OK, let my start the dissertation now ;D
I love beer, and I don't know how I'd live without beer... I depend beers on "easy ones" (lagers and dark beers - you can drink many of them, and it may cause some effect only if you drink six or more bottles in a row) and "hard ones" (white unfiltered ones, and "half-dark" beers - three and more won't make you down on the floor, of course, but life becomes better and girls grow prettier
). A great amount of beers is brewed here in Russia, and the exported ones are too expensive for the poor student's pocket. So, I'll write here the sorts that I drink.
Lagers. Since we have some good sorts of dark beer, I don't drink lagers. But I'll mention a few.
I see, that many guys here like
Zlaty Bazant - yes, it's brewed in Russia, and it's a good choice for drinking during a break in college - cheap, no smell and no effect. It has a specific flavor, and I used to be really fond of it. But the gold foil around the neck is very annoying.
One more good lager is
Velkopopovicky Kozel Svetly. Unfortunately, it became much worse now, and it lost its popularity.
Dark beers. Of course,
Kozel Cerny. It is brewed not for a long time, only for half of a year, and now it's very hard to find it, because of its popularity. The Very Best. It's really cheap, causes no effect, and has the best taste here.
The other one is
Guinness. They used to brew
Guinness Foreign Extra Stout here - it's a beer for third world countries, and it has a bitter taste - so, only the most br00tal guys (like me) loved it. Ah, yeah, and it was expensive. Three weeks ago, they replaced Foreign Extra with
Guinness Original Stout - it's much better. The best beer I've ever drunk is Guinness Draught, in the Irish pub - but it's the most expensive beer too, you can buy seven Kozels instead of one Guinness in a pub.
White unfiltered ones. The worst is
Baltika 8, it has a corn after-taste
- only when your pocket doesn't contain much paper.
Edelweiss used to be good - but, unfortunately, now it becomes worse and worse with every month.
Hoegaarden is very good - it contains orange peel and coriander, and because of that has an original taste. I think it's a best choice for drinking while in a melancholic mood. For example, i have a friend that listens mainly to depressive BM, and Hoegaarden is his favorite beer (he listens to Korpiklaani too, but always when he turns on any KK's album, he wants to drink - so he goes then to the food-mart, buys a pack of Hoegaarden and gets drunk).
"Half-dark ones" - these are the local beers, and they are not very good. For example, when I haven't got much money, I drink
Nevskoe Original - not perfect but it's a cheap choice. Also, I'd mention
Stariy Mel'nik ("The Old Millman"), it used to be good, but when I drinked it last time, a week ago, it was a total crap, and I had an epic stomach-ache, so i think I'll drink it nevermore.
When we go to a folk metal gig, we usually drink at my friend Robin's, and there is a mart near his house, where "live" unfiltered beer is sold - the "live" beer is very tasty and cheap, but it decayes in less than a week.
About
Redds and other crap... I never considered these drinks as a beer. Of course, these things (and other beers with "fruit", "icy" taste and so on) are very popular among the mainstream youth. But I've always thought that drinking this crap is gay.