50 Beers to Try Before You Die

[NewChief]

Thought the beer snobs here might like this article (and probably critique the hell out of it).

http://www.wisdeo.com/articles/view_post/2984
(CBS) You've heard of "100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall"?

How about 50 to try before you die?!

Spoiler!

Call it the bucket list of beer.

GQ magazine put together a list of 50 beers from around the world all beer enthusiasts need to try before they die.

GQ's style editor, Adam Rapoport, narrowed down that list and, along with co-anchor Harry Smith, sampled Rapoport's top half-dozen. All six are readily available across the country, and inexpensive.

Rapoport's top six:

Allagash White
Ommegang Hennepin
Oskar Blues Dale Pale Ale
Redenbach Grand Cru
Anchor Steam
Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout

All descriptions seen here are from GQ

Allagash White - $9 (4-pack bottles)
The Portland, Maine-based Allagash makes a lot of excellent, wheat-heavy Belgian beers, and this is their flagship: light and bubbly with a beguiling spice mix no one has been able to guess. This is a wheat beer. Like most, it's a little cloudy and sweet, relatively low alcohol. Often drunk a lemon or orange wedge squeezed into it. I don't want to say it's a beer for girls, but it's a beer for girls. They love it-especially on a hot, summer afternoon.

Ommegang Hennepin - $7 (750ML)
Earthy yeast plus lemon and clove in a supremely drinkable amber body. This is the best American saison there is. It's a farmhouse ale, aka 'saison' (pronounced SIZE-ON). Similar to a wheat beer, but spicier (a lemony, clove zest). Goes great with ethnic, spicy foods such as Thai food. And it opens like a bottle of champagne, which is cool.
Saison (French, "season") is the name originally given to refreshing, low-alcohol pale ales brewed seasonally in farmhouses in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium, to refresh farm workers during harvest season.

Oskar Blues Dale's Pale Ale - $9 (6-pack cans)
Packed with tons of citrus from a heavy dose of American hops, this is the quintessential stateside IPA. Like most pale ales, it's on the hoppier side-which means its slightly bitter and sour. You know hops when you taste em. However, it's not as hoppy as a IPA (Indian Pale Ale). And we really like the can, which makes it easily transportable, great to bring to a picnic or barbecue or the beach. Technically speaking, beer lasts longer in a can because no light is allowed in.

Rodenbach Grand Cru - $9 (750ML)
The classic Flemish red: funky, vinegary, and dark. A blend of one part young and two parts barrel-aged beers makes it deliciously sour with notes of boozy fruit. A fruitier beer, but not fruity sweet, more fruity sour. The fruitiness cleanses your palate so it makes you hungrier. Slightly more expensive, more fancy. More like wine than the six pack you pick up at 7-11. You could bring it to a dinner party.

Anchor Steam - $9 (6-pack bottles)
The one and only true example of this unique style, Anchor's Steam Beer is a lager in name only. Fermented at higher temperatures than your typical lager, it keeps the style's crisp dryness but adds fruity esters and extra hops. The most accessible and biggest name of the bunch. But it deserves the hype. It's a lager (which most commercial beers are, such as Bud and Heinekin), but it delivers more flavor. It's a good first step into the world of more unique beers.

Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout - $3 (12 ounces)
The classic oatmeal stout: soft and creamy, with just a touch of roasted bitterness, like the soft poke of feathers in a down pillow. A meal in a bottle! Dark as root beer. Really rich and smooth. Goes down easier than you expect, kind of like Guinness. You don't need dinner when you've got a bottle of this in front of you.
Allagash White
The Portland, Maine-based Allagash makes a lot of excellent, wheat-heavy Belgian beers, and this is their flagship: light and bubbly with a beguiling spice mix no one has been able to guess.

Anchor Christmas Ale
Anchor has changed their Christmas Ale recipe every season since 1975 (along with their label design), but they hew pretty close to a classic, festive cold-weather brew: rich and fruity with subtle spice. Last year's had notes of vanilla and cinnamon.

