Beers from just 10 breweries - which do you choose?

There's so many I have yet to try...but within the group I have tried:

Jack's Abby
Smuttynose
Victory
Boston Beer Co. (variety mostly)
Founders
Stone
Dogfish Head
Boulevard
Ommegang
Pretty Things

Boston Beer makes it partly for nostalgia (intro good beer for me) and for the variety that is consistently decent drinking beer. Otherwise, these are brewers where I have consistently liked most things I have tried - not every beer from every brewer, but majority. Then there's the risk takers like DFH and PT that offer some unique interpretations.

So many beers, so little time....

 

Alchemist
Jack's Abby
Founders
Lagunitas
Russian River
Goose Island
Ommegang
Stone
Firestone Walker
Trillium

All in no particular order.

 

Russian River
Founders
Firestone Walker
Lagunitas
Alesmith
Alchemist
Hill Farmstead
Cantillon
Stone
Dogfish Head

 

Let's see....

1. Devil's Backbone
2. Dogfish Head
3. O'Dells
4. Stone
5. Blue Mountain Brewery
6. Laughing Dog
7. Great Lakes Brewing
8. New Belgium
9. Hofbrauhaus
10. Lagunitas

some tough choices. But, for me I have to go with the ones I always fall back on when in need of good beer.

 

agreed there, spent a few years in Germany and Warsteiner is always near the top of my list

 

Er, two of the ones in my list: Schneider and Schlenkerla.

 

1. Hill Farmstead
2. Kane
3. Stone
4. Firestone Walker
5. Founders
6. Lagunitas
7. Allagash
8. Goose Island
9. Dogfish Head
10. Cascade (this last one was very close since I've only had 4 beers from them, but they would be great to get my sour fix, whereas other than HF and Allagash most of the rest on my list don't many many sours, though Kane is starting a wild ale program)

Honorable mentions that I had to debate a lot for making the last 3 slots: Sixpoint, Oskar Blues, Port, Maine Beer Company, Great Divide, Ballast Point, The Bruery.

 

Really? Founders, Dogfish Head, Cantillon and Sierra Nevada all brew the same types of beer? Or I could have picked Russian River, Lagunitas, Three Floyds and Firestone Walker -- those four too are the same type, right? And that's just the ones that have been most mentioned...

 

three floyds
founders
new glarus
sierra nevada
deschutes
victory
new belgium
schlafly
lagunitas
boulevard

 

Sticking to domestic craft brewers, several of their brews tried, distributed to PA, no particular order....

Founders
Sierra Nevada
Stone
Bells
Troegs
Victory
Deschutes
Dogfish Head
Ballast Point
Bear Republic

Honorable mention: - Weyerbacher.

 

This is a very good question. I will play with breweries that are available to me in PA/MD/DE. No particular order

Sierra Nevada
Evolution
Victory
Stone
Founders
Troegs
Allagash
Dogfish Head
Ommegang
Clown Shoes

Weyerbacher just misses the cut.

 

Well there isn't a Lager brewery in that lot, is there?

 

{facepalm}

"B.b.b.b.b.but they don't have my favorite!"

Oh, grow up!

 

I'd say, in no order:

1. Hill Farmstead
2. Stone
3. Hair of the Dog
4. Cigar City
5. The Bruery
6. Firestone Walker
7. Anchorage
8. Three Floyds
9. Lagunitas
10. uuummm fuck fuck fuck to many to chose from.......SIERRA NEVADA

Very VERY honorable mention to Avery, Lost Abbey, and Deschutes.
Never had TG, Surly, or Kuhnhenn so I am sure that will change my mind. About to get some Lawsons for the first time too. Curious as to how this will change the list. Probably would die if I don't get my heady fix every now and then though...........

 

1-Three Floyds
2-Russian River
3-Founders
3-Lagunitas
3-Stone
3-Bells
3-Brouwerij St Benardus (Monks are cool)
3-Weihenstephan Abbey (fab Hefe)
3-nOgne (im addicted to their Stout)
4-Pabst Brewing Company (gotta have some shwag)

 

Good work. May not be a work of science, but still makes for an interesting list

And a bit surprising it seems to me (as a European), that so few European breweries make the list. Only one in the top 13, and only four in the total 36 (and of the four, two are belgian wild ales).

Where are the Belgian trappistes (Rochefort, Chimay, St. Bernardus, etc.), the Scandinavian (Nøgne Ø, Mikkeller, Närke, etc.), the British (BrewDog, Fuller's. The Kernel, etc.) and the beformentioned lagers of Central Europe? Are they missing because of availability in the US, or are there other reasons?

Still the list will be of good help on what to choose from when going to NY and Portland in a couple of weeks (and if anyone has particular tips as to bars/ breweries in the two citys, I would of course be grateful as it can be hard to grasp the availability of the different US brews).

 

It's a good point, but not one that surprised me. The two top Belgian breweries were a mild surprise, I suppose, but, for me, it's more a question of personal taste, as they don't make the styles of Belgian beers that I prefer. Still, there is such a big drop off from the top 2 and then from the next 3, that it really doesn't matter in what order the rest come in. Of the breweries you mentioned, only two (BrewDog and Närke) did not earn any mention at all, but the rest were on multiple lists. And a number of German breweries were there as well, although the top one was at #22.

Now, the reason I was not surprised is because I made my list deliberately only US. I still think of this in terms of craft modern vs. traditional, micro start-ups vs. history. I suspect, a number of other lists were following the same principle. It's not so much availability, as those European breweries that are distributed tend to be distributed everywhere, unlike a lot of local brews, not to mention beers that never leave the confines of the brewery and are only sold on the premises (e.g., Avery is notorious for that) or at specific events (think Dark Lord). But if the question was, what if you were limited to just 10 breweries so taking geography into account is not the worst thing to do (look at the number of locals many lists include). In any case, maybe it's just me...

 

Haven't thought about NY, but if I were to go to Portland (Oregon, I presume, not Maine), I would put Hair of the Dog, Pyramid, Gigantic, Cascade and Pelican (Pacific City) at the top of the list. This is not to say that they make the best beer, but those are the ones I want to try.

See here: http://goo.gl/YJ3Mv and http://goo.gl/FERZJ, plus more on Oregon http://goo.gl/iyYu0 and http://goo.gl/TejVI You also want to check out this http://www.brewbus.com/

 

Well, I did suspect that many lists were made deliberately US-only. But if it's not because of availability it still baffles me a bit, as I think a lot of world class beers come from some of the brewers I mentioned. Do they not travel the Atlantic well, as seems to be a problem for the American IPAs over here? There's a point in the craft vs trad argument, but (apart from the Central Europe brewers, which was not really my main concern) a lot of European brewing is certainly about craft brewing and innovation as much as their American counterparts. Still I do see why geography is playing a major part, and after all it's what I'm doing as well in my bid for European beers (and I almost enteres Lervig Aktiebryggeri as well, as they're my local brewery, and do produce some excellent beers, check out their Brewers Reserve line if you are able to get hold of any)

I did of course mean Portland, OR. Thanks a lot for the links Looking forward to hitting HotD and the rest of your list early August.

 

And you were the exception....Um, and you posted your list after i made that comment... But nae bother, i like your selections nonetheless!