Most Creative Minds in Craft Brewing

Smog City...y'all do not even have a clue about the beast which will be unleashed...

 

Pretty things
Freigeist
Jopen
Emelisse
:

 

Gabe Fletcher - Anchorage Brewing

 

Sam @ DFH (as you said) he always does something new. I wish I lived in the area to try their brewpub beers.

Also I think Patrick Rue @ The Bruery and John Maier @ Rogue. Greg Koch @ Stone has some awesome brews pop up all the time as well (especially the Collaboration series). Jeppe @ Evil Twin and his brother @ Mikkeller are consistently brewing up uniqueness as well.

 

I'll defend my position a little better in that case.

Special Herbs is a gin barrel aged gruit made with, well, herbs. Not many of those on the market.

Fatali Four is a slightly sour chile beer, again pretty unique.

Billy the Mountain is underrated IMO because it's such a unique Old Ale with its addition of Brett C.

Numerous keg only smoked lagers have been excellent and are unique in IPA country.

The new OP is the first sour stout I've actually enjoyed.

Their Gose was one of the first in this country a few years back (Cascade and Portsmouth were the only others I knew of at the time) and now there's quite a few representations.

Possibly the most notable bit of innovation was the mindset going in. No IPA's and lots yeast experimentation was the theme when nobody was doing that. Now that more breweries are popping up with a similar plan, they're trendsetters in my eyes.

 

Jeffrey Stuffings is hitting it out of the park at Jester King with so many new and interesting beers in 2012... . LOTS of new sours (god bless them for that)
Beer Geek Rodeo (w/ Mikkeller) - Coffee Stout made with Vietnamese coffee and chipolte
Bonnie the Rare - Berliner Weisse
Buddha's Brew (w/ Buddha's Brew) - BB's Kombucha tea blended with a Sour Wheat
Das Uberkind! - Sour Vieille Saison
Funk Metal - Sour Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout
Gotlandsdrika - Smoked Beer w/ Juniper
Oi! Oi! - Sour Flanders Brown
RU-55 - Sour Flanders Red
Weasel Rodeo (w/ Mikkeller) - Coffee Stout made w/ Kopi Luwak coffee & chipolte
Whiskey Barrel Rodeo (w/ Mikkeller) - Coffee Stout w/ Koki Luwak, Vietnamese coffee, & Chipolte... aged in whiskey barrels.

Those are the new beers THIS YEAR.

 

Sam Calagione gets my vote.

 

Stuffings is an Artist, Risk Taker and a Mad Scientist all rolled into one. One of the most talented guys in the game. In addition to the list above, the brewery has great continuity within it's labeling. Jester King is always easy to spot on the shelf. In my opinion, if you have good labeling and cutting edge recipes, you're turning heads.

 

Also note that every beer on that list is barrel-aged in some capacity either initially or later. Weasel Rodeo & Beer Geek Rodeo were blended and barrel-aged to create Whiskey Barrel Rodeo. Gotlandsdrika is also currently aging in barrels with wild yeast for a secondary sour release next year.

I'm gonna stop talking about Jester King now because I don't want any more competition until they increase capacity.

 

I would like to know.

 

surly, indeed, dfh

 

While I think creativity is way overvalued in American brewing (is it good?), I'll say that a lot of brewing creativity goes on behind the scenes on improving the overall process and giving us better beer. It isn't always manifested in new ingredients and flashy labels.