, Coors is BLAH! Coors Light is ok, but I prefer a stronger tasting beer. Ever try Red Stripe Beer? Good stuff.

My Bud preference is very similar to what you described EssPee, my first sip of the evil nectar was provided by my older brother, he was 22, I about 16. I'm pretty sure it was Budweiser. My buddies and I in H.S. supped the lower ranks of A-B, Busch and Natural Light (pre-Busch lite), kinda outta stupidity and poverty. Then in college the local beer distributer in the small town only carried A-B, so all bars (two in town) and keggers involved Bud/Bud Light.

In my adult years, I almost always choose a darker lager if given a choice, but like you describe there is nothing like an ice cold can of horse piss after a day of sweaty work/play. I used to rank my all time greatest beer experiences, and they usually involved guzzling after a round of golf.

Of the big 3 American brewers, Coors wasn't even available where and when I grew up, Smokey and the Bandit was based on truth. And Miller products, for some reason, were a little lower on the food chain in my neck of the woods. The image of a redneck sucking on a clear bottle of Miller High Life tainted the Great Taste/Less Filling ads for me.

A-B is preference only by opportunity and history, nothing to do with taste.

I alternate between Bud Light and Miller Light, both of which taste pretty much the same to me. I just go with what my local package store has in stock. My husband drinks PBR, which I think tastes vile. It's kind of sweet and metallic at the same time, even in the bottle. Yuck.

I am resisting the urge to insert a photo of Dennis Hopper here.

Aw, why let Mike-El, TVJ and JDF have all the fun? Go for it!

Hmm, easier said than done, because I couldn't actually FIND a photo of Frank with his PBR. I guess I'd better leave this sort of thing to the professionals!

I went looking for your elusive Hopper picture and stumbled onto this page (NSFW=Not Safe for Work)

Dennis Hopper: Madman of the Decade

Uh, is he opening a beer in that bathtub? In any case this post still manages to be on-topic due to this statement: "During this time the documentary THE AMERICAN DREAMER 1971 was made showing Dennis toting a machine gun, frolicking with numerous groupies, and acting supremely wasted." (emphasis theirs. Looks like a fun '70s Site.)

Also a deli near my house serves up 24-oz. bottles of Beck's Dark for two bucks.

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"Water, water everywhere... and I'll be drinkin' Black Spot Ale! It's the only ale that goes down smooth with pillagin'. And for ye who have already been laid low by scurvy, a new lime flavor. Arrrrr."

And not far away, Costner knocks back another shot of his own homemade brew.

Thanks for the responses, everyone. I don't know that I'd have ever guessed at a class aspect to the choice between Bud and Miller -- I didn't start my beer-drinking career in earnest until I moved north to go to school, so I had no first-hand experience of this sort of thing. Even weirder is that Bud would be the classier choice, although that's only strange in hindsight.

I'd also totally forgotten that the three major piss-beer brands weren't always available everywhere in the U.S. Times truly have changed.

I'm struggling to remember what my parents drank before they got hooked on Miller Lite. I vaguely remember Stroh's being around the house. Maybe Old Milwaukee on a few occasions. But I'm delving pretty deep into pre-history, as I think they cottoned to Miller Lite almost as soon as it came out.

For my part, I'm a pretty dedicated pale-ale and IPA drinker myself, having come of beer-drinking age just as the microbrew revolution was getting started. That's no slur at all on the legions of wonderful lagers, ales, stouts, porters, etc. that all still need drinking. Hell, I even managed to develop a taste for warm, flat English ales (or "real beer," as our British friends insist on calling it) during a recent trip to London. I still have one now and then at a local brewpub that serves several of its beers hand-pumped from a cask, although as a rule I still prefer beers properly carbonated and refrigerated. Whew, I'm still American.

How could this group of people let a booze thread just lie around for a month? Let's get to it. That is, if you're not all lolling in bed with hangovers.

I am a dedicated Yuengling Lager drinker. When we moved from PA to NC it was a shock to us that you had to actually ask for a Yuengling. We'd ask for a lager and the bartender would ask what kind. In PA, all you have to ask for is a lager, and they put a Yuengling in front of you.
I'm not much for girly drinks, but I love a B-53 on occasion. It has Frangelica instead of Amaretto on the top. One is my limit. OK, two. OK, three if I'm out with my sister.
I love me some tequila, but am not allowed to drink it anymore. My husband is not a bossy man, but after I had three shots in a row and four of his friends saw me naked (hey, they walked in on me.), he suggested it was a good idea not to indulge anymore.
I consider only gin and vermouth or vodka and vermouth a martini. Anything else is just a drink with vodka in it. If I were a complete purist, I'd even be appalled by vodka and vermouth being called a martini, but it's just easier to order an Absolut or Ketel One martini than go into a diatribe to the bartender.