Most Important American Craft Beers Ever Brewed

That's very interesting Jack. I've never seen that. I had to look that up, but I didn't find anything concrete about it... but I did notice (for the first time) that Fat Tire's packaging claims Belgian inspiration. Both Fat Tire and Palm are classified by their brewers as "amber ales." More specifically, Palm claims the beer to be in the "Speciale style" which was designed in response to lager's success. The importer claims it is a good alternative to a lager (even going so far as to including a review that states it is a good alternative/upgrade to Heineken or Stella). Palm is made with English hops and "Belgian yeast" and hits 18 IBUs compared to Fat Tire's American/English hops, "house ale yeast" and 22 IBUs.

I only had Palm once too and I really did not care for it. Always wanted to give it another (fairer) chance. As you did, you would have to put "Belgiany" in quotes since the spectrum is far wider than what we reduce it to. Despite being in the same category here, no one would mistake Duvel for Kwak.

 

Coors, in the 70s. An icon.

Modern day? Sierra Nevada hit the market HARD with Pale Ale and Torpedo. An introduction for many to be sure.

Boulevards Wheat.

Pliny.

And Westvleteren.

 

I underlined "American" in your post to jump into this little bit of devil's advocacy... Allagash White's problem is it begs comparison to it's bigger and much older brother, Hoegaarden, and although not "craft" by some standards, Hoegaarden defines the style internationally and is readily available. By comparison Allagash White, which is very good, is like the little kid competing for his parents' attention, jumping up and down saying "me too, me too!" and we pat them on the head and say "yes, we love you too, dear."

Personally, I would prefer a list of "most important American beers" be ones that showcase American brewing standing on it's own apart from the shadow of Europe's brewing legacy.

 

Very good point.
Perhaps time will tell if the bigger legacy of "American craft" is the unique thinking that goes into it or the embracement of "Europe's brewing legacy."

 

There was a thread a few years back where folks opined on what they thought were important innovations in brewing. One BA posted the invention of the thermometer since this permitted brewers to accurately monitor temperature (e.g., mash temperature) in the brewing process.

One BA (who I forget the name) posted as an innovation development of new American aroma hops with Cascade being the prime example. IMO the American craft beer movement owes much of its development and definition to these newly developed hops (e.g., Cascade, Centennial,…).

This innovation continues robustly today with more recently developed hops like Citra, Mosaic, …

Cheers!

 

I'd guess it will probably be a mixture of both. If Sir Isaac Newton could acknowledge that his contributions were made possible by standing on the shoulder's of giants, I'd expect that many American Brewers could to the same. (Some do already by refusing to call their sponaneously fermented beers lambics or gueuzes.)

 

Folks, lets keep in mind here that the panel of experts was asked to nominate their picks for the most important American Craft beers brewed since 1960. I suspect that the list would indeed be somewhat different if they had been asked to nominate their picks for the most important flavorful beers brewed in the world since 1916.

 

Jack, I'd for sure agree with the assessment of whoever it was who said that the development and effective use of the C hops were influential in shaping the American craft beer movement. They were probably less expensive to obtain than the noble hops and being more local could probably be obtained much fresher and, more importantly, they allowed for the development of uniquely flavored beers that did not have to be imported and so could have a competitive advantage when it came to freshness of the beer as consumed by the customer.

 

I think it still is good ...fresh. ; ) Different now? How so? Not as "Wow!" as many more recent ones, but still good.
Back when, it was in short supply, (I drank their Pale Ale most often), but now it tends to sit awhile.My memory of it is vague. Have maybe 1 or 2 /yr

& btw , I'm still waiting on SNPA. Oh,....I've had it, but have never had one remotely close to fresh. When I think of it I look, but usually forget, probably due to always being disappointed.

