How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love "Top Beer" Lists - Volume 2

I’ve never been more excited to follow up on a blog post. Originally, I was going to do this topic in two parts but I just can’t seem to fit everything into two posts (unless the second post is very, very long). How I Learned to Stop Worrying has now officially become a series of posts (looking at three posts right now). 

After I posted the first part of this series last week, I continued to dig to find more data pertaining to “user-rated” top beer lists or top beer lists that were essentially based off of opinion (wouldn’t all “top” lists be opinions for that matter?). I stumbled upon a site called BeerGraphs. This site utilizes the social media beer rating site Untappd, pulling data to create a ranking system for the world’s top beers. It’s fairly complicated as they don’t just take straight ratings off the site. Similar to Beer Advocate and RateBeer, a lot of other factors come into play. You can read about how they develop their metric here.

Surprise, surpise. Heady Topper tops another list

Beer Graph’s Top 50 lists breaks down like so:

American Double/Imperial IPA: 13

American IPA: 11

American Double/Imperial Stout: 9 (all are barrel-aged)

American Pale Ale: 3

Russian Imperial Stout: 2 (all are barrel-aged)

American Strong Ale: 2 (all are barrel-aged)

American Barleywine: 2 (all are barrel-aged)

Quadrupel: 1

Imperial/Double Red Ale: 1

American Pale Wheat: 1

Scotch Ale/Wee Heavy: 1 (barrel-aged)

Lambic - Fruit: 1

Pumpkin: 1

Pale Lager: 1 (Jack’s Abbey Hoponius Union which they self describe as an India Pale Lager)

Fruit Beer: 1 (barrel-aged)

There are a couple of things to remember about this list and Untappd in general. First of all, there were ample repeats in the top 50. I had to look to the top 60 eliminating ten repeats total in the top 50. Repeats are allowed on this list because Untappd’s beers are user-generated. Some users felt the need to separate some beers by year (ex: Bourbon County Brand Stout 2013 vs. Bourbon County Brand Stout). When I was a hardcore Untappd user, this was one of the things that frustrated me the most about the app.

The other thing that frustrated me again tied into the fact that the beers are often user-generated, meaning users can add beers in at their leisure. When a user adds a beer, that user defines the style (as well as the alcohol by volume). If the user adds in the wrong style, that beer is then forever defined with the wrong style. King Henry is a great example of this. Goose Island defines this beer as an English-style Barleywine. On Untappd, it is categorized as an American-style Barleywine. Is this THAT big of a deal? No, especially since the beer is barrel-aged. HOWEVER, there is a unique difference between an English-style Barleywine and an American-style Barleywine. For someone who has spent the time to learn the difference between the two, this could be incredibly annoying.

Untappd actually has a list of top beers on its website. The list is 36 beers long, with one repeat (Russian River’s Beatification) so for scoring purposes this will only be counted once.

Untappd's highest rated beer.
The name explains why.

Untappd’s Top 35 beers list:

American Imperial/Double Stout: 18 (17 are barrel-aged)American Imperial/Double IPA: 6

American Wild Ale: 3 (all are barrel-aged)

Russian Imperial Stout: 2 (are all barrel-aged)

American Barleywine: 1 (barrel-aged)

Quadrupel: 1

Lambic - Fruit: 1

American Pale Ale: 1

American Strong Ale: 1 (barrel-aged)

Root Beer: 1 (Small Town’s Not Your Father’s Root Beer)

NOTE: One of the entries in the list was categorized as a Gueuze but I included it instead as an American Wild Ale. It appears on several of the lists as an American Wild Ale so it just made sense to lump it in with that style. Furthermore, I personally don’t consider this beer to be a Gueuze due to production methods BUT this post in not meant to be an argument of style differentiation. 

