Best APA

Umm, duh...

Category 59: American-Style Pale Ale - 170 Entries
Gold: B.Right On Pale Ale, Ocean Beach Brewery, San Diego, CA
Silver: Neighborhood, Ventura Coast Brewing Co., Ventura, CA
Bronze: Charlatan, Maplewood Brewing Co., Chicago

In all seriousness, for the classic take on the style, it's SNPA. Coincidentally, I was in upstate NY this past weekend and got some Saranac Pale Ale, a beer I used to buy all the time when it was sold at a serious discount to other craft beers. I forgot how good it is. While not the "best", it's certainly up there in that "classic" category.

For more modern takes on the style, I think the pale ales at Treehouse are their best beers. Give me a Lights On any day over most of their other beers. But these are clearly NE Pale Ales, not classic, balanced pale ales.

 

I have to agree. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is a true classic, and I believe it to be the perfect example of the style.

Honorable Mentions:
Toppling Goliath-Psuedo Sue
Summit-Extra Pale Ale
3 Floyd's-Zombie Dust

 

I had bought IPAs off the shelf, and at breweries, for years before SN appeared in Upstate NY. So, when I first had SNPA, the closest comparisons I could make was to the IPAs I had had up to that point.

It's still an IPA in my book.

 

Those are certainly the 'best' of the APAs as judged at the GABF of the 170 entries. Needless to say there are waaaaay more APAs out there than 170.

Cheers!

 

Edward.

 

I like Spellbound Pale Ale. Its definately not old school though. Its tropical and almost creamy.

If we are talking classic I like Dale's or Sierra Nevada. I liked troegs before it became solid sender but idk if it's the same recipe or not

 

Spellbound pale ale is like this

 

Correct, which is why I started my next sentence with "In all seriousness..."

 

When was that? There was not many breweries around in 1981.

 

For me, if an APA tastes like an IPA, it is not an APA, it's an IPA.

I still like Anchor Liberty. Funnily, I love SNPA, but only after a few months of age on it. That I have been consistent on, and I don't know why.

 

Early-mid 80's. There were a few brew pubs, and some stores carried imports. We would just grab anything that looked different. Tried a lot of stuff.

 

I like ZD, but this whole lawsuit against another independent brewery is going to make it hard to buy 3F for me personally in the future.

 

"Best APA"? I agree with @EvenMoreJesus 's thread a from a couple weeks ago. There is really no such thing as "best" anything in life but my personal favorite APA is currently Kane Sneakbox. Psuedo Sue and Fort Point (or any of the "Small Bird Series") are pretty damn good too. Tonewood Freshies if I'm picking a local fav...hope this helps.

EDIT: Ah, I forgot to add some Suarez Family Brewing pales that I had last weekend that were phenomenal...Homespun (dat spelt tho) and Look No Further

 

Agreed, wholeheartedly, with all of you chaps.

But these certainly qualify for more modern interpretations:

 

For a Wyoming Pale Ale, Hubert hits the spot.

 

7.2% to be exact. And another Lagunitas 'APA' listed upthread - CitruSinensis - is 7.9% ferchrissake!

 

Regardless of how these beers are labeled, they are not APAs.

 

I thought Stone Pale Ale 2.0 and the original, were very good APAs. Shame they had to die

 

Levitation, though labeled an amber ale, was a fantastic APA, IMVHO.