Drinking Culture USA
Across the country, bars and cocktail lounges are pretty true to their Cheers -celebrated popular image: long, dimly lit counters with a few customers perched on stools before a bartender-cum-guru, and tables and booths for those who don't want to join in the drunken bar-side debates. New York, Baltimore, Chicago, New Orleans and San Francisco are the consummate boozing towns, but, almost anywhere, men, at any rate, shouldn't have to search very hard for a comfortable place to drink.
To buy and consume alcohol in the US, you need to be 21, and could well be asked for ID even if you look much older. Utah, predominantly Mormon, has the most byzantine restrictions. Many other states prohibit selling alcohol on Sunday, during elections, or - in the case of many counties- at all, ever. The famous distilleries of Tennessee and Kentucky, including Jack Daniels, can be visited - though maddeningly, several are in "dry" counties so they don't offer samples. A few states - Vermont, Oklahoma, and, once more, Utah - restrict the alcohol content in beer to just 3.2 percent, half the usual strength. In more liberal areas, alcohol can be bought and drunk any time between 6am and 4am, seven days a week. (New Orleans is a law unto itself, with certain bars open 24 hours and a far from rigid policy on ID.)
Though for the most part American beer is limited to fizzy, light national brands like Budweiser, Miller and Coors, there are alternatives. On the east coast look for Boston-based Samuel Adams or New Amsterdam. The Texan brand Lone Star has its dedicated followers, as do Pete's Wicked Ales in Minnesota. In California, the full-bodied, San Francisco-brewed Anchor Steam beer is available all over, while the rarer Red Sail Ale is among the finest brews in the country.
Of special interest to travelers are microbreweries and brewpubs , originating in the West but now found in virtually every sizable US city and college town, in which you can drink excellent beers, brewed on the premises and often not available anywhere else. These are usually friendly and welcoming places, and almost all serve a wide range of good-value, hearty food to help soak up the drink.
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