The final numbers I’d like to bring to your attention are again from the website Beer Graphs. If you do some clicking around, you’ll find a list that ranks the highest average rated beer styles overall on Untappd. These numbers are from 2013 (I couldn’t find anything more recent) but I suspect that if there was a current top 15 styles list it would still be very close to this list. In order:

Imperial Double/IPA

Imperial/Double Red Ale

American Imperial/Double Stout

Imperial Oatmeal Stout

Russian Imperial Stout

Belgian Quad

Imperial/Double Black IPA

Root Beer

Flanders Red Ale

Gueuze

Imperial/Double Porter

Milk/Sweet Stout

Cyser ( A type of mead)

Irish Dry Stout

American Wild Ale

Breaking the statistics down by percentages:

Beer Graphs:

IPA (Including Imperial): 50% (Jack’s Abbey’s beer was included in this statistic)

Imperial Stout (Including Russian): 22%

Barrel-Aged: 34%

Untappd:

IPA (Including Imperial): 17%

Imperial Stout (Including Russian): 57%

Barrel-Aged: 67%

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love "Top Beers" Lists

Zymurgy, a popular homebrew/craft beer magazine, came out with its annual reader’s poll list of the top 50 beers in America. It’s an interesting list. Check it out here if you’d like.

The thing that strikes me most about the list is that it’s comprised mostly of “hoppy” beers. By that I mean beers in which the balance in the aroma and flavor are shifted towards hops (not to mention a scale tipped slightly towards hop bitterness). I decided to break down the list even further to see exactly what the numbers are:

Note: All styles are categorized using Beer Advocate     

The third beer on the left is considered the best
"commercially available" beer in the United States,
according to Zymurgy readers

American IPA: 16

American Double/Imperial IPA: 12

American Double/Imperial Stout: 4 (3 are barrel-aged)

American Pale Ale: 3

American Wild Ale: 2 (all are barrel-aged)

American Porter: 2

Russian Imperial Stout: 2

American Black Ale (Black IPA): 1

American Pale Wheat Ale: 1

American Strong Ale: 1

Saison: 1

Milk/Sweet Stout: 1

Oud Bruin: 1

American Amber/Red Ale: 1

Quadrupel: 1

Scotch Ale/Wee Heavy: 1 (barrel-aged)

Wow. 28 out of 50 beers are either an IPA or an Imperial IPA. Add in sub-categories of IPA, American Pale Ale and beers that are “hoppy” for their style and you get 34 total. 

That’s 68% of the list!!!

It got me thinking...what about the other top beer lists? How do they compare? I looked no further than two of the most popular beer websites on the planet: RateBeer and Beer Advocate. Let’s break them down:

According to Beer Advocate, Heady Topper is the best beer
in the world. This guy agrees.

Beer Advocate Top 50:

American Double/Imperial Stout: 16 (13 are barrel-aged)

American Imperial IPA: 13

American Wild Ale: 6 (all are barrel-aged)

Russian Imperial Stout: 4 (3 are barrel-aged)

Lambic - Fruit: 3

English Barleywine: 2 (all are barrel-aged)

Quadrupel: 2

American Pale Ale: 2

Old Ale: 1 (barrel-aged)

American Porter: 1

RateBeer users have rated this the number one beer
in the world. 

RateBeer Top 50: 

Imperial Stout: 32 (19 are barrel-aged)

Imperial IPA: 7

Sour/Wild Ale: 3 (all barrel aged)

Quadrupel: 2

Belgian Strong Ale: 2

American Strong Ale: 1 (barrel-aged)

Fruit beer: 1 (Kuhnhenn Raspberry Eisbock. Beer Advocate lists as an Eisbock)

Lambic - Fruit: 1

Barleywine: 1 (barrel-aged; North Coast Old Stock Cellar Reserve Brandy Barrel. Beer Advocate lists this example as an Old Ale)

For the sake of my observations (which will be laid out in a future blog post), let’s make the following simplifications:

• Beer Advocate’s “American Imperial Stout” and “Russian Imperial Stout” classifications will be combined to match RateBeer’s “Imperial Stout” category.

• RateBeer’s “Belgian Strong Ale” will be compared to Beer Advocate’s “Belgian Dark Strong.” “Quadrupel” will also be grouped in with these styles.

• RateBeer’s “Barleywine” in the top 50 will NOT be compared against Beer Advocate’s “Barleywines” in the top 50. North Coast Old Stock Cellar Reserve Brandy Barrel is number 48 on RateBeer’s list and they have it classified as a “Barleywine” when Beer Advocate has it listed as an “Old Ale.” 

• RateBeer’s “fruit beer” in the top 50 will probably be thrown out as well since Beer Advocate classifies this beer as an “Eisbock.” (Gotta love the never-ending argument about style classification.)

• Lambics - Fruit will not be included in any “barrel-aged” statistics. Barrel-aging is essential to this style of beer. The styles of beer that I reference “barrel-aged” statistics for don’t require barrel aging for that particular style. For example, neither “American Wild Ales,” “Sour/Wild Ales” nor “Imperial Stouts” need to be barrel-aged in order to be classified as such.

