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.
I'm not sure what could have possibly made this beer trip any better outside of finding more time for KC brews.
Off the plane, in a Lyft, to Mikerphone within minutes... Mikerphone never disappoints. The Bean Spirits are hard to beat, the port beer was interesting (grew on me) and Down with the Thiccness was great and definitely a smoothie beer.
Quote:
Smells Like Bean Spirit Double Maple Stout - Coffee, 8% ABV
Breakfast stout ale with Maple Syrup & Tugboat Coffee.
Imperial Smells Like Bean Spirit - Hazelnut Stout - Imperial / Double Coffee
10.5% ABV
Imperial Breakfast Stout w/ Tugboat Sumatra Coffee, Vermont Maple Syrup and Hazelnuts
Horus Blends A-Lot Stout - Imperial / Double, 14.22% ABV
Blend of Barrel-Aged Imperial Stouts Hand-Select by Kyle from Horus Aged Ales
Portugal. the Beer Barleywine, 12.5% ABV
Oat Wine Aged in Tawny Port Wine Puncheon Barrels
Down With The Thiccness Other, 6% ABV
Smoothie-Style Ale with Banana, Peanuts, and Marshmallows
The Reflex Pale Ale - Milkshake, 5% ABV
Fruited Pale Ale with Strawberry, Lactose, and Mosaic Hops
Spoiler!
Then it was onto Revolution's Brewpub to meet KCU. Great coffee stout and really good food.
Quote:
Supermassive Café Deth
ABV:14.8%
Notes: A weaponized quantity of freshly roasted whole bean coffee from Dark Matter Coffee Roasters imbues our Deth’s Tar Barrel-Aged Imperial Oatmeal Stout with assertive coffee aromatics without overshadowing the base beer on the palate. Pair with rich food or enjoy on its own. Keep cold. Enjoy now. We mean it.
Followed by a hand selected BA blind tasting at KCU's. I think my favorite was the BL/More collab, but they were all great BA stouts... there was one more in the lineup, but I hit a wall after 2 rounds of Mikerphone, 2 (or 3?) drinks at Revolution, and these heavy hitters.
Also hit up another restaurant and had a 2017 BCS Coffee.
Quote:
Mikerphone: Barrel-aged Imperial Smells Like Bean Spirit with Tugboat coffee.
Mikerphone: BA Softly Spoken Lies, with cinnamon aged in Heaven Hill bourbon barrels.
Bottle Logic/More collab: Double Origin
Riverlands: S'mores
Spoiler!
Drove to Decorah for the Toppling Goliath beer pilgrimage. I don't know if there could possibly be a better time to go to TG... 3 Term Oils on tap and some in the fridge, Mornin' Delight, Kaiju Clash, Cherry Fandango. I would 100% drive 9 hours round trip just to have another flight (well, I had 3 an was there for over 4 hours).
Quote:
Term Oil Coconut Monster Cookie, 13.4% ABV
Inspired by one of our favorite cold-weather treats, this bourbon-barrel-aged stout will warm you with notes of fresh monster cookies baked with heaps of honey-glazed toasted coconut, a touch of peanut butter, and candy-coated chocolates.
Term Oil Fluffernutter, 13.1% ABV
Term-Oil Fluffernutter begins with a special blend of Imperial Stout that aged in bourbon barrels for well over a year. To that already decadent base, we added dry roasted peanuts, peanut butter, marshmallow, and vanilla beans to create the liquid version of the classic Fluffernutter sandwich.
Kaiju Clash, 14% ABV
Collaboration with Bottle Logic. 20 month bourbon barrel imperial stout with Vanilla & Panama Geisha Coffee. Notes of vanilla frosting, dark chocolate, and fresh frothed espresso that segues into bourbon drizzled brownies.
Cherry Fandango, 5.1% ABV
Pouring a seductively red hue, with aromas reminiscent of cinnamon crusted cherry pie; this kettle sour treat is both tart and sweet. No pits about it, just the cherry on top, bottom and middle.
(and the list goes on)
Spoiler!
And made a quick stop at Pulpit Rock... they didn't have Collab-o-rate on tap and their other beers were kind of disappointing. They had a coffee porter that was good, but only had a couple there and bought a can of collab.
Spoiler!
Back in Chicago, went to More the next day. Pretty sure this was the first time trying More beer (except for the collab) and I was thoroughly impressed. The stout was fantastic and the others were impressive as well. Apparently just missed one of their best stouts, but no biggie at that point.
Double Frooted Jam Fruit Beer, 8% ABV
Smoothie-style Ale with Red Raspberries, Tart Red Cherries and Black Currants
Spoiler!
Didn't get around KC much when I was there and should have taken better notes, but did try some local stuff... there was a Crane pineapple sour that was pretty good, and another non-KC one that stuck out was Golden Road Brewing Mango Cart Wheat.
Also had a German smoke beer that was very good along with a double bock that I was pretty impressed with... had several beers I normally wouldn't try.
I've tried very few of their stouts in recent years (granted, they don't make many), but that one looks like it's worth a shot if it makes it out here.
Brandyland is probably the last one I enjoyed, even though it was lacking stoutness for the ABV. I had higher hopes for Rye on Rye Maple a few months ago on tap, but it was a dud.
04-24-2010, 06:18 AM
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50 Beers to Try Before You Die
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