Americans are big beer drinkers, and beer isn’t only a drink there but an entire experience, a tradition.
There’s no Super Bowl without beer, nor a backyard housewarming party where beer is not the star, hand in hand with the mandatory burgers.
Beer, or the people’s drink, is one of the most popular drinks worldwide. There is no occasion where beer doesn’t fit.
From barbecues to parties to clubbing, bar-hopping, or a peaceful evening at home, it has been a faithful companion.
There is a unique charm about beer that no other alcohol has. Maybe it is the fact that you can drink substantially without getting drunk, or maybe because it goes great with food. No matter the reason, people love beer, and beer loves people.
Sold and made worldwide, you can find many types of beer, mass-produced and small-batch craft beers from small breweries, so you have an endless sea of opportunities everywhere in the world.
The best thing is you don’t have to empty your wallet to have good beer, as it is the case with other alcoholic beverages. Affordable, available, and attainable, beer has made a name as the humble drink that rises up to any occasion.
Top 30 Cheap Beers in America
America has a huge beer selection, both imported and homemade. You can find pilsners, lagers, light, dark; you name it.
In this article, I will give you a list of the best cheap beers in America, so you can treat yourself to a nice beer without running the tab too much.
1. Pabst Blue Ribbon
Made of malted barley, cereal grains, and American and European hops, Pabst Blue Ribbon is fermented with the brand’s proprietary lager yeast.
A little heavy at first, this beer is totally worth getting over the temporary heaviness, as it gets sweet and very well-balanced.
It is a smooth, full-bodied beer with a clean flavor and excellent finish, lingering long after it’s gone. It goes exceptionally well with pretzels and other dry snacks.
2. Keystone Light
This an American light lager beer, and it is an excellent option for a light hang-out with friends and an easy conversation.
Its taste is clean, clearly defined, and incredibly smooth, almost creamy. It works best in an intimate atmosphere with close friends, indoors or outdoors.
3. Natural Ice
Although beer is known for other things, and not smoothness and refinement, these are the very traits that mark the Natural Ice beer.
This beer is characterized as being particularly refreshing, smooth, and clean-tasting. It has a natural dimension and slightly herbal-tasting notes.
Brewed with a blend of American-grown and imported hops and malt and corn combined, Natural Ice is very sweet and unusually delicate.
4. Genesee Beer
With a long-lasting tradition of over 140 years, the Genesee, or known as Genny beer, has been warming the hearts of many Americans. It is a German recipe lager expressively bitter and zingy.
It is clear with a noticeable floral aroma, mashing excellent with the typical beer bitterness, creating a resulting well-balanced flavor.
5. Stroh’s American Lager
Made from a family recipe and turned into a family business, this is a full-bodied beer that honors the Stroh family’s brewing tradition.
It is brewed in Milwaukee and is an all-American beer using American-grown Galena and Cascade hops. This is an American Lager offering excellence in taste.
The bitterness and sweetness are perfectly balanced with the rich froth of the beer, making it a favorite among American beer drinkers.
6. Milwaukee’s Best Premium
The Milwaukee’s Best Premium really is the best premium. It is a refreshing, smooth, and very easily drinkable ice lager.
It doesn’t cause any bloating or heaviness, usually typical for beer, and it is pretty light in terms of alcohol content. Getting drunk on it is very unlikely, and even if you do, the hangover won’t be as bad.
7. Rainier Beer
Ranier is a rich-tasting American-style lager with a consistency thicker than that of most beers, and we have the golden barley to thank for that.
Slowly brewed, this beer is smooth and very flavorful. It has a noticeable grainy flavor, and it could be a bit heavy because it contains yeast. Nevertheless, it is most definitely worth your while.
It is a smooth and frothy beer best served very cold.
8. Extra Gold Lager
The name says it all, as it really is extra, and it really is golden. Extra Gold Lager is a very rich, full-bodied lager beer with a deep golden color. It is made by slow aging of the roasted malts, which are then slow-brewed to make this premium lager.
The slow making process is the one deserving of every praise as, during this time, the raw material has enough space to be processed without any rushing of any procedure. The result is a well-balanced, full-flavored, and smooth beer.
9. Busch Light
Busch Light Beer is a light American with a classic textbook beer taste. This lager beer combines American-grown hops as well as barley malt, grains, and high-quality water for an exceptionally well-balanced flavor.