There will be some interpretation on my end based on my palette and what I’ve tasted. I haven’t tasted all of the beers on these list, but I have sampled quite a few of them. Those interpretations will most apply to the Zymurgy list.

Again, I’ll save my observations for my next blog post. I want the information to sink in before I start commenting on the lists. 

I will, however, leave you with an interesting breakdown - the percentages of beers from each list that fall under these 3 categories: IPA, Imperial Stout, or barrel-aged beers.

Zymurgy:

IPA (Including Imperial): 58%

Imperial Stout (Including Russian): 12%

Barrel Aged Beers: 12%

Beer Advocate:

IPA (Including Imperial): 26%

Imperial Stout (Including Russian): 40%

Barrel Aged Beers: 50%

RateBeer:

IPA (Including Imperial): 14%

Imperial Stout (Including Russian): 64%

Barrel Aged Beers: 50%

The Food Babe

If you keep up on beer news, you already know the big story this week that has all of the beer bloggers (and even some people in the science community) talking.

Last year, a food blogger by the name of Food Babe published a post that called out the “big” beer companies for not being “honest” about the ingredients used in beer. (I’ll spare you the details, but feel free to search “Food Babe” and read all of the press if you’d like.) 

I do have a few favorite bits of her article, including her recommendation to drink craft and microbrews as long as they are “independently owned and controlled,” even though a lot of craft breweries use the same ingredients as the big boys. (She actually gave an implied warning not to drink beer from Goose Island, a warning I am happily not listening to as I write this post). The picture at the end of the post of her drinking wine is also wonderfully ironic.

This brings us to the present. This week, the Food Babe claimed victory against Anheuser-Busch as they agreed to post the ingredients of their beer online. MillersCoors also posted the ingredients to several of their beers, but that wasn’t good enough for the Food Babe. She continued her attack on the larger beer companies and even included beer bloggers in the attack this time around. For some odd reason she also brought up the use of hop extracts implying that this is somehow an ingredient with negative impacts on a beer.

Reading about this topic/argument today made me exhausted (and needing a beer). It’s a classic internet argument where the gloves come off due to the fact that one is really only conversing with a white screen and keyboard. The internet has given all of us a voice (myself included) and most of us hide behind its vail for protection. We get involved in altercations that we would never even dream of including ourselves in if the person was right in front of our face. Tempers flare hotter and conclusions are jumped to faster.

Yet outside of this vast world wide webbing we continue to chug along seemingly unaffected by the words we just cemented forever into cyberspace. When we chop down that tree in the forrest, we just ignore the sound it makes.

Which brings me to my point, I want to bring this issue and argument offline. I want to meet the Food Babe, sit down and have a beer with her and talk like two adults should. Instead of attacking her, I want to hear her out. In return, I want her to hear an educated opinion on the issues she is bringing up. She is clearly passionate about her work so why not give her the opportunity to share that passion with someone who’s passion she is attacking?

Food Babe, if you are ever in Chicago, feel free to drop me a line. I know a lot of good places to grab a beer!

And the first round is on me. Cheers!

PS - I realize the irony that I poke fun of beer geeks on this blog. Keep in mind, though, that everything I have posted here I am guilty of as well and have been pretty open about that. How else do you think I get most of my ideas?

I Hardly Knew Ye

The problem with traveling is that you aren’t as inclined to stay up on current events. Your first day back from the road is often spent with a laptop in hand (and, in my case, a beer in the other) catching up on what you missed while you were gone. 

Today I found out the sad news of the passing of one of my idols, Jack Joyce. Joyce was the founder of Rogue Ales & Spirits and one of the pioneers in the craft beer industry. I can whole heartedly say that Rogue is one of the few craft breweries that left an enormous impact on my life and is partly responsible for shaping who I am today.

Long has Rogue been one of my favorite breweries. There is only one brewery on the planet that I have tasted more different beers from (and that is only because that brewery is around the corner from where I live). One fourth of my empty beer bottle collection I have up on shelves in my apartment consists of Rogue beer. Whenever I see a new beer from Rogue on the shelves at my local beer store, chances are I am going to buy it.

I never met Jack Joyce, yet he made an impact on my life. Think about that. I NEVER met this guy but who he is and what he did helped change my direction in life. Sitting here now typing this, it is hard to comprehend that.