Anchor Steam
The one and only true example of this unique style, Anchor's Steam Beer is a lager in name only. Fermented at higher temperatures than your typical lager, it keeps the style's crisp dryness but adds fruity esters and extra hops.

BrewDog Smokehead
The two Scots behind BrewDog look outside their homeland's long but languid beer traditions for the inspiration here, storing a pitch-black stout in smokey Scotch barrels to give it an outrageously salty, earthy tang.

Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout
Dark stouts usually have hints of cocoa to them already, so the trick with chocolate beers is subtlety. Brooklyn nails it: Not too sweet, not too bitter, but chocolatey enough to make it special.

Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron
Drink this one for its story, as much as for its taste: Dogfish Head's Sam Caglione traveled to the wilds of Paraguay to find one of the hardest, heaviest woods on earth and used it in a tank built to age just this beer. The dark, extra-strong brown ale gets an added kick of vanilla from the wood's unique oils.

Fritz Briem 1809 Berliner Weisse
Fritz Briem's is Berlin's take on wheat beer: yeasty and super-carbonated but with a uniquely tart, bright finish, making it the perfect summer beer (with no need for a pansy-ass lemon slice).

Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold
Richer, hoppier, and maltier than standard American lagers-or even German ones-but crisp enough to be your new go-to session beer. (Note to non-beer nerds, a session beer is usually one that's light in alcohol, allowing you to drink several different ones during the course of an evening. Or day.) Dortmunders are tough to find even in the homeland, but thankfully craft breweries like Great Lakes are making them common fare around here.

Hitachino Lacto Stout
Skip Hitachino's more common lemonade-y wheat beer and seek out this harder-to-find stout, made with milk sugar for extra creaminess and a slightly sour, Hershey-bar-like kick.

Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout
One of the best examples of a notoriously tricky style, this one tastes more like the foam of a cappuccino than the espresso, which is to say light, smooth, and just sweet enough to balance the stout's natural bitterness.

Leelanau Whaleback White
Leelanau is the side project of Ron Jeffries, who also brews at Jolly Pumpkin. Their wheat beer is cidery, sour, fruity, and extra dry, thanks to aging with wild yeasts in French oak barrels.

Lion Stout
If you only have one Sri Lankan stout before you kick, make it this one. Creamy and bittersweet, with a rich tan head and notes of fruit. Plus, it comes in cans-perfect for spicing up your next barbecue.

Ommegang Hennepin
Earthy yeast plus lemon and clove in a supremely drinkable amber body. This is the best American saison there is.

Oskar Blues Dales Pale Ale
Packed with tons of citrus from a heavy dose of American hops, this is the quintessential stateside IPA.

Oskar Blues Old Chub
Thick, sweet, and insanely malty; ruby-red, light on the hops, and heavy on the toffee notes. Old Chub outdoes all other Scottish Ales, even though it's made 4,000 miles from Glasgow.

Picobrouwerij Alvinne Melchior
Melchior is a solid English-style barleywine-strong, sweet, and malty, with notes of rich, dark fruit-but the extra kick from an infusion of mustard seeds pushes it into mad-science territory. It's so crazy, it has to work.

Pretty Things Jack D'Or
They call this one a "Saison Americain" thanks to a heavy dose of citrusy, west-coast hops. Belgian yeasts give it a sour kick and a blend of oats and barley smooth it out.

Rodenbach Grand Cru
The classic Flemish red: funky, vinegary, and dark. A blend of one part young and two parts barrel-aged beers makes it deliciously sour with notes of boozy fruit.

Rogue Dead Guy Ale
Rogue's Dead Guy is a strong, German-style maibock-full of hearty malts with a bit of spice from Saaz hops.

Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout
The classic oatmeal stout: soft and creamy, with just a touch of roasted bitterness, like the soft poke of feathers in a down pillow.

Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale
Sierra's Harvest Ale marked a new trend for west-coast brewers when it debuted in 1996, and it's still the best of the (slightly-bigger-these-days) bunch: wet hopping, in which hops go straight from the vine to the brew kettle without being dried. They use cascade and centennial, grade-A west-coast citrus bombs, with extra earthy, grassy flavors unique to hops picked and brewed right at their prime.

Sixpoint Sweet Action
Sweet and very hoppy, with a little grass and citrus thrown in. It's mellowed a bit from the original recipe-their Double Sweet Action is closer to the roots, but harder to find.

Smuttynose Barleywine
This is one of the best barleywines around, but a bit challenging to get into. It's heavy on the caramel, and thick as syrup, like a sherry. Drink it like one, too: This is a perfect dessert beer.

Stone Imperial Russian Stout
Heavy, thick, and midnight black. Imperial is an understatement-this is a meal in a bottle. If you can find it, try it barrel-aged for an extra level of bourbony, syrupy goodness.

Stone Old Guardian
Old Guardian is a perfect entry-level barleywine. Not heavy and thick, like the more intense varieties, and with extra hops to balance the boozy, fruity malts.

Trumer Pils
Forget Pilsner Urquell-that watered-down swill has nothing on Trumer. Started in Salzburg 400 years ago but now made in the Berkeley hills, it's a radically flavorful pils, bitter and bubbly and extra dry with slight floral notes from heavy hopping.

Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier
Cloudy, spicy, crisp, and tart, this might be the perfect wheat beer, and a summertime staple.



AleSmith Speedway Stout
This artisanal San Diego brewery boasts a line-up that is high in quality, and often in ABV. Speedway Stout just barely edges out their other offerings with its coffee infused richness that opens up more flavors as the beer warms.

Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye
This brewery's expansion may be built on the deserved growth of Racer 5 IPA, but you'll be greatly rewarded for tracking this down. Everything is on overdrive with huge hops, caramel malts ,and spicy rye, but the balance it maintains makes for an impressive brew.

The Bruery Saison Rue
The awards and accolades just keep coming for these young brewers. The line-up is always adventurous, but perfectly restrained rather than overt. Saison Rue is a farmhouse-style beer with hints of rye and wild yeast strains that make for a deliciously complex drink.

Cantillon Iris
The Iris is the flower of Brussels, and this annual brew is barrel-aged for two years. While it is spontaneously fermented like other Cantillon lambics, it differs in that it contains only pale malts and a portion of fresh hops (versus wheat and dried hops). It is tart but complex. Substitute this for sparkling wine and your guests will be glad you did.

De Struise Pannepot
A vintage-released Belgian Quadruple Ale that is sent forth into the world at least two years after it was brewed. The combination of flavors is compelling and rich while the carbonation keeps the heft of the beer from crushing the palate-which makes for a surprisingly easy drinking 10% ABV. An oak-aged 2008 batch is soon to be released.

Dieu du Ciel Route des Epices
This Montreal brewery is single-handedly raising the craft-brewing profile of Canada. This selection may not be their best known but it is probably their most intriguing, with its use of peppercorn. The flavoring is unmistakable, and pairs incredibly well with smoked meats.

Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA
What can we say? If the West Coast Style IPA (arguably) became the USA's contribution to the beer world and is itself an exaggerated version of the English IPA, what is the next level? How about a version boasting 18% alcohol and 120 International Bitterness Units? (Note to non-beer nerds: That's crazy bitter.) Be careful with that 12-oz. bottle.

Jolly Pumpkin La Roja
Visitors to this Dexter, Michigan, brewery could be forgiven for mistaking it for a winery. Ron Jeffries barrel-ages every release. Most batches are then blended to provide consistency, but all have wonderful tart elements that the used barrels help to impart. La Roja is a delicious sour brown ale in a line-up of excellent brews.

