The Ultimate 8 Taps for Your Bar

1. Budweiser
2. Founders Breakfast Stout/Porter (seasonal flip)
3. Hofbrau Original
4. Sierra Nevada Torpedo
5. GI BCBS (and variants on rotation)
6. Side Project Saison du Fermier
7. GI Halia (aged at least 1 year)
8. Zombie Dust

Feasibility of this list be damned!

 

Somehow I managed to get all seasonal with this and come up with roughly 16 beers on these 8 taps over the course of a year. Not sure if that was in the spirit of the post, but go with the straight number (with no alpha) if you want the top 8.

This was fun - thanks for thinking of it.

1. Mackeson Triple XXX Stout (Fall/winter)
1a. Easy Jack (Spring/Summer)
Firestone Walker
2. Society & Solitude #2
Hill Farmstead Brewery
3. Bourbon County Brand Stout
Goose Island Beer Co. (Spring)
3a. Stone Imperial Russian Stout
Stone Brewing Co. (Fall/Winter)
3b. Founders Breakfast Stout
Founders Brewing Company (Summer/Fall)
4. Double Dry Hopped Sleeper Street IPA
Trillium Brewing Company
5. Dinner
Maine Beer Company (as Avail)
5a. Stone Enjoy By Black IPA
Stone Brewing Co. (as Avial)
5b.What Is Enlightenment?
Hill Farmstead Brewery (remainder)
6. Sculpin IPA
Ballast Point Brewing Company (Spring/Summer)
6b. Epiphany
Foundation Brewing Company (Fall/Winter)
7. Triple Shot- Vanilla Bean
Tree House Brewing Company (Spring/Summer)
7b. Sump Coffee Stout
Perennial Artisan Ales (Fall)
7c. BOMB! (Winter)
Prairie Artisan Ales
8. Sip Of Sunshine
Lawson's Finest Liquids (Spring/Summer/Fall)
8a. Christmas Ale
Brouwerij St. Bernardus NV (Winter)

 

1) Left Hand Milk Stout Nitro
2) Victory Golden Monkey
3) Firestone Walker Double Jack
4) Weyerbacher Sunday Morning Stout
5) Carton Boat Beer
6) Oskar Blues Old Chub
7) Victory Kirsch Gose
8) Weyerbacher Insanity

 

I think it's still good to have one or two staples for the regular locals that come in and know they can count on their favorite draft being there.

 

Because it wouldn't only be for me, I'd want to cover what I feel is the best and most enjoyable/sessionable in each cateogry :

1. Anchor Porter
2. Weihenstephaner Vitus (Weizenbock)
3. Ska Modus Mandarina (IPA)
4. Hauenstein (American Adjunt Lager, for those with a lighter palate)
5. Ommegang Rosetta (Wild Ale/Sour)
6. Old Rasputin Imperial Stout
7. Hoegaarden (Witbier)
8. Shiner Bohemian Black Lager

Now granted, I'd want more taps than that, and these aren't the highest rated in my ratings, but because they are such great examples, I would strongly, strongly push these.

 

For my new bar in Mass:

1) Congress Street IPA (Trillium)
2) House Lager (Jack's Abby)
3) Tank 7 (Boulevard)
4) rotating sour (Cambridge Brewing Co.)
5) White (Allagash)
6) Framinghammer (Jack's Abby)
7) Morph (Night Shift)
8) Julius (Tree House)

 

1. Pilsner Urquell
2. Pipeworks Lizard King
3. Off Color Scurry
4. New Glarus Spotted Cow
5. Revolution Straight Jacket (breaking a rule. I would just have kegs upon kegs and stockpile them)
6. North Coast Old Rasputin (need a heavy stout)
7. Uinta Dubhe (my first intro to the black IPA, a style that is hit or miss for me. Another high alcohol item to round out the light guys)
8. Off Color Troublesome (a super easy kettle sour)

 

I couldn't do it. There are way too many good ones even around here to choose just 8. What I would do is pick an assortment of styles and rotate them among the taps.

1. Alternate between IPA and DIPA
2. Alternate between Stout and Imperial Stout(s)
3. Wheat / Fruit Wheat beer
4. American / German / Czech Pilsener
5. American Pale Ale
6. American Brown / Red Ale
7. Barrel Aged beers
8. Alternate between more uncommon styles such as wild ale, gose, Flanders red, bock/doppelbock

When Tree House expands in a year or two, if they make enough to start distributing to bars, I might go all Tree House for a while.

 

Here is what I would have on my 8 Taps:
1: Neshaminy Creek Croydon Cream Ale
2: Yards Love Stout (Nitro)
3: Philly Brewing Walt Wit
4: Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA
5: Miller Lite
6: Yuengling Traditional Lager
7: Stella Artios
8: Troegs Hopback Amber Ale