Jack Joyce was one of the people I always wanted to have a beer with. The chance to drink a pint, share a laugh and engage in a good conversation. I’ll never get the opportunity to do that. I wish I did.

In the spirit of his passing, I’ve decided to actively pursue and try to convince some of my idols in the beer industry to sit down and have a pint with me. I couldn’t think of anything better than sharing a beer with the likes of Pete Brown, Randy Mosher, Marcy and Geoff Larson, Stan Hieronymus, Father and Son Van Roy and so on. If any of these “dream pints” were to happen, those moments would surely rank among the best in my life.

Cheers to Jack Joyce and to Rogue. 

I hope the bar in the next life isn’t crowded because the first one’s on me.

Check Out My Latest Beer Haul - Volume 2

There is no "I" in Communty.

Craft beer.

Recently there have been a flood of articles trying to define just exactly what “craft beer” is. Just in the past two years, we’ve heard opinions from respected industry veterans, rants from the passionate overseas enthusiasts and even seen the definition provided by a popular trade organization change. My personal favorite definition came from another beer blogger who defined craft beer as “anything that tasted like grapefruit.” If it didn’t taste like grapefruit, it wasn’t craft beer.

Clearly THIS is the best definition to date offered.

In the midst of all the arguments we forgot one important thing, what craft beer represents. We could argue for hours that a brewery isn’t craft if it uses “adjuncts” (which for some reason has gained a negative connotation even though it shouldn’t have), is owned by one of those giant overseas breweries or produces more than a certain amount of barrels per year. 

Ridiculous.

Instead, we should be focusing on craft beer and what it represents.

Community.

My girlfriend and I recently moved. Instead of getting a root canal, I thought it would be more fun to pack up everything we own and literally move down the street. (See first article written that describes Steve’s genius ideas and insert this one alongside those). Always more pleasant than the move itself is asking some of your friends to help. It’s like sending them a letter saying they have to report to jury duty.

About a week before the move, two people that I have come to known in the past couple of years offered to help. Two people that I met solely because of craft beer.

The first runs a local neighborhood family liquor store called Vas Foremost. His name is Pete. I started going to Vas Foremost because it is one of the best places to buy craft beer in the area. Over the three years that I have been going there, Pete and I have developed a friendship. I go into his store often to not only re-stock my fridge but to “shoot the shit” about life. At times, I’ll spend an hour inside of his store talking with him about nothing related to beer at all.

Pete is a busy guy. He has four kids and works more than almost anyone I know. The fact that he offered what little free time he had to help us move speaks volumes about the kind of man he is.

The second person who helped us out is Jeremy. Jeremy is another craft beer geek that I met years ago via a beer trade. Since then, Jeremy and I have become good friends, all because of our common passion. Even though our passion takes on different forms, we both highly respect each other because of this thing we both love. I look to Jeremy for all of those incredibly tasting, highly sought-after beers that I have never heard of that he has. Jeremy looks to me for my love of knowledge and the old world styles. 

Both of these friendships developed and continued over the years because they are rooted in craft beer.

That is what craft beer is to me and that is how I define it. Craft beer creates friendships and a community. It brings people together through the love of a beverage created from four primary ingredients. Dark Lord Day. Homebrew clubs. Bottle shares. Beer-pairing dinners. Online forums. Trading. Beer tourism. All of these things create a shared common bond that one can never understand unless they are a part of it.

Last year, my girlfriend and I went to Cantillon in Belgium. While we were there we met two other American couples and started an impromptu bottle-sharing event. Each couple took turns purchasing bottles available and then shared them with the rest of the group. It was one of the best days of my life.

Community.

Craft beer is finally defined.

You’re welcome.

Time Management

This blog has suffered recently, seeing only one post in the past couple of weeks.

Blame it on moving into a new apartment. An out of town wedding. A full time job, a part time job and another "part-time" commitment in the works. Blame it on the rain if you must.

My ambition has also convinced me to start studying for the Master Cicerone exam. I do enjoy reading and researching so the challenge just made sense.

Next week, I will make a return to blogging.

I promise.

Excuse Me. I'm a Beer Expert.

A Great Lakes Tale

I started this blog in February, at which point I didn’t know where I was going with it. Truth be told, I still don’t actually know where I’m going with it. I write when I feel inspired. Sometimes that inspiration hits, sometimes it doesn’t.

