Most Important American Craft Beers Ever Brewed

Discussion in 'Beer Talk' started by jmdrpi, Jan 27, 2017.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. jesskidden

    jesskidden Grand Pooh-Bah (3,071) Aug 10, 2005 New Jersey
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    Kinda hard to figure out scale in that pic - the other bottles are smaller than a puppy's paw while the Porter is smaller than a cigarette :wink: but, yeah, those 7-8 oz. bottles were usually called nips, splits or ponies in the US (and were a lot more common after Repeal). Some brewers made up their own "diminutive" terms for their small bottles, looks like an 8 oz. bottle of Yuengling's Porter was called a "Brownie" at one point.

    [​IMG]
     
    #21 jesskidden, Jan 27, 2017
    Last edited: Jan 27, 2017
  2. meefmoff

    meefmoff Pooh-Bah (1,848) Jul 6, 2014 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    Interesting read (and also interesting to read the corrections here too). I was surprised to see them mention that Sierra Nevada Pale was the only beer to be included on over half the ballots. I would have thought that it, as well as a handful of the others, would have been near universal choices.

    And I'm a little surprised Harpoon's IPA didn't make the list, but maybe that's just regional bias on my part.
     
    dennis3951 likes this.
  3. jmdrpi

    jmdrpi Grand High Pooh-Bah (8,245) Dec 11, 2008 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah Society

    I missed that at first. It says they told each person to list 5-7 beers. Which would seem like way too few, if they intended to have a list 25 beers long.

    That few of votes each, you're probably going to get into the situation like the Baseball Hall of Fame voting, when people may vote for those they don't assume will already "get enough other votes".
     
    meefmoff likes this.
  4. JackHorzempa

    JackHorzempa Grand Pooh-Bah (3,181) Dec 15, 2005 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah Society

    I think it is a fairly good list.

    As others have mentioned I think that Anchor Steam should be number 1 on that list.

    I also think that the below verbiage of Anchor Porter was ‘off the mark’ as has been previously discussed in this thread.

    “But when Anchor Brewing first introduced its porter in 1972, the style was all but dead. “Anchor Porter was the first post-Prohibition American porter in the U.S.,” explains current Anchor brewmaster Scott Ungermann.”

    Cheers!
     
  5. EnronCFO

    EnronCFO Pooh-Bah (1,969) Mar 29, 2007 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah Society

    Arrogant Bastard needs to be on that list.
     
    rronin, EMV, Eduk8traz and 2 others like this.
  6. jesskidden

    jesskidden Grand Pooh-Bah (3,071) Aug 10, 2005 New Jersey
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    Missed this one:
    :grimacing: OK, he qualified it (underlined) but there were hundreds of so-called "weiss bier breweries" in the US in the pre-Prohibition era, brewing and bottling Berliner-style wheat beers, around 25 in Philadelphia alone in the late1800-early1900s, including this one:
    [​IMG]
     
    DonicBoom, cjgiant, TonyLema1 and 6 others like this.
  7. JackHorzempa

    JackHorzempa Grand Pooh-Bah (3,181) Dec 15, 2005 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah Society

    JK, why weren't you contacted to be on the panel!?!:confused:

    Cheers!
     
  8. jesskidden

    jesskidden Grand Pooh-Bah (3,071) Aug 10, 2005 New Jersey
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    Well, it's not like they didn't warn us going in that things were going to be confusing:
    :confused: So....then...not "of all time" .
     
    paulys55, zid, TongoRad and 1 other person like this.
  9. Oopssorryy

    Oopssorryy Initiate (0) Sep 5, 2016 Ohio

    I was a bit worried when the first few beers where all IPAs, but then the list opened up which was nice.
     
  10. JackHorzempa

    JackHorzempa Grand Pooh-Bah (3,181) Dec 15, 2005 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah Society

    Yup, mutually exclusive criteria can cause some confusion.

    If I was the ‘editor’ I personally would have excluded Anchor Porter from the list despite the votes in recognition of the fact I provided poor criteria in this context.

    Of course some of the panel may be of the opinion that Anchor Porter was a “most important beer of all time” despite that fact that there were other Porters produced between repeal and 1960? Hmm?

    The part that I found most objectionable was the statement of “the style was all but dead”. Now granted there was the qualifier of “all but” used but IMO the aspect of “dead” is too strong for my liking.

    Cheers!
     
  11. jesskidden

    jesskidden Grand Pooh-Bah (3,071) Aug 10, 2005 New Jersey
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    Yeah, well, there were certainly a number of other beer styles in the US that were a lot "deader" :wink:. I don't think there was a US-brewed stout left (Ortlieb would come out with one in '79), not many all-malt lagers and those that did exist were rare and often draught-only, only one IPA (Falstaff's Ballantine), etc.

    But Yuengling and Stegmaier were still making porters, The Lion continued Steg after buying their brands and, supposedly, continued to make there own (Gibbons "Peter Pippin" Porter) for a few years.

