Your Top Ten Highest Rated Beers From 2015

Apparently it was the year of the Tree House...

1. Julius - 4.76
2. Sip of Sunshine - 4.65
3. Arthur - 4.64
4. Double Shot (Sumatra Mandheling) - 4.62
5. Blanc de Blancs - 4.6
6. Saison du Fermier - 4.6
7. Utopias - 4.59
8. BA Abraxas - 4.59
9. Haze - 4.58
10. CBS (2015) - 4.57__________________________________
11. Artaic - 4.56
12. Flora B/B - 4.53
13. Alter Ego - 4.53
14. Saint Lamvinus - 4.52
15. Hunahpu's - 4.51

I included five additional ones because if I included the top 15, I was able to get in everything that I rated higher than 4.5.

 

1. Péché Mortel
2. Cantillon Iris
3. Founders KBS (Kentucky Breakfast Stout)
4. Heady Topper
5. Ypres Reserva (Struise Brouwers)
6. King Sue
7. Pliny the Elder
8. Cantillon Lou Pepe - Gueuze
9. Cantillon Lou Pepe - Kriek
10. Founders Blushing Monk

 

Haha that's a pretty generous 3.68 for Red Shedman Vanilla Porter. I was pretty disappointed with my visit there and thought the vanilla porter tasted like sunscreen

 

Feel really privileged to have tried for the first time so many great beers in 2015, and grateful to the many BA's whose suggestions led me to them. My top 10 in no particular order:

Holy Mountain Third Nail (Belgian pale ale)
Lone Pint Yellow Rose IPA
Ale Apothecary La Tache
GI Halia saison
Heady Topper
Westy 12
Anchorage Mosaic Saison
Trillium Fort Point Pale Ale
Trillium Pot &Kettle Porter
Trillium Day & Night Barleywine
Founders CBS

Oops, that's 11. Cheers!

 

Pipeworks Crimson Snapper
Goose Island Bourbon County Proprietors (2014)
Pipeworks The Jones Dog
Surly Abrasive
Lawson's Finest Liquids Sip of Sunshine
Goose Island Vanilla Rye (2010)
Goose Island Vanilla Rye (2014)
Perennial Abraxas (2015)
Goose Island Bourbon County Proprietors (2015)
Cigar City Hunahpu (2015)

 

This is way too hard to narrow down. But here goes.

Good Morning
Green
Juice Machine
Haze
Bell's Hop Slam
Kent Falls Shruggie
Heady
Other Half All Green Everything
Trillium DDH Fort Point
Omnipollo Bianca Mango Lassi Gose

Not to mention all the sours that I have been introduced to from OEC

 

I rarely remember to rate beers on this site, these are the top ten from the twenty five or so I did remember to rate last year



1872 Porter
Elland Brewery
English Porter 4 -4.1%


Export Stout London 1890
The Kernel Brewery
Foreign / Export Stout 3.98 +0.3%

Asylum
Oakham Ales / The Brewery Tap
Extra Special / Strong Bitter (ESB) 3.94 -1.0%

Orval Trappist Ale
Brasserie d'Orval S.A.
Belgian Pale Ale 3.94 -5.7%

HoppyNESS
Loch Ness Brewery
English Bitter 3.92 0%

Sixex
Joseph Holt Group plc
Extra Special / Strong Bitter (ESB)3.92 +6.8%

The Pale Armadillo
Tempest Brewing Company
American Pale Ale (APA) 3.9 +0.8%

In The Dark We Live
Tempest Brewing Company
American Black Ale 3.9 -3.9%

Hawse Buckler
Oakham Ales / The Brewery Tap
American Porter 3.88 -6.5%

Silkie Stout
Loch Lomond Brewery
English Stout 3.85 +3.8

 

Top 10:

Grimm Psychokinesis
Cantillon Vigneronne
Tree House Green
Tree House Julius
Perennial Abraxas
Grimm Rainbow Dome
Ballast Point Grapefruit Sculpin
Gun Hill Void of Light
The Bruery Tart of Darkness
Bourbon County Brand Stout Vanilla Rye

 

Green - TreeHouse
King Julius - TreeHouse
Curiosity 22 - TreeHouse
BCBS - Goose Island
Vicinity - Trillium
Congress Street - Trillium
Swish - Bissell Brothers
Haze - TreeHouse
Alter Ego - TreeHouse
Sure Bet - Pipeworks

 

I think I'll go past 10 as well to get all beers rated 4.5 or higher, at that point it is picking nits:

