I don't agree with all their choices, but the selections are pretty decent. First one in a while that I'm not rolling my eyes.
imo, not the best list, but not horrible either. But just like any top list, it's all subjective to the writer/writers experience and the beer they drank.
Definitely not the worst list I've ever seen. At least with this one and given the fact everyone's tastes are a little different, you could can at least make a valid argument for just about all of the breweries listed here.
For people who don't want to click through a stupid slideshow: Stouts: Duck-Rabbit Indigenous Beers: Jester King Farmhouse Ales from an actual farm: Hill Farmstead Wheat Beer: Boulevard Sours: Cascade Lagers: Jack's Abbey Barrel Aging (which I didn't realize was a "style"): Goose Island Wild Beers: Crooked Stave Hybrids: Dogfish Head Saisons: Prairie American IPAs: Green Flash
GF doesn't even make the "best" IPA's in SD County, let alone the USA... Alpine, TG, or HF for the win!
Come on, this is helpful for the initiates of the craft scene. Just like Shocktop and Blue Moon are the "pot beers" of craft (read gateway).
Could be a good idea for a thread whats the MDMA of craft beer? The opium? The grated nutmeg (come one, we all tried that one)?
Exactly! TG, alpine, Hf! I could add FFF, alchemist and surly. Have they even tried IPAs outside California?
At least they named several of the most well respected names we've grown to love across the US. Duck Rabbit and Green Flash will probably get the most controversy but its still respectable list IMO.
Include the honorable mentions and think of it as a "4 great breweries in a bunch of haphazard categories that you should be familiar with" list. There was one brewery that was new to me. For those of you getting worked up about the IPA category and then rambling off a bunch of breweries that don't distribute out of their state, the author mentioned that he took wide distribution into account. The same logic wasn't used for the other categories but those were written by other authors.
I'm still waiting for Surly to win me over. It's good stuff, but for me it is on par with GF & Coronado- high quality beer, World Class, but not something I crave. That might be the Wisconsinite in me talking- I grew up with a dislike of all things Minnesota FFF for IPA's, yes. Literally everything else I've had from them has been fair-to-middling, still waiting to try Dark Lord. I think TG edges them out, though.
interesting read...disagree with a lot of them though...couldnt they have just put hill farmstead for all of the categories lol jk(not really)