Also, this is a low-calorie beer, meaning that it doesn’t cause any heaviness or stomach issues as many beers do. It is smooth and delightfully frothy, delivering an excellent beer experience.
This is another family business honoring and upholding the family beer-making tradition. It has a history old over 150 years, during which they have perfected the art of brewing, creating a crisp and clean beer, easy to drink, has a well-rounded flavor, and is a fantastic companion to seafood and spicy meals.
It also goes with other dishes, but the more intense-flavored ones are its specialty. It is known as a very natural drink, containing no additives such as flavorings and colorants, often found in cheap beers.
10. Rolling Rock
The Rolling Rock beer isn’t exactly what you would call a premium brand. Still, it will take you where you need to go if you are inclined more toward the mellow side and like the milder things in life.
It is very light in color as well as alcohol content, and many would say that it tastes like carbonated water. It is made of rice and corn, so it is slightly sweet while exhibiting a whiff of the classic beer bitterness.
11. Hamm’s Beer
If we’re talking about character, this beer definitely has it. It has noticeable, although subtle, hop notes somewhere between bitter and floral alongside the typical bitter-sour-sweet side. However, due to the high barley amounts, this beer isn’t to be had too often, but only in friendly sessions.
12. Budweiser
Budweiser is a world-known American-style beer. It is brewed with barley malt, a mixture of hop varieties, rice, and high-quality water.
This beer is clear, clean, crisp, and exceptionally flavourful. It is low in calories and has zero fats, so it does a great job if you are watching your weight.
13. Coors Banquet
Coors Banquet Beer is a classic American lager, textbook flavored, and gives you precisely what you bargained for. It is noticeably sweet with expressive fruity notes.
Neither of the flavors dominates the beer, nor does it overwhelm it, but they are excellently balanced into a single flavor unit. It hints at grain, corn, and banana-bread notes, making this beer unique and a subtype in itself.
14. Narragansett Lager
The Narragansett lager is a sweet beer sweet made with a malt base. The slow brewing process creates balance among the flavors, letting the bitter and the sweet step into their own spotlight.
This is a light beer, both in taste and alcohol content, and it is the perfect addition to a friendly and intimate get-together.
15. Miller High Life
Miller High Life Beer is a crisp American Lager. Fresh, clean, and slightly sweet, it is balanced by the typical beer bitterness.
It has a medium body and somewhat of an understated citrus-ginger freshness. This is an easily drinkable beer, not heavy at all and light in terms of alcohol content.
16. Yuengling Premium
Yuengling Premium is a gold-colored pilsner with a crisp and clean finish. It is well-balanced all around, combining sweetness, bitterness, and freshness. It is a little intense near the end, as all the flavors seem to intensify near the end of the sip.
17. Session Lager
This is a very aromatic beer, with notes of perfume, light dough, and cracker whiffs; the taste combines green apple, caramel, crackers, and floral notes. It is expressively flavorful and not classical but quite different and new. It is slightly grainy with hints of yeast.
18. Honey Brown Lager
This is an openly sweet and honey-flavored beer. It also includes a certain nuttiness and caramel. It is unusual for a beer to taste so much so as to resemble a dessert, but this is just what this beer tastes like.
19. Schlitz
With a long-lasting tradition going strong since 1849, the Schlitz beer has set the standards for an evergreen beer. Sweet, crisp, and light, this is a light and gentle beer.
Since it was initially produced until this day, the Schlitz beer has become a pillar of American brewing, and a yardstick upon the rest of the beers in its category are measured.
20. Lone Star Beer
The beer has Texas written all over it. It is crisp and refreshing with a very particular and recognizable sweetness mixed with spicy, floral, and citrus notes.
Meant to be drunk in a cozy bar, home atmosphere, or a beach on sunset; if you want to party, this beer isn’t the one for you. On the other hand, if you are looking for what this beer has to offer, you are in for a treat.
21. Blue Moon
A mysterious and a unique beer, wheat brewed and citrus-flavored, the name does suit the drink, as it really is rare as the blue moon. This beer and seafood are a match made in heaven, as they go indescribably well together. Flavored with orange peels, it tastes bitter and sweet at the same time, and it is amazingly refreshing.
22. Alaskan Amber Ale
Flavorful, spicy, earthy, and fruity, this beer is one of the most playful ones on this list. It is explorative and exciting, worthy of your time and money.
It even resembles whiskey, taste-wise. It is smooth and frothy with fine bubbles that go as far as tickling the tongue but don’t create any unpleasantness on the throat as many beers do.
