Beers of the Decade

I feel like once you get past the 00's, the trends don't last a whole decade, so it's tough to name a single beer.

After the "IBU wars", it was fruited IPAs, then barrel aged everything, then hazy IPAs, then smoothie kettle sour beers, then pastry stouts. All in about 10 years.

 

Doesn't Hopslam get in there, at least an honorable mention? I'm not sure when it fits in date-wise. 10 years ago it was sold "under the counter, Joe sent me" one to a customer, sorta like BCBS on Black Friday.

 

The problem there is that it doesn't seem to have spawned a whole genre of imitators.

I wonder if a pastry stout like Fundamental Observation (I'm not an expert as I don't enjoy the style so I won't be surprised if people have more fitting examples) be a good fit for the 2020s? It sure seems like the trend is heavily in favor of the standard stout being one that is heavily flavored and relatively sweet.

 

TG Pseudo Sue 2009 or so was a game changer for the APA, When 1st out there was nothing like it. It blew me away and for that last year of that decade it was perfect.

 

California is the best. 3 out of 5

 

Well each of these represented a ground breaker that changed the beer world. We don't know what the 2020s will ultimately bring but we could well be talking about a non alcoholic beer for this decade

 

absolutely not

 

I’d say the ‘90s were the decade of amber ales, although I wouldn’t pin it on one particular beer.

I’d also suggest some regional variation. In the Midwest/Michigan we have the rise and dominance of Bell’s. Solsun/Oberon launched a thousand wheat ales, and Two Hearted really defined the Midwestern IPA for a time.

 

I've always considered Pseudo Sue (added to BA in 2011) to be a copycat of Zombie Dust (added in 2010) so I'm going to assume you found some history for the 2009 date that you posted. Regardless, both beers were instrumental in making the Citra hop so popular with all of us who could get either beer, even to the point that these pale ales taught many craft beer lovers to realize that IPAs aren't so difficult to enjoy after all. Both are great beers.

 

For the 60's I vote for Genesee Cream Ale.
Few beers have been as groundbreaking & stood the test of time as that one.
Boy could I go for a Genny now!

 

Even though I'm old (46H), I don't have much of a beer history. I never was much of a beer drinker, and I didn't get seriously into craft beer until 2014. Speaking only for myself, the beers that defined each decade:

1970's - Stroh's; Schoenling Little Kings
1980's - None
1990's - None
2000's - None
2010's - BCBS
2020's - I have no idea

I might go with generic table beers, which IMO are underappreciated. But whatever the 20's may have in store, I for one won't be talking about non-alcoholic beers in any context. They don't exist in my universe.

 

One beer to consider for the 2010’s is Lagunitas Born Yesterday. Added to BA back in 2014, it was one of the first hazy/NEIPAs that broke the myth that these styles can be sold widespread in a retail setting (and still be darn tasty). Prior to this, the style was brewery-only, and only a small handful of brewers across the country were making them.

 

Wasn't "Born Yesterday" primarily marketed as a "fresh hop" beer. I (vaguely) recall one year forum posts noted a distinct difference between the Petaluma- and Chicago-brewed versions as far as haziness was concerned.

 

That’s a pretty solid list - if those were the only beers I could enjoy in my beer nerd life, I’d be one VERY happy beer nerd.

 

To me a beer of the decade is a beer that became extremely influential and was well known throughout that decade. For BCBS, that would be 2010s. For many it was their gateway beer to that style, and for brewers it became the beer that they tried to copy - sometimes directly, and other times in their own way (less aggressive/bourbon forward).

I don’t think it makes any sense to have only one beer for a decade. I think it’s more reasonable to have 1 per style, with likely 2-5 beers total being “beers of the decade”. For example, there’s no reason Pliny (WC), Heady (NE) and BCBS couldn’t all be beers of the 2010s.

 

If you don't count Zwanze Day, the annual BCBS releases were the only times I've ever waited in line for beer. Those were big deals when I first got into craft beer, and we never even saw a single variant around here. For me, that defines a "Beer of the Decade."

Now here in the 2020's, we have variants turdin' it up alongside the regular BCBS in the ghetto-ass grocery store I go to. Who'd'a thunk it?

 

The weird thing about BCBS is that it was just another shelf beer (at least wherever Goose Island was distro'd) when bottles first came out, too. There was a period of about 10'ish years when it was as sought after as many whales, and now it's back to being a shelf beer again. The obvious reason is because the 10,000 beers that were inspired by it are now directly competing with it.