Posts Tagged ‘Bells’
Paste Names Best 25 American Breweries
Paste Magazine’s most recent “List of the Day” surveys the 25 best American breweries of the decade. Just hours after it was posted, a friend asked us what we thought. Overall, we think it’s pretty solid. We’ve had beer from all of the breweries, some more than others, especially Paste’s picks for the two top spots, Dogfish Head and Allagash. Still, we have a few beefs…
We wouldn’t have placed Victory or Founder’s in the top five. Those spots should have been reserved for cutting-edge breweries like Lost Abbey and Russian River. Similarly, we love Weyerbacher but probably would have placed Bell’s in its top 10 spot. And Jolly Pumpkin way down at 19? We don’t think so.
Perhaps going beyond the bounds of Paste’s rating method, we would have listed Brooklyn, Stone, and Samuel Adams much higher for their widespread efforts to inform American drinkers that there’s more to beer than Bud, Coors, and Michelob, as well as raise the status of beer in general. We also would have tried to squeeze Flying Dog, Left Hand, Troegs, and Duck Rabbit somewhere into the top 25.
Beyond that, if we could have done a Top 40, we would have tried to get O’Dell’s, The Bruery, Boulevard, Full Sail, Captain Lawrence, 21st Amendment, Sly Fox, Anderson Valley, New Holland, Clipper City, Bear Republic, and Elysian on the list, but it would have been very difficult to decide who goes where. Since many of the aforementioned breweries are up and coming, we have a good feeling several of them will be on next decade’s list.
Imbibe Vs. Beerspotter: Seasonal Beers
In the September/October issue of Imbibe, the editors selected their 99 favorite beers in different categories, such as seasonals or beers to drink with a burger. In “Imbibe Vs. Beerspotter,” Y&H’s Beerspotter takes each list to task.
Offer a beer for a limited time, and beer lovers will chase it, as was the case last spring when Troegs Nugget Nectar and Bell’s Hopslam lit up Beerspotter’s Twitter feed like someone caught the Real World-ers sipping it. I look forward to them every year, as well as the nominated Anchor Christmas Ale and Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale.
But Imbibe left out at least two important seasonal styles: doppelbocks and barleywines. Brewed by German monks for sustenance during Lent, doppelbocks are as central to spring as March Madness (and for NFL fans, February’s postpartum depression). Ayinger Celebrator is the standard-bearer for the style, while the Lager Heads have their eye on the rarer Weltenburger Asam Bock. Both, though, will fill your belly with raisiny and chocolate-cake malts while you’re holding out for penitence.
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Hopped Up on Beer: Notes From the IPA Tasting
Last week’s Beerspotter column about Smuttynose IPA mentioned that the beer shined in a blind tasting against old standbys, such as Bell’s Two-Hearted Ale, and was mistaken across the board for Stone IPA. It’s exactly discoveries like this that make beer tastings so much fun — sometimes you’ll find a new favorite and, in any case, you get to drink good beer with friends.
So here are the notes from my recent IPA tasting, in chronological order. We tasted the beers blind and informally, with no scoring system, and the bottles ere based on availability, not necessarily my top choices. Taste is opinion, and as with sports or politics or music, arguing is half the fun. So sound off in the comments section or yell at me directly on Twitter.
- Stone. Poured golden with a frothy, laced head. A strong grapefruit aroma wafted over the sweetness of golden raisins and dessert wine. My notes say “Stone?”, but as this was the first taste of the night, I wasn’t convinced.
My Top 5 Desert Island Beers. What Are Yours?
A sixer of Dale’s to go — on your desert island
I’ve had, and still do have, a proclivity toward lists and the ranking of favorites. High Fidelity inspires desert island-record discussions. Fantasy football drafts are a drug. And as tykes, my brother and I would sit cross-legged in the living room, surrounded by sorted mounds of Halloween candy or Pogs (depending on the season) and conduct elaborate trades and negotiations based on our arbitrarily prized possessions. (Should I be confessing this in print? If I ever run for public office, let’s pretend this didn’t happen.)
The point being: I’m no different today. So when I see the Alström brothers of Beer Advocate fame enumerating their top five desert island beers alongside a profile in The Boston Globe, I start getting ideas. Building a desert island list is a delicate task. With records, you need to take into account all the different styles, eras, and at least one sentimental favorite. You probably want some reggae in there, being on an island. So while ranking Pogs may be less nuanced, picking just five beers to drink for all of sand-locked eternity seems unfair, if not impossible. Or in other words, fun.
Like records, my favorite beers change frequently — probably every time I walk into a beer store. But here’s my outline, the prototypical desert island beer list. And despite the urge to apply a beach theme, I have one rule: nothing with a lime in it. Ever.
