@Eco @Dr. Gonzo
There is literally nothing wrong with Budweiser or Coors. They aren't anything fancy and don't try to be. For a low price point they are a fine beer to drink, though I don't pretend I'm drinking artisan products. I often have cheap lagers around to drink as a palate cleanser, the clean and simple taste of Blue Labatt or Pabst Blue Ribbon goes a long way and makes me appreciate more complex flavours.
Sadly Gonzo, San Diego isn't the beer Mecca... because Chicago is. Here we have the highest concentration of breweries per square-mile and we also have the most breweries in any American metropolitan area, and that is a fact I read in the Chicago Tribune. Granted, I still feel most breweries make a mediocre and derivative product at a high price point but it's nice to have variety. So I suppose San Diego could have a better selection of local brews but definitely Chicago has the country beat on quantity and choice. I have had many, many, many local brews, so many I cannot remember most; but the two that seem to stick out for constant quality is Pipeworks Brewing and Hop Butcher For The World. So if you are ever in the Chicago area, I'd reccomend find something by those two, although the latter is very difficult to find.
The issue I have with most breweries is the culture of having the 'most XY'. By that I mean a brewery wants to have the 'most sour ale' or the 'hoppiest IPA', rather than having a balanced and complex product they often just double down on one core flavour which for me just makes for terrible drinking. Or oddly enough, they create a product that is less refined than it's counterparts, American hefeweizens, dubbels, trippels, whits, ad nauseam are often a lot easier on the palate, and it's usually a disappointing experience.
However I will put money down that the best craft brewery in the world isn't American at all. It's Canadian, and French-Canadian at that. Unibroue out of Montreal creates beers in the trappist and Belgian style. These beers are phenomenal and it's sacrilege to say but Unibroue rivals and often beats some of the best beers coming out of Belgium; beers that have hundreds of years to be perfected.
I don't mind an IPA. They are feast of famine, I don't have a preference on it's hop level as long as it is balanced.
I dislike sours in general save for the Leipzig Gose and Flemish Red. Very inconsistent.
Dubbels. trippels, blondes and so many other Belgians are phenomenal.
Hefeweizens, Marzens, Bocks, Dunkels, out of German have my heart.
Lagers never get old even though they are kinda bad, haha.
As far as English style beers go, the Bitter, Pale Ale, etc they are under appreciated and under-brewed. The Australian brewery Coopers makes fantastic Ales and I'd reccomend anyone drink Coopers if visiting Australia.