What are your 3 highest personally rated shelf/local beers?

"The Bruery - Smoking Wood Rye Whiskey Barrels", I know this is a love it or hate it beer. I fall into the love it camp.

"Rochefort - Trappistes Rochefort 10" - This is one of the best beers I've ever had, consistently, for more than a decade.

"Alesmith - Speedway Stout" - One of the world's best imperial stouts ( IMHO ), available year round, and at $11.00 for a 750ml bottle I consider it a very good value.

 

Arctic Panzer Wolf
Dreadnaught
Gumball Head

 

off the shelf
Two Hearted
Ten Fidy
Left Hand Nitro Milk

 

Founders breakfast stout
Left hand milk stout
Rochefort 10

 

Founder's Breakfast Stout
Bell's Two Hearted
Sun King Osiris

 

My highest-rated ticks/reviews for beers that I can pretty much always buy (meaning year-round, which eliminated things like Nugget Nectar & Brooklyn Black Chocolate, i.e. seasonals), are:

Ballast Point Sculpin IPA
Victory Storm King Stout (granted, an old review)
Founders Centennial IPA (also an old review)

 

This is a great thread. Many of us spend too much time chasing the near unattainable beers. It's nice to pause and think about the riches directly under our noses.

Here' are my favs:

Top 3 Easily available year-round beers
1) DFH 90
2) DFH Palo Santo
3) Smutty Finest Kind

Top 3 Easily available seasonals
1) FBS
2) Troegs NN
3) ST Choklat)

Top 3 Locally made beer
1) Fegley's (Allentown-Bethlehem) Brewworks Bourbon Barrel Insidious Stout
2) Fegley's (Allentown-Bethlehem) Brewworks NEARfest Apocalypse DIPA
3) Weyerbacher Double Simcoe IPA

 

Was just going through my beers on Untappd. Looking at my 5 stars, I could drive five minutes down the road and get the following 3..

Rochefort 10
Peche Mortel
Headhunter

 

Good thread.

1. DFH 90 Min (but like Burton Baton better lately)
2. St. Bernardus Abt 12
3. Bells Two Hearted (which I'm drinking tonight!)

Honorable mention:

Hopslam and Rochefort 10

 

Bcbs, zombie dust, ninja vs. Unicorn

 

Ale Asylum Bedlam
new Holland Dragons Milk
Central Waters Bourbon Barrel Stout

 

Interestingly,

Dreadnaught
FBS
Expedition Stout

Rochefort 10, Weihenstephaner Hefe, and Central Waters BB Barleywine in there as well.

 

Pliny
Blind Pig
Tank 7
New Dogtown Pale Ale
Sucks
Double Jack
Supplication
Temptation
Consecration

Can't pick 3...

 

I've had the Camo. Pretty good stuff. Have you been lucky enough to try Brunch Money from Armadillo Ale Works? It's similar, in that it's a non stout with stout qualities. Try it...blows Camo away.

 

This just shows how inconsistent my ratings are, so I'm not even going to post. Those fancy Belgians that are everywhere are for sure a safe bet though.

 

Maine Beer Co. Lunch
Marshall Wharf Sexy Chaos
Rising Tide Daymark/MBC Peeper

Allagash Coolships. I live a few miles from the brewery and walked in days and sometimes weeks after release. There is always something so these are shelf beers for me.
Allagash Resurgam
Allagash Red
Allagash Avance

 

I'm presuming you're talking about stuff that is readily available in my area?
I don't rate / review beer, at least not posted here, so I don't have a specific place to look.
I'm in Massachusetts, just outside Boston, so while I don't have ready access to Heady, Hill Farmstead, Tree House, or others like that, I do have access to a ton of great breweries and beers.
OFf the top of my head:
Jack's Abby Hoponius Union,
Schneider & Sohn Edel-Weiss (so sue me, I prefer Schneider to Weihenstephaner)
Ommegang Hennepin, Abbey and 3 Philosophers.
St Bernardus.
Delerium Tremens (I keep forgetting about that one - but every time I get it I realize how good it is.)
any of the beers from Pretty Things, Mystic, Idle Hands / Enlightenment, Night Shift...)
Yeah, I'm easy to keep happy, beer-wise.