5.00 Proprietor's BCBS (2014) - Goose Island
4.82 Triple Shot - Tree House
4.74 CBS - Founders
4.69 Double Barrel Jesus - Evil Twin
4.69 Double Dry Hopped Mass Rising - Jack's Abby
4.66 Curiosity Twenty - Tree House
4.65 Upper Case - Trillium
4.64 Alter Ego - Tree House
4.62 In Perpetuity - Tree House
4.59 Double Shot Sumatra Mendheling - Tree House
4.58 Society & Solitude #5 - Hill Farmstead
4.54 Vicinity - Trillium
4.54 Utopias - Samuel Adams
4.52 Scaled Up - Trillium

 

1. Lindemans Kriek (totally biased, I love that thing) 4.82
2. Fresh Squeezed. 4.59
3. Rochefort 10 4.57
4. Piraat 4.53
5. Grapefruit Sculpin 4.52
6. Tired Hands Alien Church 4.42
7. Delirium Red 4.41
8. Rothaus Pils Tannen Zapfle 4.38
9. Jester King El Cedro 4.38
10. Petrus Aged Red 4.34

 

My top 10 beers that I had for the first time in 2015 is as follows, in no particular order because at this point they're all amazing and of differing styles...

OH Mosaic
OH / Trillium Street Green
Trillium Mettle
Hardywood Christmas Morning
Tired Hands MagoMagoTagoTago
Tired Hands ALien Church
Perennial Abraxas
Tree House Green
Tree House Ma
Surly Darkness

Goddamn it was a good year of beer!

 

Tree House- Double Shot w/ Burundi Buckeye
Tree House- Alter Ego
The Alchemist- Focal Banger
The Alchemist- Heady Topper
Trillium- Double Dry Hopped Fort Point Pale Ale
Firefly Hollow- Luciferin Extra IPA
14th Star Brewing- Tribute
Lost Nation- Gose
Maine Beer Company- Lunch
Lawson's- Sip of Sunshine

 

After looking at these, I had a very good year! Got to try some outstanding stuff. 4 of my top 10 were from my home turf, and there is no bias here. Jackie O's and Hoof Hearted are both making stuff that is as good as anything I have had from around the country.

'14 Goose Island Bourbon County Coffee - 5
Jackie O's Oro Negro - 4.85
Willoughby Nut Smasher - 4.84
Jackie O's BB Champion Ground - 4.75
Surly Todd the Axe Man - 4.69
Founders CBS - 4.65
The Bruery Chocolate Rain - 4.68
Dark Horse BB Plead the 5th - 4.56
Prairie Bomb! - 4.56
Hoof Hearted Roller Blabe - 4.55

One that just missed this list that I would love to have more of is Epiphany

 

1. La Trappe Quadruple Oak Aged Batch #8 4.93
2. Hair of the Dog Adam From the Wood - 4.81
3. Firestone Walker 18th Anniversary Ale - 4.72
4. The Bruery Bourbon Barrel Aged 5 Golden Rings - 4.67
5. Uinta Crooked Line Labyrinth Black Ale - 4.61
6. Bridge Road / Nøgne Ø Aurora Australis - 4.6
7. Weyerbacher Quad (2001) - 4.59
8. 2015 Stone CHAI-SPICED Imperial Russian Stout - 4.58
9. Dogfish Head Raison D'Extra - 4.54
10. Barrel Aged Seven Devils Imperial Stout (Brewers' Private Reserve) - 4.49

 

1. Proprietors
2. Vanilla Rye
3. Fou' Foune
4. Triple Sunshine
5. Double Dry Hopped Melcher Street
6. Consecration
7. CBS
8. Firestone 18
9. Abrasive
10. Good Morning

 

I was a bit generous with my rating. I can definitely say that I would not drink it again if the opportunity were presented.

 

EDIT: These were only first-time hads for me.

TH Good Morning 4.84
Hill Farmstead Abner 4.68
Founders CBS 4.63
TH Alter Ego 4.62
Lawson's SOS 4.61
Westy 12 4.61
Kane ANTEAD 4.57
The Bruery Chocolate Rain 4.55
Bissell Bros The Substance 4.55
TH Julius 4.55

 

I think GF is slowly destroying the reputation of Alpine. While I have never tasted beer brewed by Alpine, the Green Flash stuff was not spectacular. It was definitely middle of the road at best. I think the GF version needs to be differentiated from the regular Alpine stuff. This way there is no confusion.

Grapefruit Sculpin on the other-hand is one of my favorite IPA'S/ IPA variants! Delicious stuff!