I share your bafflement in Stella Budweiser. How could a country that produces so many great beers produce Stella Budweiser? It's inexplicable.

Not sure what I currently have at home, it is a 12 pack imported from I think Germany of hefeweizen. But I was in a rush and the price of ~$13 made the decision easy.

I like some of the Sam Adam seasonal stuff, but my brother-in-law (the foodie one) commented that all the Sam's stuff is the same with just minor tweaks here and there. Given the little bit of brewing I have done, this is very possible true.

In New England we are pretty spoiled for breweries, some of the local brews I really like are:
Smuttynose Winter Ale - Portsmouth NH
Anything by Alagash who do great Belgian-style beers - Portland ME
I drank a few growlers of Berkshire Ale from the other BBC while doing the siding on my house (single store, I'm not completely stupid!).

One really disappointing bear that comes to mind is the Blue Moon Winter, the regular brew is great, but the winter crap has like a caramel syrup added in. Ugh

I've never been into spirits, which is unfortunate as we name hte firmware releases after single malt scotches and have a stocked bar for the occasional sampling session.