Marin Brewing Company IPA
In our minds, this is the quintessential interpretation of the West Coast Style IPA. The aroma, color, malt balance, and bittering are perfect and eminently drinkable. There isn't an element that overshadows another, and it's an excellent baseline by which to enjoy other IPAs.

Orval
Only one beer is made at this Trappist brewery, but that is more than enough. Orval is a worldwide classic Belgian Ale. Proprietary yeasts imparted during secondary fermentation give Orval its subtle and distinctive sourness.

Port Brewing Shark Attack Red
What started as (and still is) a small pizza chain is now a full-fledged and high-quality craft brewery. Port Brewing is also responsible for the Lost Abbey line; Shark Attack Red is their Imperial Red Ale. It's wonderfully rich and balanced by intense hopping.

Russian River Pliny the Elder
Perhaps the most well known and sought out double IPA on the planet. The reputation is well earned, as the brewers have found the magic spot between huge flavors and drinkability. This is a hop head's dream.

Saison Dupont
The style has been making a welcome comeback, and this one is probably the best known progenitor. Saisons are traditionally delicate but flavorful, complex but not overt. They are excellent beers for food pairing, and Saison Dupont is the perfect match for a huge range of flavors.

Schneider Aventinus
Consistently recognized as one of the top beers in the world, Aventinus is a wheat doppelbock with flavors of bread, caramel, and fruit, and a slightly bitter finish. And the carbonation level makes it a very drinkable 8%. A classic.

Westvleteren Abt 12
This Trappist beer is available only at the source and there are strict limits as to how much one can purchase. The monks only make enough to run the monastery. Its difficulty to obtain aside (but not discounted), "Westy" 12 is widely considered one of the best in the world, and is often aged for several years.

Harviestoun Old Engine Oil
Yep, it's the color of old engine oil. (Is there not a manlier name for a beer?) And, while we haven't actually tasted old engine oil, we're going to say that it tastes nothing like it. A perfect balance of roasted coffee flavor and chocolate, with a slightly bitter finish. For a heavy beer it's surprisingly drinkable.

Great Divide Espresso Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout
This medium- to full-bodied brew first hits you with a huge toasty espresso taste and then with a bitter, hoppy finish. The Colorado-based Great Divide recommends drinking it for breakfast, but with a cloying high 9.5% ABV you'll need to take a nap for lunch.

Double Mountain Black Irish Stout
Why do we import Guinness when we have this right here? Brewed in Oregon, this has that creaminess you love in Guinness, but with real flavor-pleasantly roasty, with a hint of dark-chocolate bitterness.

Samuel Adams Utopias
It's hard to call this a beer because it has no carbonation, has the consistency of brandy, is best sipped from a nosing glass, and, oh yeah, it costs $150 for a 24-oz. bottle. But it's worth a taste if you come across it at a bar: complexly sweet, like a port.

Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier
We can't pronounce it either, but don't let that keep you from drinking it. Simply ask for it at your finer beer store or bar as "that German Smoke Beer," and they'll most likely bring you this: a beer made with malt toasted over an open fire that gives it a pleasantly smoky flavor-like liquid BBQ.

Russian River Valley Brewing Co. Beatification
Perhaps the wildest American Wild Ale out there. Mouth-puckeringly sour, funky like a barnyard, with a little bit of oak (it's aged in barrels). Beatification is a super-intense beer that you will either hate or become addicted to.

Monk's Café Flemish Sour Ale
This is like drinking a Sour Patch Kid. Light, with a pleasant, palate-cleansing sourness, it's the perfect partner to a pile of Belgian frites and mussels. Or anything you want to eat a whole bucket of.

[TimBone]

I need y'all to recognize who is finally distributing to us all the way down in Louisiana. I about shit when I saw it in the shoppette on the army base where I work.