23. Shiner Bock
More than a century old, gradually perfecting the craft, this full-bodied beer characterizes by a clean-cur definitive flavor.
Even though its precision deprives you of exploring it, this is a highly satisfying and flavorful beer. It is deep and rich, bitter and exceptionally smooth.
24. Michelob Ultra Pure Gold
This is a light lager with zero carbs and fat. It is full-flavored, exquisitely bitter, and very well-rounded. The brand takes pride in producing a 100% organic beer with no additives such as colorings or flavorings.
25. Leinenkugel’s Original Beer
Old a hundred and fifty years, this is a classic American pilsner. Perfectly playing and juggling the pilsner category features, this beer is definitely one of America’s favorites. It is light, bright, and easily drinkable.
26. Dale’s Pale Ale
Known as the beer, you can take it anywhere; this beer comes in cans only. The aluminum keeps the beer fresh, so it is always zingy and ready for action.
Many love it because it is well-carbonated, tickling the throat and the tongue. Mildly bitter and mildly sweet, this beer is so perfectly balanced that you can quickly feel the bitterness and sweetness separately but also as a fully-rounded flavor union.
27. Michelob Amber Bock
This is a German-style beer, meaning you cannot mess with it. It is strong, assertive, delicious, and expressive.
It is known as “the honest beer” as it says just what is on its mind. Don’t be hasty with it, as it requires attention. It works best when combined with greasy food, such as BBQ or another meaty delicacy.
28. Samuel Adams Boston Lager
Rich, toasty, bready malt aroma with a hint of caramel and a whiff of discrete floral notes; when describing this beer, it feels like describing whiskey.
And it does resemble whiskey when you taste it, especially since it has notes of toffee and biscuits. However, it is sharp, clean, and bitter, with hints of cracker notes.
29. Miller Lite
This is a good but very mild beer. Drinking it blindfolded, you can feel that you are drinking beer, but that would be it. So, between “beer” and “not beer,” you would know what you are having, but you wouldn’t be able to say anything more than that.
However, it made its way on this list because it allows for a lot of combinations, creating a very good time for you.
30. Trader Joe’s Simpler Times Lager
What Brand Of Beer Is The Cheapest?
You don’t have to be luck-stricken to find a cheap beer in America. Americans are a nation of beer drinkers, so they have countless breweries and a sea of beer to choose from.
Luckily, cheap beer doesn’t mean bad beer, so you can find a cheap beer that is not only good but great. Pabst Blue Ribbon, Natural Ice, Miller Lite, Michelob Amber Bock, Hamm’s Beer, Lone Star Beer, Milwaukee’s Best Ice, and Miller High Life are just some of the excellent and cheap beers in America.
The only thing you need to decide is what kind of beer you want to drink. Pilsner, lager, light, dark, grainy, yeast-flavored, you name it, they have it.
Each type of beer comes in different budgets, so you can choose which one is best suited for you and enjoy the one that matches your taste, as well as your pocket.
Why Is Bud Ice So Cheap?
Bud Ice is an ice beer, which is a separate, individual beer style. Ice beer undergoes fractional freezing during production to a certain degree. The brands selling ide beer, such as Bud Ice, are generally higher in alcohol content and are cheaper because of that.
It is a misleading notion that ice beers, such as Bud Ice, are less good than the rest of them, and it is believed that they have lower prices as a marketing strategy to sell more beers rather than a reflection of the quality of the beers in themselves.
What Is Ice Beer?
Ice beer is a dark lager. Dark lagers are brewed at low temperatures with some amount of corn or rice to lighten the flavor tones.
Ice beers are frozen to some extent; then, the ice is removed during their production process. The freezing reduces the water content of the beer, creating a stronger drink.
Ice beers have a more concentrated, almost thick flavor and aroma and are, therefore, more flavorful products.
Where Is It Cheapest to Buy Beer In The World?
The cheapest beer in the world is in Vietnam. It costs only $0.43. Since beer is made of grains, the raw material is abundant in Vietnam, so they can afford to sell beer for a very low price, as they can make a lot of it.
Also, the standard of living in Vietnam is low, so the prices of everything are pretty low. However, what they have the most, is sold the cheapest, as they can make a lot of whichever product and still make a profit even at low prices.
Resources:
- https://www.ratebeer.com/Ratings/TheWorstBeers.asp