 

Re Fat Tire, not widely available soon enough? What was its distribution (& reputation) back-when?
(Just got here , last June, so never paid much attention, as was out in "never-here"land. ; ) )

 

Fat Tire was ubiquitous in western US and despite little distribution east of the Mississippi it was still very well known and talked about by craft and macro drinkers alike. Similar to SA Boston Lager it could pass effortlessly between craft and macro drinkers, therefore many people's first introduction to more flavorful beer was Fat Tire. It's at least as deserving to be on the list as examples like Widmer Hefe, Ithaca Flower Power, Victory HopDevil, Nodding Head, Anchor Porter, and Geary's Pale Ale...which in my opinion are the weaker links in this list, but your results may vary.

 

Yeah, I was surprised Flower Power was on the list. Really liked it when I first tried it, but was so sporadically available I didn't realize it was a big deal.Stuck with Ithaca Pale Ale( now retired), Hop Devil, Grant's, or various Ommegangs, most of the time. But..... maybe that was 'cause it sold so fast? Or... just because I'm in the outer outskirts of Bingladesh?

 

Yeah I don't think I can make a great case for any of them honestly. If it were a list of most influential breweries, I would have them high on the list.

 

I think the Geary's and Widmer are legit. Geary's really was a very early success story, and their Ale (and Pugsley system) set the blueprint for much of the Northeast through the late 80s into the 90s. Widmer for the reasons they stated- it really has been an enormous success as a crossover beer, and the Widmers themselves are a major reason why Portland became Portland.

 

Also for winning more GABF awards than any beer ever. It's like the Ben Hur of beers.

 

To my way of thinking, when it comes to significance, the opening of doors beats out popularity every time. With no disrespect to Alagash intended, the wave generated by Celis and Blue Moon certainly made it easier for it to get a foothold. There really was a time when Witbiers were a 'thing'; maybe not as ubiquitous a 'thing' as IPAs are these days, but a 'thing' nonetheless. And, as far as the customer is concerned (the ones like my sister who pay no attention to Brewers Assoc definitions ), there already is a SNPA equivalent in the aforementioned Blue Moon.

 

Sorry, I'm not getting what you're asking about the Imperial Stouts- which one would I list as the most important? That's a tricky one, because while that style dominated the homebrewing circuit for so long, the few packaged commercial examples weren't many beyond Samuel Smith's and Grant's at the time. In a way, it was homebrewers and brewpubs that seemed to nurture and develop the American interpretation, so that when you started to see stuff like Old Raspy on the shelves it somehow seemed familiar. If I were truly going to list one, I'd probably have to do some research before choosing a RIS, just to shake the cobwebs out of the old noggin.

As to the Celis vs. Alagash comparison, to me Celis was just 'perfect', like a perfect Vienna can be; intricately woven and seamless, more than the sum of its parts. With other Wits, you can tell where certain elements (the spices, or yeast signature) begin and end- Alagash in particular hits me with peppercorn a lot. I think you would have loved Celis, and it really was amazing how it represented the best of all worlds and had mass appeal as well. Fwiw, having done a side by side in the heyday, Celis clearly came off as an improved version of Hoegaarden

 

I'm not sure I'd even include them on a list of my influential either. A great brewery? Absolutely.

But I'm not so sure they really influenced any breweries. They have such a wide variety of styles, and their beers reach such a small amount of people, I'm not sure they are necessarily that influential.

But this is likely getting off topic.

 

ehh... I won't argue too much.... I hadn't completely convinced myself that Widmer did not deserve to be there and I do like that there's at least one representation of the NE's Pugsley systems. If I was list-master ( ) we could keep Widmer and Geary's, which still allows me to drop Flower Power, HopDevil, and Nodding Head Berliner-weisse for Fat Tire, Sam Utopias, and Magic Hat No. 9, which I think had more impact on the beer world.

 

This thread sort of reminds me of the threads that occurs after beer competitions (e.g., GABF). Folks in those threads would opine with comments like how could beer X win a Gold Medal, beer Y is a far superior beer to beer X.

Cheers!