What Beer Represents Your State?

And since I'm a Kansas transplant, I'm going to go ahead and throw Old Backus Barleywine out there for that state.

For starters, there's something fittingly poetic about a state that is largely viewed as ho-hum and plain, a boring agricultural state that has a reputation as the flattest in the US, being represented by a no-frills barleywine. No barrel aging. No special additives or ingredients. Hell, not even a ton of hops for an American take on the English classic. And as barleywine is life in the beer world, so grain farming is life in Kansas.

Not only that, but Old Backus is the highest rated beer to come out of the state. And it is made by Free State Brewing, which became the first legal brewery in Kansas since Prohibition when it opened in 1989 and also carries the namesake of Kansas' long-past glory days of fighting for the right to be a state without slave ownership prior to the Civil War. While those lofty ideals might not fit with the regressive hole that Kansas has become in the last half century, it is how I prefer to remember my birth state.

 

While I'm tempted to say something like Bell's Lager of the Lakes or Short's Superfluid (both a celebration of Michigan's greatest natural resource), or any number of cherry ales or even Old Nation's Sanders Bumpy Cake Brown or Arbor Brewing's Mackinac Island Fudge Stout I'd have to disagree slightly with my fellow Michiganders and say: Bell's Oberon. Just because as long as I can remember, no matter what they normally drink the folks I know would go crazy for Oberon and orange slices come summer.

 

For Pennsylvania, I'd have to go with Victory's Golden Monkey. Close behind would be Weyerbacher's Merry Monks or Victory's Storm King. My mouth is watering just typing these names.

 

Yeah, the Matt-owned brewery (then called the West End Brewing Co., with it's flagship brand "Utica Club") had a pretty impressive portfolio a couple of decades before Hindy or Oliver were born.

Of still existing NY brewers, Genesee's was also pretty nice. (A graph of the varieties of beer styles brewed in the US in the 20th century would look like an inverted bell curve.)

As for the other part of the comment, have no idea what the exact OG (Original Gravity) was of any of these beers ...

 

For New York, I'd like to say it's the beer produced by the numerous small farm breweries that are opening up across the State, benefiting from the NYS Farm Brewery licensing legislation, and using hops and grains grown right there on their farm, or sourced from other farms in the State. These operations, and the beer they produce, underscore the fact that beer is indeed an agricultural product... and that NY is an agricultural state. This movement is redefining my notion of what is truly craft beer, and revives the catch phrase from the early days of the micro-breweries: "handmade in small batches".

 

Flying Fish Exit 16, since many people think of NJ in terms of highway exits!

 

For Wisconsin where I (arguably) "grew up", I would say Central Waters many BA beers. I think that to represent the state, the beer needs to be distributed out-of-state, and New Glarus isn't - but they sure have a following given no export.

For South Dakota where I have lived for 35 years, while we have some great breweries, all are relatively new, only two ship outside the state (barely) and no single beer stands out. Fernson, who just won a Gold medal for the session beer category with their Farmhouse style beer (cleverly called "Farmhouse") would argue that it now represents the state. But since I'm picking, and not a fan of Farmhouse style beers, I say we don't have one yet.

 

Haywards 5000. Pure sweet-corn soda.

Has to be made here? Okay, then. SingleSpeed Tip the Cow.

Or PseudoSue.

 

Westbrook One Claw or Coast 32 Degrees/50 Degrees, because Charleston makes the best beer in South Carolina.

 

Heady is the easy answer as it really put VT at the forefront of the IPA craze.

However, I'll nominate Long Trail Double Bag. The brewery goes back to the 80s and celebrates hiking through the natural wonder of Vermont. Double Bag pays homage to the all the family dairy farms out in the country. Plus it's a very tasty beer.

 

You couldn't fit a hog in there some place?!

 

In Pennysvania there are two beers that best represent the state. (Warning, these choices have nothing to do with my personal favorites but rather are an important part of life in PA.)

Those beers are Yuengling's Traditional Lager and Straub's American Lager.

Both of these beers are unique to PA because they are from family owned breweries where the same family has owned and operated the brewery for generations (i.e., well over 125 years).

In some regions of PA if you walk into a bar and say, "let me have a lager." You will be immediately poured a Yuengling. (In these areas of PA, opening a bar without having Yuengling on tap is a fairly sure way to see your business fail.)

In other regions of PA, particularly western PA, one of the beers of choice is Straub's American Lager. IIRC Straub, as a brewery, sells an extrodinarily high percentage of their beers on tap when compared to other breweries. You can't visit their home town and avoid finding one or both of their flagship beers on offer where ever you stop to have a beer. Straub also has a special brewery feature know as "the enternal tap." Visitors to the brewery are offered the opportunity to have a couple of small servings of beers that they pour for themselves from the 2-3 taps that are always connected to different kegs of free beer. (They do ask you to wash your own glassware after having a cold one.) This is such an institution in Straub's hometown that any of the locals passing by the brewery feels completely at home stopping in for a quick beer before heading on their way.

 

We have some breweries here who do a good job across the board but our State is far too diverse culturally, historically and geographically to have any one beer represent the citizens as a whole. For instance along the Gulf Coast a large part of the population is made up of descents of Yugoslavians who immigrated there years ago and have dominated the fishing industry for generations. Their religion is Greek Orthodox which allows the use of beer and wine whereas in the central part of the State people are predominately Southern Baptists who, at least from the pulpit, frown on both of those things.

The commonality is we have about 100 days a year where both the temperature and the humidity hover around 90 degrees so when someone comes in from a long day on the deck of a shrimp boat or installing a roof on a building what they want is a cold lager and oddly our locals don't brew lagers.

 

Aren't Long Trail, Otter Creek and The Shed Brewery all part of one company ? Or at least there is some sort of business relationship, am I right ? I love how Shed beer ties in with skiing, Long Trail with hiking, and Otter Creek with hippies. Ha ha - they have all 3 things covered, that your most excellent State is famous for !!

 

I'd love to have some of that Wurtzburger!

But the more I think about it, the more I like Brooklyn Lager for NYS. It captures that duality between the city and upstate pretty well, and pays homage to Brooklyn's history as a brewing powerhouse. I realize that New Amsterdam preceded it, but they're not around any more.

 

Yep, and if only Wolaver's were still around... they'd have the organic/crunchy angle covered and complete the whole picture!

 

Since The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is the Keystone State, I do not wish to answer this question

 

I think the truth is somewhere in between these two posts. Victory was one of the originators of craft brewing in the state (1996) and this state is traditionally German. That's why my vote goes to:



My vote would have gone to Kaiser Pils from Penn Brewing, as they were founded a full 10 years before Victory in 1986 AND they are local to me, but I just don't feel as if their quality is on par with that of Victory. It used to be, but, alas, they have fallen off, IMO.

 

Pliny

 

Stone?