Top 5 Beers +One

Founders KBS (Kentucky Breakfast Stout)
Saint Arnolds Bishop's Barrel 8
Karbach Bourbon Barrel Aged Hellfighter
Lone Pint Yellow Rose
Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout

Beer that hooked me tie between Saint Arnolds Icon Series Brown Porter and Ommegang Three Philosophers

 

According to my top 5 rated beers on BA:

Zonkers Stout Snake River Brewing
Big Bad Baptist Epic Brewing
Breakfast Stout Founders
Resin Sixpoint
St. Lupulin Odell

I must have a thing for Stouts.

+1 for Fat Tire the beer that lead me down the rabbit hole.

 

3 floyds zombie dust
Maine dinner
Treehouse Green
Rodenbach Alexander
Bourbon County (previous versions before infection issues)

I had a older cousin that would always share his craft beer with me before I could even legally buy brew. But I believe it was the two hearted that made me want to take beer a little more serious.

 

1. KBS
2. Prairie Pirate BOMB
3. Central Waters Cassian Sunset BBS
4. Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier
5. Lindemans Framboise

Though I had tried some craft before, the one that got me headlong into craft is Odell Mountain Standard. Tried it in a restaurant late spring one year, loved it, wanted more. In the process of tracking it down, I found out where the local craft shops were, found out about seasonal beers, started learning about styles, noted the brands in distribution here, and found and joined Beer Advocate. Finally found Mountain Standard fresh, got a four, cracked one - and it was horribly bitter. Turns out the one I had previously was well out of date, and the bitterness was gone, yet another lesson - about cellaring.

 

Not necessarily my top-rated, but beers I have semi-regular access to and that I've enjoyed best are...

Trillium DDH Melcher Street
Hill Farmstead Susan
Hill Farmstead Everett
DDC Péché Mortel
Tree House Alter Ego

(...and the other couple dozen that are tied for top-five).

Because, in my head, there's a separate, discounted sub-category of beer that was really good but which I'm unlikely to get ahold of again because of distance, rarity, long lines, or whatever.

Sometime in the mid-80's, Jim Koch bought me my first Sam Adams at the Regatta Bar in Harvard Square. But it was Jack's Abby that finally hooked me in the end. Hoponius Union.

 

So far, the beer that got us into craft is not on our favorites list...

 

1.) Boulevard Imperial Stout X Coffee Ale
2.) Founder's Imperial Stout
3.) Bell's Hopslam
4.) Oskar Blue's Ten Fidy
5.) Sixpoint's Resin

+1 goes to Cooper Smith's Watermelon Ale. Yes, it's goofy, but it's the first beer I tried that I loved. Honorable mention would go to La Folie, which I tried later that day and absolutely loved.

 

1) Trillium DDH Fort Point Pale Ale
2) SingleCut Mo' Shuggie IPA
3) Trillium Scaled (Way) Up DIPA
4) New England Dose DIPA
5) Night Shift Whirlpool Pale Ale

+1) Stone Go-To IPA got me into craft.

 

Fou Foune - Loon
BCBS Vanilla Rye - GI
Haze/Very Hazy - TH
Weise Trash Culture (plan and Raspberry either) - Nebco
Bomb Atomically - Monkish

+1 goes to... Hit the Trail - Long Trail - Which is retired now and has been for years. other than the re-release in 2013 winter survival pack

 

In no particular order:
1) Westvleteren 12
2) Very Green
3) Double Dry Hopped Fort Point
4) Pineal
5) BBA Dark Apparition

And... the first craft beer I liked was Sam Adams Cherry Wheat. I also credit Sculpin for getting me hooked on IPA.

 

1. Sole Mosaic Nerd
2. Tree House Doppelganger
3. Aslin Master of Karate
4. Founders Breakfast Stout
5. Alchemist Focal Banger

+1 . Sierra Nevada Pale Ale got me into it

 

Can I pick top beer in 5 different styles/categories?
1. Fat Heads - Headhunter
2. Market Garden - Prosperity Wheat
3. Rogue - Dead Guy Ale
4. Jackie O's - Oil of Aphrodite
5. Brooklyn - Brooklyn Lager
(All will probably change next week.)

Gateway to craft - Chimay Grand Reserve

 

Love Aslin's Double Dry Hopped Neutrino

 

I don't actually rate beers, so this is just a list of favorites:

1. Victory Prima Pils
2. Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen
3. Tröegs Nugget Nectar
4. Andechser Doppelbock Dunkel
5. Kane Head High

And the beer that got me into craft: Victory Prima Pils.

 

KBS
Pseudo sue
Supplication
Gumball head
Caffè Americano
My +1
Early into this craft beer journey. 3 Floyd's Apocalypse cow had it fresh and it turned me away from reds, ambers and brown ales. IPAs, my new beer of choice.
Cheers

 

I am fairly new into the craft scene (~1 year and mostly in NC/VA). These are the 5 I think back to and know I could be satisfied drinking for the rest of my life.

Prairie BOMB
Sixpoint Puff
Founders Breakfast Stout
Maine Lunch
Alesmith Vietnamese Coffee

+1 The beer that started it all for me was probably La Fin Du Monde a few years back. This beer made me realize I couldn't drink a Coor's or Bud Light again.

 

Blue Mountain Dark Hollow
Hardywood Christmas Morning
Stone Xocoveza
Blue Mountain Hop Duster
Bells Two Hearted

+1 Devil's Backbone Vienna Lager

 

1) Lawson's Double Sunshine
2) Firestone Walker Parabola
3) Cantillon Lou Pepe Kriek
4) Firestone Walker Anniversary (XIX)
5) Russian River Supplication


+1? SNPA got me into craft many years ago. I still love it.

 

1. Parabola
2. Alesmith .394
3. Rocheforte 10
4. Alesmith Vietnamese Speedway
5. Weihenstephaner Here

BJ's pale ale.