What's your favorite stout or any beer?

I'm just recovering from flu and this topic comes up - I couldn't face any beer the way I feel at the moment.Anyway here goes -
Stouts - Sam Smiths, Guinness and GillespiesAles - Tim. Taylor's Landlord, Green King Abbot Ale, Caledonian IPA and 80 Shilling, Pendle Witches brew, a local brewer, Marble, produce a ginger flavoured ale and a personal favourite, a small brewery in Plymouth called the Sutton Brewery and I pretty much like all they brewLagers - Loads of Czech lagers, Gambrinus, Radegast, Staropramen, Pilsner Urquell - you can also get dark lagers , Krusowicz (spelling?) sticks in my mindI also like several beers of the Porter variety, I even had a Porter in San Francisco brewed by the Thirsty Bear brewing company, very nice, malty and chocolateyThe problem with anything like this is that the occasion and the taste become mixed up and a memorable gig, pub or outside setting can affect your memory of a beer. I have fond memories of Damm Estrella in Barcelona, sitting in Parc Guell overlooking the whole of the city. Now I know that the beer is fine, but somehow less than the nectar I taste in my memory (it was my honeymoon).Another problem especially here in the UK is cask-conditioned beers. This means that any given ale on any given day in any given pub can be anything from perfect to drain cleaner. Don't get me wrong, cask is better than keg but it can lead to major disappointments if the landlord or cellerman does not know what they are doing. This leads to surprises the other way. While at university I had to go to the Post Office depot to pick up a parcel, but when I got there the van hadn't returned and could we come back later. The depot was out in the middle of a major industrial park and it looked like there was nothing to do. Then I spotted a working mans club and went inside for a beer - it was a warm day and I'd walked 2-3 miles. The beer was Tetleys, a standard bitter beer from Leeds, well known to me as just that, a standard beer. Well, as you can already tell as I'm telling this story nearly 20 years later, the beer was a revelation. If I could reproduce just one pint it would be that one. (although any of the next 6 would also work). It was the combination of a fine conditioned beer looked after by the cellerman.One final thing - fruit beers - euurggghhh.

Stout on tap - Sam Smiths stout in the UK - not as rich as Guinness but more sharp, bitter and cleansing on the palate. And usually considerably cheaper. If Modulus reads this - try a pint in Sinclairs. 1.60. Wow!(for Manchester anyway).As for Guinness have you had the 8% abv Guinness export (bottled only) - makes you rethink stout!!!

I am a self confessed beer drinker. Not wine, not spirits, not cider or perry just beer.I really do not like wine. It's an odd thing. As a wine drinker it seems a valid position to say 'I do not like beer' and all is well. But dare you say, as a beer drinker, 'I do not like wine' you get the response, 'well you have not had a good one' or 'try this XXXXXXXX'. Well I have tried xxxxxx, and I certainly have tried 'a good one', but they all taste like vinegar. Seriously.Beer drinkers have as much legitimacy as wine drinkers have. I would advocate that in the case of cask-conditioned beers and bottle-conditioned beers more so as we are drinking a 'live' product that ages and brews as time goes on. Yet, because the beer drinkers belong , on the whole, to a lower socio-economic class we get the snobby response that our favourite tipple has less importance or validity. Well all I can say to wine-drinkers who do not like beer - 'it's because you have not had a good beer', not, beer is not good.PS Modulus - try the Marble beer house in Chorlton or on Deansgate(opposite the Atlas Bar) - have a Ginger Marble. God may exist after all.