[Third Eye]

Originally Posted by OnTheWarpath58

First time having it, I typically drink Incarnation or City Wide. Enjoyed it. I'd give it a solid B.

Now, the Lagunitas Waldos Special? Good grief. If you like big ass double IPA's, I can't imagine you wouldn't like this 12% ABV beast. Solid A, maybe +.

Traded a buddy of mine a sixer of Alpha King from 3 Floyds for a sixer of the Waldo's Special. Pretty damn amazing.

[phisherman]

IMO, Alpha King is better; much more balanced.

[NewChief]

Originally Posted by TimBone

I need y'all to recognize who is finally distributing to us all the way down in Louisiana. I about shit when I saw it in the shoppette on the army base where I work.

Yup! We're finally getting some of the big missing breweries down our way as well. I just saw Ballast Point across the border in Missouri last week as well.. so it may not be too far off either.

Within the last year or two, Arkansas has gotten:

Oskar Blues
Victory
Clown Shoes
Sixpoint
Founders
Summit
Prairie Artisan Ales. Stone
Bells
Lagunitas

[phisherman]

It's absurd that Missouri doesn't get Clown Shoes, Sixpoint or Victory......

[Third Eye]

Originally Posted by phisherman

IMO, Alpha King is better; much more balanced.

Whereas I love the prototypical west coast hop bombs. I'll take the Stone Ruinten or the Green Flash Palate Wrecker over Hopslam any day of the weak and twice on Sunday. Not to say I'm strictly a hop head, but I do love that style. Also, I missed the distribution for Waldo's, but now that I live across the river from Indiana, 3 Floyds isn't as hard to get as it used to be. Store I went into had a nice collection of bombers and sixers of Zombie Dust, Robert the Bruce and Alpha King. Also still had an Alpha Claus, which I've never had.

[CHENZ A!]

If you guys enjoy Hopslam, you should definitely try this

[TimBone]

Originally Posted by NewChief

Yup! We're finally getting some of the big missing breweries down our way as well. I just saw Ballast Point across the border in Missouri last week as well.. so it may not be too far off either.

Within the last year or two, Arkansas has gotten:

Oskar Blues
Victory
Clown Shoes
Sixpoint
Founders
Summit
Prairie Artisan Ales. Stone
Bells
Lagunitas

While I'm excited about seeing Bell and Laguna taste become readily available in my area, I do worry about quality. I believe that when some of these breweries begin upping production in order to supply more areas, then the quality starts to lack.

In Lagunitas case, I know they opened up a second brewery in Chicago. I would assume that's what we're being distributed, and the last six pack of Sucks I tried was not that great.

I did enjoy the Two Hearted I had this week, but it wasn't as good as I remembered (although I admit the first time I had it was on tap in KC with some great bbq, which probably made the beer even better).

[KCUnited]

Chicago Craft Beer Week kicked off yesterday. If you're ever looking for a good time to visit Chicago, this is a pretty good one. 13 days of craft beer events and special beer releases throughout the entire city.

Another brewer on the rise up here is Mikerphone. He made the local news last week when social media blew up after he cut off an account for price gouging customers due to the high demand for his beers. Each of his releases seem to get better and better.

[KCUnited]

Also, there is a definite freshness/price point issue with Ballast Point around here. There's 6 month old $15+ 6-packs sitting on Target shelves here. It went from a couple 6-packs of Sculpin and maybe one or two other fish 6ers to end caps full of all varieties in what seemed like overnight.

[lewdog]

Finally found some Boulevard brewing bottles here in Phoenix!

Too bad at the grocery store 2 minutes from my place it was a 25oz bottle for $9.99. Seems a bit steep? They had Tank 7 and the Sixth glass.

Did look online and Total Wine can get your a 4pk of 12oz bottles of Tank 7 for $10.99.

At least it's showing up here. I emailed boulevard brewing over a year ago and they told me they didn't have any of their beers making it to Arizona yet. I just checked their beer finder and it's now in a few grocery stores and a nice little restaurant by us that looks to even have some boulevard taps now! So this is progress!

