Fall is in the air. The mornings are crisper, roll down your window as you pass the Fruit Basket on Fourth Street and you can smell green chiles roasting, RVs are already parked around Balloon Fiesta Park . . . and the Men’s Journal fourth annual guide to “The World’s Best Beers” is out.
All I have to say, well not all, is that the Germans and Czechs will not be pleased.
I rambled on long enough last year about “best” lists so I won’t repeat myself.
Once again you start with 25 really good beers, then get a bonus of 25 “Best Beers for Every Occasion” (with one repeated from the first list). This is meant to be fun page, with the best beer “For an All-Nighter” (North Coast Red Seal) and best “For a One-Nighter” (Ayinger Celebrator). Memo to Men’s Journal: That’s not a horse dangling from the neck of Celebrator, but a goat.
To their credit, many of the beers listed in previous years are here again (nice to know the best can still be the best). Not to their credit: They explain “How we did it,” as if we are to believe this proves that Deschutes Mirror Pond is really the third best Pale Ale, not the 1st, 9th and 103rd.
So that you too will feel compelled to spend $4.95 to buy the magazine and learn “How Carbs Are Killing You” I’m not revealing everything. Just that they picked a top five in five different categories (listed with their first choice):
Best Pale Ale – Firestone Walker Pale Ale. No. 4 Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA is called “America’s best India pale ale.” Them’s fightin’ words.
Best Stout or Porter – Deschutes The Abyss. They must feel a Bell’s [fill in the blank] Stout is a must. Expedition got bumped for the lower abv Kalamazoo to make room for two other Imperials.
Best Belgian – Saison Dupont. That’s really Belgian-style because Ommegang Three Philosophers and Russian River Damnation are both on the list.
Best Wheat – Aventinus Doppel Weizen-Bock. Looks like they are running for office and out to please every voting group. We get a weizenbock, two traditional weiss beers (though one is from Pennsylvania), a Belgian-style white (from Maine) and an American wheat.
Best Lager or Pilsner – Lagunitas Pils, followed by four more American beers. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
Overall this list doesn’t contain as many pleasant surprises as last year, but I’m going tear the pages out of the magazine and keep them with me for when I’m in a pub (like to toast Michael Jackson on Sept. 30). Arguing the merits of the list will make for great conversation. Maybe we’ll start by trying to find a European lager worthy of it.
Whenever lists like this come out in a magazine not really devoted to food and/or drink, I always wonder just who the list makers are and what their beer-drinking chops really are (of course, that’s sort of how I read BeerAdvocate, but that’s another story).
Hmm, a worthy European lager…that might be a tough one Stan. 😉
Not a defense but they did contact brewers, bar owners, journalists. I didn’t see the panel listed in the magazine, but it was impressive.
They make good beer choices – aside from not finding a worthy European lager – it is just the ranking that I find humorous.
And I wonder how often they revisit these beers. Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout (the beer that got listed twice and certainly is worthy) is listed at 8%. The bottle I bought last winter was 10.6%.
“They make good beer choices
What are the 4 others under Lager/Pils?
I agree that all the beers listed make up a good selection of beer to taste, but I also have to agree with your comment, “Looks like they are running for office and out to please every voting group. in an overall view of the lists. Except maybe the Pale Ale. 😉
A local just got the 60 Minute on tap; it’s very nice (as always), but I still don’t understand why they call it an IPA. Marketing?
2 Victory Prima Pils, 3 Stoudt’s Pils, 4 Trumer Pils, 5 New Belgium Blue Paddle.
Dogfish: Their website says the 60 Minute is 60 IBUs. Might you be guilty of a little palate drift in calling this a pale ale?
Trumer Pils — maybe we can default this one a little? 😉
60 Minute — The web site might say 60 IBUs, but it’s a pretty mellow 60, at least in the last tap I had. But I’ve always found it pretty easy drinking, and nowhere near as malty as one might expect in an IPA. Dunno, but I put it next to SNPA as a nice quaffer.
Remember too, DFH uses Ringwood yeast plus this is filtered now so it is WAY more mellow than it used to be. Plus it’s got some mellow Simcoe bittering action going on. Plus Warrior, which is also mellow.
Maybe if they called it an English IPA?
[ducking]