I can confirm that German beer is quite nice, however, real ale doesn't seem to be available where I live at all. They've got Guiness in the supermarkets and "beverage shops" (no liquor stores here in the American sense) and no store specializing in rare and imported beers or ales, as far as I know. I've bought Guiness a couple of times, but there are better beers here that cost less, so I don't think it's worth it. There's also Kilkenny, which I think is a lager, but I haven't seen any other British or Irish beers or ales at the stores I go to, which have a large selection.

After not drinking any alcohol at all for quite awhile, I've been trying the different beers and am quite interested in brewing, real ale, etc. I was actually thinking of starting a thread about it, if I could have thought of anything sensible to say on the subject.

I particularly like dark and "black" beers ("Schwarzbier"). Einbecker is quite nice and the brewery (in Einbeck) is not far from where I live. It is very old and notable for being mentioned in "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks": he threw a dog into the vat where the beer was being brewed. Till Eulenspiegel's pranks were mostly sadistic rather than merry. They make a nice alcohol-free beer. Mostly, non-alcoholic beer is pretty uninspiring.