Your Top 3 Most Influential Breweries

Sam Adams- introduced me to craft
Founders- Breakfast Stout showed me how good beer could be
Firestone Walker- started my love for barrel aged beers

 

Westbrook, Terrapin, Firestone.

Westbrook because I enjoy every single beer in their lineup. Terrapin because it is the closest brewery to my home town, I spend a lot of time there and were my introduction for the most part into craft beer. I just now started to be able to get ahold of FW, so far their sucaba, double jack, and Wookey jack have been some of best beers I have had. Double jack in particularly, it is in my top 3 or 4 of best I have ever tried.

 

Sam Adams
Sierra Nevada
Firestone Walker

 

Three Floyds - just happened to be my local brewpub
Founders - they don't make a bad beer
thirdly I have to give credit to the local craft bottle shops for supplying me with tons of awesome beers

 

Founders
Firestone Walker
Stone

 

Stone, Russian River, Boston Beer

 

big sky brewing for the introduction
cigar city for the continual treatments and super solid line up
and 3F for teaching me to like tart and funk.

 

Sierra Nevada for the first hoppy beer I had. New Glarus for sessions. Alesmith for the best bombers.

 

Goose Island & Cigar City for me, in terms of personal influence/nostalgia. First forays into beer included Jai Alai and Maduro - Goose for making the quintessential barrel-aged stout and it's major contributions not just to the Chicago craft beer scene, but all over the place. Former GI employees include the head brewers at Firestone Walker, Fremont, Off Color, and several others.

 

1: Sierra Nevada
2: (tied) Dogfish Head/Stone
3: (tied) The Alchemist/Hill Farmstead/Lawson's Finest

 

Dogfish Head - for getting me into it
Hill Farmstead - for setting the bar on so many styles
New Belgium - for getting so many people into craft beer and shit they paved the way for the American sour/wild craze.

 

For me as a drinker -

Evil Twin - experimentation, whimsy, contract acceptance.
Firestone Walker - elegance without snobbery, barrel perfection, consistency.
Victory - simplicity, reinvention, approachability.


For the industry

Stone - Hop mania, brash marketing, charismatic brewer/rockstar
Founders - Limited release management, intelligent market selection
Sierra Nevada - The OGs, all craft life springs forth from their tree

 

Great Lakes Brewing & Erie Brewing - for getting me into craft
Lagunitas - my favorite offerings
Shipyard - for showing me what I DON'T like

 

Fullers
Sam Adams
Full Sail

 

Let me explain about Fullers.
Im an older guy and for us in the early to mid 90s Fullers and to a lesser extent Youngs were a great gateway beer.

 

Needs no explanation.

 

New Belgium, for showing me that beer is uh...not gross.
Avery, for showing me that beer can be over the top, and that flavors can be challenging.
Brasserie Dupont, for showing me that beer has a massive legacy, and for showing me the beauty of yeast.

 

Shiner
Rodenbach
Jester King

 

Lagunitas - quirk and consideration
Stone - depth of hops
Sierra Nevada - my home range and thee IPA bar