Your Top Ten Highest Rated Beers From 2015

Alchemist Heady Topper = 5.0
BCBCS '14 = 5.0
Kuhnhenn BB4D = 4.93
Founders KBS = 4.93
Kuhnhenn DRIPA = 4.88
Tree House Julius = 4.84
Perrin No rules = 4.82
Russian River Pliny the Elder = 4.8
Tree House Good Morning = 4.7
Tree House Haze = 4.69

 

This was a "down" year for me. I didn't seek out a lot of the newer stuff and reviewed far fewer beers than in past years. I didn't give a single beer a rating above 4.5, with Prairie BOMB! getting my highest score of the year at 4.48. Behind that came:

Stone Ruination DIPA 2.0 - 4.41
Ballast Point Grapefruit Sculpin - 4.41
Southern Tier Choklat Oranj - 4.41
Westbrook Mexican Cake - 4.40
Singlecut Does Anybody Remember Laughter? - 4.39
Founders Black Rye - 4.37
Newburgh Brown Ale - 4.35
Fiddlehead Second Fiddle - 4.33
Clown Shoes Space Cake - 4.33
Singlecut Billy Full Stack - 4.31

 

CBS- 4.87
Fou' Foune- 4.8
Alewerks Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Pumpkin- 4.79
Alpine Nelson- 4.74
Alpine Hoppy Birthday- 4.69
Parabola- 4.68
Uncle Jacob's Stout- 4.69
Beer Geek Vanilla Shake- 4.67
FB Last Snow- 4.65
Beer Geek Cocoa Shake- 4.65

 

Perfect 5's of 2015:
Fantome Saison
S.A. Utopias
Pizzy Boy - Sunny Side Up Lil' Amps
Allagash Nancy
Best of Bubbles Pilsner (Barley and Hops)

Others:
Abraxas 4.93
Allagash Cuvee D'Industrial 4.92
Bruery OrXata 4.91
Brothers Resolute Coconut 4.89
Boulevard Love Child #5 4.87

Style totals:
3 Imperial Stouts
1 Pilsner
2 Wild Ales/Sours
1 Belgian Saison
1 American Blonde Ale
1 Cognac...I mean big Utopias (whatever that falls into)

Just missing the cut at #11 was Founders Project PAM at 4.86. Worthy to mention.

Nice mix....not a single Pale Ale/IPA/DIPA despite that is what I tend to drink the most of.

 

Consumed in 2015:

Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout 2014
4.9 +6.5%
Assassin Imperial Stout 2014
4.85 +7.1%
Abraxas
4.85 +10.0%
Last Buffalo In The Park
11.50 4.84 +1.9%
Snowed In - Bourbon Barrel Aged
4.83 +2.8%
AleSmith Speedway Stout - Bourbon Barrel Aged 2015
4.81 +7.6%
Double Dry Hopped Melcher Street
4.81 +8.3%
Last Snow
4.79 +7.4%
Dinner
4.79 +2.1%
Nooner Batch 8 (Hazelnut RareR DOS)
4.74 +6.0%
Oro Negro
4.74 +5.1%
11-06-2015 Sunday Brunch
4.74 +1.5%
- 12-14-2015 Notorious Triple IPA
4.74 +4.4%


4 way tie for #10

 

Mystic Entropy 5.0
FW 18 4.9
FW Stickee Monkey 4.8
Mystic De Cacao 4.8
Courtyard How Can Anything Ever End 4.64
Crooked Stave St Bretta 4.62
Jack's Abbey Bridemaker 4.54
Abita Bourbon Street Baltic Porter 4.52
Night Shift Ever Weisse 4.5
Deschutes Mirror Mirror 4.49

 

Double Stuffed Oreo Fudge Bucket
Hunahpu
Jai Alai
Ten Fidy
Breakfast Stout
Unholy Trippel
Samuel Smith's Organic Chocolate Stout
Last Snow
Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout
Moo Hoo

What can I say, I love the Stouts!!

 

Ten Fidy-Bourbon Barrel Aged 2015 4.59 +1.8%
Tesseract 4.51 +0.7%
Snowed In Imperial Oatmeal Stout 4.47 +9.0%
Headless Heron Barrel Aged Pumpkin Spice Ale 4.47 +8.5%
Espresso Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout 4.46 +5.2%
Superdamp IPA Oregon Edition 4.46 -1.3%
Da Yoopers 4.46 +1.1%
Dark Horse Bourbon Barrel Aged Plead The 5th 4.43 -1.1%
Ten Fidy - BA Java 4.39 0%
Lizard King 4.39 +0.9%

Of the ones I rated on BA, anyway.