 

I don't review a lot so my selections are limited.

Adam from the Wood
Cherry Adam from the Wood
Matt

While these are not technically shelf beers, I can go to the tasting room and have them any day, so I'd say that qualifies.

 

By rating, here are the easiest to get and spot on By Rating list:

#3- La Cumbre Elevated IPA (4.7 rating)
#10- Aecht Schlenkerla Marzen (4.54)
#17 Cuvee Van De Keizer Blauw (4.5)
#17 (tie) La Cumbre Project Dank (4.5)
#17 (tie) Old Rasputin
#17 (tie) Stone Imperial Russian Stout

 

These are four that I can go buy right now, and are still at the top of my list. Nothing crazy or extravagant, just solid beers.

Dirtwolf
Mama's Little Yella Pils-not many people mention this beer on BA, but I really enjoy it. Kind of a summer beer, easy to drink, comes in a can, and full pilsener flavor
Ithaca Flower Power
Stone IPA

Seasonal, but always on the shelf in PA

Hop Ranch
Sucks
Nugget Nectar

 

Cantillon Kriek
Westvleteren 12
Nomada Gato Negro

 

Jai Alai
Cubano espresso
FBS

 

Mine are:

Trappistes Rochefort 10
Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier
Old Rasputin

 

Like most of those posting:
1. Rochefort 10 (every except the two stores within walking distance)
Followed by:
2. Corsendonk Christmas Ale (even though it's the middle of April, the GOOD store two blocks away has plenty in stock. The other store two blocks away carries neither bombers nor 750s of ANYTHING.)
3. Arrogant Bastard

I haven't rated or reviewed that many beers so this list is subject to change, and while I've tried a lot of different brews in my 30+ years of legal drinking I won't rate anything I haven't had since joining BA. Especially since some are no longer available in the U.S. or no longer exist at all.

I do need to get to Europe sometime so I can try Westvleteren XII, though.

 

Local:

GSB Massive IPA
Ithaca Flower Power
Ommegang Three Philosophers


Shelf beers readily available:

Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier
Sierra Nevada Stout
Dark Horse Crooked Tree IPA

 

I gave this some thought before looking up my ratings. A few things surprised me:

In many instances I'm a generous reviewer. In others, far too critical. The beers which came to mind as being my top rated yet easily accessible were not all perfect 5s. (Although, also interestingly, my top rated beers tend to have a rDev in the 10-20% range. Does this mean I shouldn't be rating beers because I'm skewing the mean? Of course not.) I think of myself as reviewing to style, but reading over what I have makes me feel like I should revisit quite a few things.

That being said, I think Death & Taxes is, at least in the SF Bay Area, one of the finest yet easily accessible (on tap) beers. If we're taking tap and bottles then I still stand by Pliny the Elder. Looking at the rest of my list I can pick out La Fin Du Monde, Zombie Dust, and Bell's Third Coast Old Ale as being some more top rated easily found beers from my list. (With another note to self to revisit that Green Flash West Coast IPA.)

Finally, this post inspired me to bump Orval to a perfect score. Because, really, it's a perfect beer. Each and every time I've tried it--young, with <6 months age on it, or cellared (up to 3 years)--I've found something new to rave about.

 

Founders Breakfast Stout
Gulden Draak
Ten FIDY

 

la fun du monde, roch10, Edmund Fitzgerald porter

 

Burton Baton, Founders Breakfast Stout, Ballast Point Sculpin.

Works every time...

 

Orval Trappist Ale
Fat Head's Head Hunter
Great Lakes Oktoberfest

 

Aventinus Eisbock
St Bernardus abt 12
Lunch

 

Ten Fidy
Belgian Red
Fantasy Factory (very soon)

 

Rheingeist "Truth" IPA
MadTree "PsycHOPathy"
MadTree "Identity Crisis"

 

Local/Regional....West Sixth IPA...MadTreee Pyshopathy...Hudepohl Amber lager.

Always available...Sweetwater 420....SN Torpedo...SA Rebel IPA

 

Anchor Steam
Russian River Pliny The Elder
Stone Imperial Russian Stout