Oh man, can't believe I missed this thread before. I love good beer and wine more than just about anything in the world.
For those of you who are big IPA fans, I have one recommendation above all others:
Double Crooked Tree brewed by Dark Horse Brewery right here in Michigan. It's a big, bold double IPA, so if you don't like hops, don't buy it. It weighs in at a gigantic 12% ABV, but it's masked remarkably well. Just be careful with it. It's so well-masked I could see it being easy to go overboard with. But the flavor and hoppiness of this beer is just fantastic. This is a seasonal beer with its release coming very soon (sometime in February). Not sure if it gets all the way down to Ohio, but if it does be sure to pick up a pack. It's very expensive (I think I pay $10-$12 for a 4 bottle pack! Yikes!).
For another big double IPA, I would also recommend Bell's Hopslam. It's also a good weighted IPA (9-10% ABV), but the hops in it are much more citrusy in nature. Definitely a lot of citrus on the nose of this one, if that's your preferred type of hops. I would rank it slightly below the Double Crooked Tree, which is the best IPA I've ever had, but above most other IPAs I've had. For those of you who like Great Lakes Brewery, I feel these two are both significantly better than the Great Lakes IPA (although I haven't seen a double IPA from GLB... do they offer one?). This one is also seasonal (it's out right now), and it's also VERY VERY expensive (~$16.00 for a six pack. Sheesh).
In terms of Belgians, my favorite is the trappist Rochefort 10. Just a fantastic all around beer, with great carbonation, a bit of sweetness, and very little hops power. I find these beers are usually good for people looking to get into beer as well. You might not be able to get the full complexity if you're just getting into beer, but usually the taste is agreeable enough that you will want to come back for more. On the other hand, some people just do not like Belgians, at all.
The two best vacations I've ever taken in my life were to Napa Valley and Munich, Germany (imagine that). I've never been somewhere that is so absolutely obsessed with beer as Munich is, and the beer there is amazing. They have several major breweries that provide most of the beer (Hacker-Pschorr, Weihenstephaner, Paulaner, Warsteiner, Krombacher, etc), but they're all of exceptionally high quality. Weihenstephaner is the oldest brewery in the world (~1000 years old), and for weissbier, it is the beer of choice for my wife and I. Reasonably easy to get here in America too. A close second is Hacker-Pschorr. And third on my list would be Paulaner. If you can get your hands on any of those, they're all fantastic.
I'll make other posts as I think about what I like.