    Falstaff's Narragansett Porter was still around (and even got an updated label around that time), as were their draught-only Krueger Old Surrey Porter and Ballantine Porter (<the latter may have been simply re-branded Gansett or Krueger).

    I think Matt (still West End then) had a draught-only porter, too, that lasted into the '70s and maybe some PA brewers, too?

    And, Molson, Labatt and Carling-O'Keefe all had porters (each company had several porters, IIRC) just north of the border but I don't think they were ever exported to the US around that period.
     
    #31 jesskidden, Jan 27, 2017
    Last edited: Jan 27, 2017
    Coronaeus and JackHorzempa like this.
  12. jmdrpi

    jmdrpi Grand High Pooh-Bah (8,245) Dec 11, 2008 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah Society

    Looks like Anchor likes their "alternative facts" version of history - it's on their website too:

    https://www.anchorbrewing.com/blog/porter-the-entire-history/

    The main page has the qualifier of "modern" whatever that means. "Anchor Porter® became the first modern American porter style beer when it was introduced in 1972"
     
    #32 jmdrpi, Jan 27, 2017
    Last edited: Jan 27, 2017
  13. JackHorzempa

    JackHorzempa Grand Pooh-Bah (3,181) Dec 15, 2005 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah Society

    Sometime the early craft breweries would 'claim' that their beers were modern due to using new/modern hops (e.g., Cascade).

    Anchor Porter uses Northern Brewer hops (the same used for Anchor Steam) but Northern Brewer was developed in the 1930's. In my opinion a hop from the 1930's is not a modern hop. I suppose each individual can define "modern" using differing metrics?:confused:

    Cheers!
     
  14. AlcahueteJ

    AlcahueteJ Grand Pooh-Bah (3,088) Dec 4, 2004 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah Society

    I did a quick scroll through that list and then through this thread and was waiting for someone to mention Stone.

    They're noticeably absent from that list. I'm not the biggest Stone fan (I some of their beers though) but I can't deny the impact they've made in American Brewing.
    Arrogant Bastard is a solid pick. It's a microcosm for their "bigger = better" motto that clearly influenced brewers and consumers.

    Another pick, albeit being relatively new, would be Enjoy By. Probably the only nationally distributed beer to place an up front and in your face importance on uber-fresh beer. Specifically IPAs.
     
  15. jesskidden

    jesskidden Grand Pooh-Bah (3,071) Aug 10, 2005 New Jersey
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    Well, they've also long claimed to be the only "steam beer" that was brewed after Prohibition but numerous other brewers claimed to have brewed it in the immediate period after Repeal, including the famous Grace Bros., and El Rey Brewing Co. (S.F.) One of El Rey's officers was was the son of Gunnar Tornberg who actually claimed (probably erroneously ) to have invented "steam beer".

    2 other brewers of steam beer, which may never have opened or closed soon after* were Sonoma Valley (Santa Rosa) and Grass Valley (* a common situation given that Repeal happened in the middle of the Great Depression).

    But at two other brewers, Garden City and North Star, did brew and market a steam beer based on ads. "Old Joe's Steam Beer", unlike Anchor, was actually bottled, and was sold in AZ, NV and OR as well as California.
    [​IMG]
    "Garden City Brewing Co." seems to have had some connection (or maybe just a dba name or a contract brewer) of the former Fredericksberg Brewing Co., which evolved into the Pacific Brewing and Malting Co., all of San Jose.
     
    #35 jesskidden, Jan 27, 2017
    Last edited: Jan 27, 2017
  16. Bum4ever

    Bum4ever Pooh-Bah (1,674) Jan 18, 2017 California
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    I think this is a better job at making a list then is usually done with these types of articles. I also see why a bunch of people on BA think steam should be number 1, but I think for the beer world at large Sierra Nevada PA has to take the top spot. I think it has had more influence on the people that make the best beer today than any other beer.
     
  17. lotsaswigs

    lotsaswigs Initiate (0) Jan 24, 2006 Michigan

    I would have liked to see a Bell's beer on the list, but not knowing which one and for what particular reason I suppose that might be why one's not there. Its place in the history of modern era brewers as a whole is pretty darn solid though.
     
  18. Brolo75

    Brolo75 Initiate (0) Aug 10, 2013 California
    Deactivated

    I agree it's a solid list, especially the first three beers with SNPA at the top. I think Pliny should have been in the top five, as the article states Vinnie is credited with creating the style. Nice to see Anchor Brewing with 4 beers on the list.
     
    Eduk8traz likes this.
  19. EnronCFO

    EnronCFO Pooh-Bah (1,969) Mar 29, 2007 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah Society

    To me it also established a large part of the craft beer attitude/mindset, for better or worse. Think of the last beer tasting/fest/release you attended. A lot of Arrogant Bastards in attendance. "Have you had the Louis XIV barrel aged version?"
     
    anfield86 and AlcahueteJ like this.
  20. TonyLema1

    TonyLema1 Initiate (0) Nov 19, 2008 South Carolina

    Man, I love lists...that was a solid one, kinda like a beer Hall of Foam
     
    rronin, MikeP64, mikeinportc and 4 others like this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.