Nice commentary, and quote perceptive. I resonated to the comment about "...at a license-plates-on-the-wall kind of restaurant." Most of the places I ate while living in Texas fit that description. The ones that sell BBQ are pretty damn good.
I've always found PBR to be a decent, drinkable beer, and Coors is more than decent, it's just undistinguished. Never been a fan of Bud's taste.
I have never, nor will I ever, consider any beer with the words "Lite" or "Light" in the name, to be real beer. The best you can say about it is that someone's horse passed its test and they had to find something to do with the leftover sample.
But now that I'm living in beer snob heaven, I tend toward amber ales, porters and stouts, non of which are ever likely to show up in the "cheap" category.
The best thing I can say about most cheap beers is to paraphrase Victor McLaglen in "Fort Apache" when he said to the Colonel (Henry Fonda): "Well, 'tis better than no whiskey at all, sir."
The full and delightful exchange:
[in the storeroom at Meacham's trading post, the soldiers find boxes marked "Bibles" - Col. Thursday tells the men to open them - when they do, they find kegs of whiskey instead]
Sgt. Quincannon: Bibles, sir!
Lt. Col. Owen Thursday: [Col. Thursday hands a cup to Sgt. Mulcahy] Sergeant, pour me some scripture.
[Sgt. Mulcahy dips the cup into a keg and hands it to Col. Thursday. He takes a sip and spits it out]
Lt. Col. Owen Thursday: What's in this? Brimstone and sulfur?
Silas Meacham: You know what it is and I'm entitled to keep it.
Lt. Col. Owen Thursday: Your license may permit you to keep a medicinal store of whiskey, but this is no whiskey.
Silas Meacham: Perhaps you're not used to frontier whiskey.
Lt. Col. Owen Thursday: I don't know... I've tasted most everything.
[to Sgt. Mulcahy]
Lt. Col. Owen Thursday: Sergeant, you a judge of whiskey?
First Sgt. Festus Mulcahy: [looks around at the others] Uh, well, sir, some people say I am and some say I'm not, sir.
Lt. Col. Owen Thursday: [hands him the cup] Tell me what you make of this.
First Sgt. Festus Mulcahy: [takes a drink - makes a face at Meacham - takes another drink] Well, uh, it's better than no whiskey at all, sir.