 

Perennial BA Abraxas 4.96
Side Project Merci (Blend #1) 4.85
FFF Permanent Funeral 4.75
Prairie BOMB! 4.75
Beer Geek Cocoa Shake 4.75
BCBCS 4.71
Bell's Black Note Stout 4.68
Dark Horse BBA Plead the 5th 4.68
4 Hands Madagascar 4.68
Side Project La Biere De Fantaisie 4.62

 

When was Barrel smoker released? Anychance its still hanging around in Socal anywhere?

 

Beers I rated for the first time in 2015:

BCBCS 4.81
Abraxas 4.56
Alpine Nelson 4.5
Surly Abrasive 4.49
Sucaba 4.48
Cascade Sang Royal 4.46
Fremont First Nail 4.46
Sucks 4.4
Black Raven Old Birdbrain 4.39
Holy Mountain Celestial Lineage 4.37
(and actually, I had two others at 4.37 -- Big Bad Baptist, and Sanctification, but Celestial Lineage was definitely better, despite the numerical tie)

 

SOS
KBS
Beatification
Ten Fidy
Grey Monday
Mocha Wednesday
Parabola
Stickee monkee
Grapefruit Sculpin
Bomb

 

Founders KBS 4.76
Odell's IPA 4.71
Firestone Walker Wookie Jack 4.31
Lagunitas NightTime 4.3
Odell's St. Lupulin 4.24
Nine-Band Cactus Cat Kolsch 4.2

 

Tree house King Julius
Tree house Juice Macine
Hill Farmstead blue/black
Prairie Coffee Okie
Founders Backwoods Bastard(allways a favorite every year)
Tree house Good Morning
Captain Lawrence Rosso e Marron
Westbrook Mexican cake
Stillwater gose gone wild
Cantillon Fou

 

In no particular order:

Avery Tweak
Mikkeller George vs. Brian Calvados Barrel
Captain Lawrence Trans-Atlantic Red
Grimm Tesseract
Kane Mexican Brunch
JW Less Harvest Ale Calvados Barrel 2011
Trillium Artaic
Grimm BBA Double Negative
GI BC Regal Rye
GI King Henry



These all beat out Vanilla Rye, Tawny Port Sucre (and a couple other Sucre/Bois variants), Pappy's Jesus/DB Jesus, Mikkeller George vs. Brian Calvados barrel, and Dark Lord 2014 imho - don't get me wrong though, all were fantastic and made probably my biggest whale year really difficult to choose from... Looking forward to a hopefully just as exciting 2016, cheers

 

1. Founders - CBS
2. Prairie - Bomb!
3. Brasserie Dieu du Ciel! - Peche Mortel
4. Alchemist - Heady Topper
5. Trillium - El Dorado Sunshower
6. Trillium - Vicinity
7. Lagunitas - High Westified Imperial Stout
8. Allagash - Cuvee D'Industrial
9. Trillium - Artaic
10. Great Divide - Espresso Oak Aged Yeti

Honorable mention BA Maple Framinghammer

 

1. The Bruery - Black Tuesday
2. Founders - KBS
3. Jackie O's- Cognac Barrel Dark Apparition
4. Epic - Big Bad Baptist 2015
5. Thirsty Dog- Bourbon Barrel Siberian Night
6. Weyerbacher - Sunday Morning Stout
7. Jackie O's- Bourbon Barrel Black Maple
8. Three Floyds - Zombie Dust
9. Hoof Hearted- Dragonsaddle Triple IPA
10. Ballast Point- Grapefruit Sculpin

 

1. Founders - CBS (had on draft at Founders) ... 5.00, my favorite beer.
2. Goose Island - Rare '15 BCBS (draft? at Rare Day)
3. Goose Island - Proprietor's '14 BCBS (draft at Rare Day) ... I know it's a '14 but I had it in '15 for first time.
4. Goose Island - BCBCS (draft at Rare Day, few other locations)
5. Toppling Goliath - King Sue (bottle)
6. 3Floyds - Cognac barrel aged Coffee Dark Lord '15 (bottle)
7. Goose Island - Cthulhu (draft at GI Clybourne)
8. Russian River - Pliny the Elder (draft at Russian River)
9. Toppling Goliath - PsuedoSue (bottle)
10. Goose Island - BCBS Vanilla Rye '14 (draft at Rare Day, few other locations)

 

Witch's Hat Bourbon Barrel Dragontrax Night Fury 4.96
3 Floyds Cognac Coffee Dark Lord 4.91
3 Floyds Bourbon Vanilla Dark Lord 4.91
Firestone Walker 18 4.77
Bourbon County Barleywine 4.63
Bourbon County Vanilla Rye 4.62
Crooked Stave Nightmare on Brett Leopold Whiskey 4.57
Grapefruit Sculpin 4.57
Real Ale Mysterium Verum Tenebrae Aeterna 4.55
Founders ReDankulous 4.52

 

It was released around May 2015. I don't remember where I bought it, but Joseph James stuff usually sits on the shelf so I am sure you can still find it somewhere.