Best American Wild Ale Brewery

Allagash and jolly pumpkin for sure!

 

And hopefully Highland Park Brewery in LA and Beachwood Blendery in Long Beach will some day soon be considered at this level of excellence since they're so close to me.

 

I would add Block 15 to this list.

 

Top tier: De Garde, Crooked Stave, Hill Farmstead, and Sante Adairius. Ale Apothecary is up there, but their prices are quite ridiculous.

Next tier would be: Casey, Side Project, Jester King, Barrelworks and Russian River, Side Project.

Next tier: Lost Abbey, the Rare Barrel.

Next Tier: the Bruery, Allagash, Cascade, Jolly Pumpkin.

I don't think Almanac belongs anywhere near the top tier. I think Highland Park and the Good Beer Company could make waves in years to come.

 

They've done plenty though: Ann, Mimosa, Sue, Juicy... and boy, are they awesome.

 

Ann is just barrel aged Anna, which is a saison with honey.

It's a weird line between saison and AWA with a lot of American brewers.

 

Side Project below de Garde and Crooked Stave

Granted, I've only had one beer from de Garde and I thought it was atrocious but I really struggle to not put Side Project at the very, very top.

 

Well, I've had very few from Side Project, a lot of beers from De Garde, and their best stuff is simply spectacular. Beaucoup Desay is my favorite apricot sour ever. I love Crooked Stave.

Which would you say are the top Side Project beers?

 

I've had maybe 5 from them. Saison du Ble was outstanding. Marietta Ave was very good but a bit of a gusher. I was fortunate enough to go there while I was on business in St. Louis and their Foudre beer (unfuzzied Fuzzy...base beer minus the peaches + barrel aging) was the best sour I had had at that point until Saison du Ble. I have a bottle of Leaner en route and I'm very excited. Their sours are just exceptionally well done and I haven't even had the ones that are THAT highly regarded. While every one was not to my taste, I couldn't deny the product being less than exceptional. Kind of like Russian River IPAs.

They are a bitch to get but I've found they deliver.

 

This really is an excellent question--too many good ones out there to narrow it down.

In my opinion, the cream of the crop (not in any order): Russian River, The Lost Abbey, De Garde, Upland, and Ale Apothecary.

 

I am going with crooked stave. The work Chad has put into the brett project is insane, and many of the breweries listed rely on his strains for their brett as well.

 

I had La Fosse in a bottle share about a year ago, and it was really great, though it was a bit under Fou Foune and Beaucoup Desay. It did edge West Ashley though, so that's something. I'd love to try more of their stuff, but nobody wants to do a fair trade with me for them every time I've tried (same with HF).

I'm personally not crazy about Russian River IPAs actually, at least in bottles (on draft they're great). I like Noble Ale Works and Highland Park, which are local to me, better for the hoppy stuff tbh! But I know I'm in a minority opinion there.

 

The Ale Apothecary, de Garde, Casey's, and Crooked Stave for me.

Shout out to Cascade Brewing as well, but I'm not as familiar with them as I'd prefer to be.

 

I don't follow. Allagash has been doing sours longer than just about anyone in the US and follow most closely in the tradition of the original (and in my opinion, pinnacle) sours out of Belgium. Plenty of their sours have a good bite and I think their coolship line are some of the closest US interpretations of Belgian Lambics. Granted, I prefer more of a balance of funk and sour, and I do not like off-flavors (according to Belgian tradition) like acetone and harshness that a lot of US sours feature.

But back to the question. How are Allagash's world-class American Wild Ales and coolship beers not 'sour-level'?

 

How has Anchorage not been mentioned yet?

 

They don't make wild ales, at least in bottles, that I know of.

 

Jolly Pumpkin, Russian River, Rare Barrel, and The Bruery are my top ones.

Eric

 

I'm not either. My point is while they aren't to my taste, I can't argue that they are impeccably well made. I have a regular trading partner in NorCal and he always extras me Pliny, Pig, and the like. They are very well made beers.

I had West Ashley in the same share that I had Fou Foune and Fou shit all over it. West Ashley's body was so severely lacking by comparison. It was almost watery. I was not impressed by it but Fou was excellent.

 

WA has had some inconsistency in different batches; but I don't remember on top of my head which batch I liked best. You gotta try Beaucoup Desay whenever you can though, it's magical. Fou is fire.

 

I mean they do all sorts of crazy mixed fermentation. What are we actually defining as "wild" for the purposes of this discussion?