Your Top 3 Most Influential Breweries

Alchemist first a foremost, growing up on Heady it tough to beat. After that Lawson's and then my hometown favorite, Otter Creek. Their new fresh slice is delicious, make sure to stop by if you're in the Middlebury area!

 

Penn Brewing - Introduced me to flavorful Pilsners
Victory - Introduced me to Prima Pils which segwayed into IPAs
Dogfish Head - My first real introduction into craft beer when I took their tour as a 21 year old and thought 60 Minute tasted like piss.

 

1) Three Floyds
2) Cascade
3) Russian River

 

Pyramid, hefeweizen (got me into craft, way back when)
Deschutes, (this is my can't go wrong brewery)
The Bruery (this is my "damn" how can beer even be this good brewery)

Have to throw in "Upright Brewery" for kicking me into farmstyle and sours.

Ok that's (4) sue me

 

Sam Adams
Sierra Nevada
Victory

 

The way I went about this one was I chose breweries that formulated my idea of beer when I first became exposed to craft, so I only picked breweries whose offerings I've been familiar with for an extensive period of time

1. Dogfish Head introduced me to craft and the off-centered philosophy that still inspires me to this day
2. Many breweries have shown me the beauty of Belgian ales but the one that constantly impresses me with every single beer they release is Allagash
3. Stone is also one of those breweries that constantly wows me not only with their beers but their marketing and collaboration practices, plus I have to give them credit for being another brewery that inspired me in my early days with their "devil may care" attitude.

Other breweries that could potentially bump into these top three spots are Cigar City, Firestone Walker, Three Floyds and The Bruery but I haven't become as well-acquainted with them so only time (and a lot of drinking) will tell.

 

Dogfish Head for getting me to open up and try things I normally wouldn't

Founders for constantly producing great beer time after time

Sam Adams for getting me started on this crazy trip

 

Sam Adams, got me into good beer
Stone, got me into the hops
Lindemans, got me into sours

 

Great Lakes
Dogfish Head
Rogue

Honorable mentions to: Bell's, Founders, Stone, Lagunitas, Sierra Nevada

 

Stone for hops, RIS, DB, etc
Deschutes for Abyss, Dissident, etc
Lagunitas for their creativity and value

 

Unibroue
Ommegang
Alchemist

 

Ommegang, Southern Tier and Great Lakes. All powerhouse brewers that turn out great beer in a variety of styles on the regular.

 

When I was getting into beer the craft scene was just beginning so my influences are a little different.

The first is Anchor Brewing: Steam, Porter, Liberty Ale and Our Special Ale (at that time basically Liberty packaged for Christmas). So much more than any of the line ups of us breweries but a couple of early crafts (New Albion, Bert Grant's Yakima Brewing).

Besides Anchor's line up the most interesting beers were imports and my next biggest influence was Merchant du Vin beer imports (yeah I know not a brewery) and their line of beers. The Ayiger (especially Celebrator), Lindemans, Orval, Sam Smith and a couple no longer imported by them Aass (Bock and Juleol) and a Rauchbier which I can't remember the brewery.

My third choice would be Chimay, in particular the Grande Reserve (Blue), showed what heights Belgium breweries could reach.

Honorable mention Sierra Nevada Brewing. Crap I'm getting old

 

Karl Strauss Brewery and Resturant in San Diego

 

Sierra Nevada, I enjoy all their beers, Torpedo, Pale Ale, Porter, Stout, seasonals.
Firestone Walker, love their barrel program
Anderson Valley, they make my favorite everyday stout, Barney Flats, and few others I really like.

 

That was Kaiserdom Rauchbier, which this site lists as "Retired".


The other German smoked beer that I remember from that era is the single bottle (out of a sixpack) that sat in my refrigerator for what seemed like years, until rust started to form on the crown, until I moved circa 1983 (forget what happened to it after that - composted?). A lot of people get various food flavors from smoked beers, but for this one - I could never get "smoked fish" out of my mind. Thus the last one sat...

It came in a sort of greenish-brown steinie/stubby-like bottle (probably 330 ml?), more translucent than a normal brown bottle but not the standard "green" of German beer bottles. Can never remember who brewed it.

 

Boulevard
Breckenridge
Odell

 

Victory
Ommegang
Founders

 

Founders
founders
FOUNDERS

 

Sierra Nevada for getting me into craft
dogfish head for local flavor and experimentation
stone for hops