[KCUnited]

Originally Posted by lewdog

Finally found some Boulevard brewing bottles here in Phoenix!

Too bad at the grocery store 2 minutes from my place it was a 25oz bottle for $9.99. Seems a bit steep? They had Tank 7 and the Sixth glass.

Did look online and Total Wine can get your a 4pk of 12oz bottles of Tank 7 for $10.99.

At least it's showing up here. I emailed boulevard brewing over a year ago and they told me they didn't have any of their beers making it to Arizona yet. I just checked their beer finder and it's now in a few grocery stores and a nice little restaurant by us that looks to even have some boulevard taps now! So this is progress!

That's about the going rate for a widely distributed 750ml bottle.

[GloucesterChief]

Visited Grand Rapids a few weekends ago. Part of the trip was a brewery crawl. Visited five:

Grand Rapids Brewing Company: Had lunch and beer. Honey Brown Ale was pretty good.

Founders: Had Dirty Bastard and Mango Magnifico. Magnifico is a dangerous beer 10% ABV with not a hint of alcohol taste. Tasted like a Mango- tamarind punch with a spicy kick at the end.

Elk: Got a flight of ESB, Hefeweizen, cream soda ale, amber ale, and coffee stout. Coffee stout was the best. Hefeweizen was most disappointing as it was weak. Cream Soda ale was odd. Sweet up front, then beer bitterness, then a cream soda vanilla aftertaste.

Brewery Vivant: Had Wit, Raspberry ale, Malt Guild, and hard cider. The cider was the best very tart and dry. Everything was good. Wished they distributed outside of Michigan.

Harmony Brewing and Pizza: Had Grand Jubilation which was a Berliner Weisee half and half with lemonade. Very good and sour. The lemonade wasn't sweet so it didn't come off as cloying.

Ranked:

Founders
Brewery Vivant
Harmony
Grand Rapids Brewing
Elk

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by KCUnited

That's about the going rate for a widely distributed 750ml bottle.

Ok well not bad then! Just checked their beer finder map and there are multiple grocery stores and even some restaurants by us carrying them now. I looked up my email I sent to them and it was almost exactly a year ago and they weren't here yet. The email said they were looking at expanding in the next 1-2 years. I am beyond pumped today. I've been looking forever here!

[KCUnited]

Originally Posted by GloucesterChief

Visited Grand Rapids a few weekends ago. Part of the trip was a brewery crawl. Visited five:

Grand Rapids Brewing Company: Had lunch and beer. Honey Brown Ale was pretty good.

Founders: Had Dirty Bastard and Mango Magnifico. Magnifico is a dangerous beer 10% ABV with not a hint of alcohol taste. Tasted like a Mango- tamarind punch with a spicy kick at the end.

Elk: Got a flight of ESB, Hefeweizen, cream soda ale, amber ale, and coffee stout. Coffee stout was the best. Hefeweizen was most disappointing as it was weak. Cream Soda ale was odd. Sweet up front, then beer bitterness, then a cream soda vanilla aftertaste.

Brewery Vivant: Had Wit, Raspberry ale, Malt Guild, and hard cider. The cider was the best very tart and dry. Everything was good. Wished they distributed outside of Michigan.

Harmony Brewing and Pizza: Had Grand Jubilation which was a Berliner Weisee half and half with lemonade. Very good and sour. The lemonade wasn't sweet so it didn't come off as cloying.

Ranked:

Founders
Brewery Vivant
Harmony
Grand Rapids Brewing
Elk

I have to travel to GR a few times a year for work. Brewery Vivant is definitely on my list when I'm there next.

Agree on Mango Magnifico being a dangerous drinker, but I do find it boozy. I had it at Founders and out of the bottle in Chicago. A lot of people (I know) don't like it but I really enjoy it.