I've got to agree with Dave - New Belgium makes some spectacular beers, of which Fat Tire is the cash cow. But that's great, because it allows them to indulge the collective brewery muse and make some boutique beers with more limited commercial viability for the beergeeks. Best thing about Fat Tire is that it is widely available in draught, so you can get a really good beer at places (like Safeco Field) where you might otherwise be reduced to lesser beer just for the sake of having one.
But pmbuko, while I'd agree that Fat Tire and Black Butte are excellent examples of flavorful, consistent, bottled beers, I can't agree that they are better than the draught versions. Maybe your local pub needs to clean their lines or sell more of that product. Bottled beer is dead. Draught beer is alive. The vast majority of bottled beer is either pasteurized or has the yumminess filtered out of it so that it does not degrade due to the unpredictability of handling. Those beers that are on the lees (include live yeast in the bottle) are still subject to being light struck, nonrefrigerated or other horrors before you get them. Finally, I find that draught beer is healthier for me (many fewer headaches), which I attribute to the B vitamins in the yeast.
Bottles are great for portability and flexibility. Other than that, it's a fresh-food-vs.-canned-food issue to me.
My wife just shakes her head that I've hijacked a speaker thread into a beer thread. Obviously, I can't help myself.