While I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to write about, I did know what I did NOT want to write about. Beer reviews, brewery visits and beer news weren’t even an option. There are a ton of other beer blogs out there that cover these things already. Some great, some not so great.

The other thing that I didn’t want to do was accept free beer, T-shirts or other swag in exchange for a positive write up about the brewery that provided me with said gifts. 

Integrity is VERY important to me.

Several weeks ago, I tweeted out my love for Great Lake’s Conways Irish Ale. 

I love that beer. That is the God’s honest truth. The day after I tweeted that, Great Lakes tweeted me back and asked me for my email address. Shortly after I provided it to them, I had an email in my inbox asking for my T-shirt size and home address. Three weeks later, a signed Great Lakes T-shirt with a hand written note showed up at my doorstep.

The thought never crossed my mind while I was corresponding with them that they sent this to me because I have a beer blog. It didn’t. As the weeks went on, I thought about it more and more. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe they did send it to me because I have a beer blog and by chance, I may write something positive about them.

Most of the time I dismissed that thought. My site traffic isn’t that great. Logically it wouldn’t make sense for a brewery to send me anything. Barely anybody would read about the write up. But then again, who knows? In the wild wild west we call “The Internet” when something catches fire, the forest can be set ablaze almost immediately.

That brings us to this post and my inner struggle on whether to write something about Great Lakes. If you’ve been reading this blog by now you may have figured out that I write directly from my heart. It’s the only way I know how to write. People have always told me that I’m genuine. That means a lot to me.

So here it goes...

Great Lakes is not my favorite brewery. With that said, I don’t know what my favorite brewery is. I go back and forth week after week giving people different answers when they ask. Revolution. New Glarus. Alaskan. You get the idea.

Great Lakes is, however, one OF my favorite breweries. When I started drinking good beer 8 years ago, Great Lakes was one of the first breweries I was turned on to. To this day I still love Dortmunder Gold, Christmas Ale, and Blackout Stout. They are and always have been wonderful beers.

Is Great Lakes always in my fridge? No. NO brewery is always in my fridge. There are certain “styles” of beer that are always in my fridge (looking at you, Saison) but rarely do I always have something from any particular brewery. There is so much great beer out there that I try to spread around the love as much as possible.

And that is what I’ll continue to do. My purchasing of Great Lakes beer will not go up, but it won’t go down. I’ll continue to buy the beers I love from them every so often and try something new if anything they make catches my eye. I have always recommended the brewery and will continue to do so regardless of any outside influences.

To anyone reading this blog, please buy beer that you want to try. Never buy a beer just because someone else tells you to.

And if anyone from Great Lakes ever reads this, please know that I in no way, shape or form mean to disrespect you with this post. I love your brewery and am very thankful for the T-shirt.

Cheers!

Call Me Ishmael

I want something and I’m going to get it.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. The truck loads up mid-morning according to my sources. If I get out on the streets early enough I can probably hit all of the drop-off locations. That’s the plan, at least. And if everything goes according to plan, this could be one of the greatest scores in craft beer history.

Store One: One 4-pack.

It is the middle of the week, Wednesday. Normally I would be at work today, but this is too important. In life, you have to know what your priorities are. Mine is buying as much of it as I can. I am Ishmael searching for my great white whale.

Except I know where my white whale is. Sitting at a stop light on an early spring day, I follow behind the great white beast from store to store, hoping to get my fix. I am not alone in my quest. Like a funeral procession, two more cars follow behind me riding my bumper intently, not letting our lead vehicle get out of their sight.

Store Two: Two bottles.

Every so often, I get a glimpse of the driver’s face in his mirror. Wearing a blue hat and sporting a clean shaven face, he grins and shakes his head at me. He knows I am stalking him, following his every move. In most situations this would be illegal, but this is beer. Rare beer. All of the rules are out the window.

At every single store he pulls up front and parks. Getting out of the truck he waves at me, knowing full well why I am there. He walks to the side of the truck and lifts open one of the doors. I watch him as he lifts five cases onto a hand truck and brings it into the store. Before he enters, he winks at me, smiles again and disappears inside.

Store Three: Two 4-packs.

I’m in the next store. Act natural. People say that all of the time, but how do I really do it? Do I just continue looking at the bottles, pretending I’m interested in a purchase?

Blonde Ale. Brown Ale. Pilsner. 

Amateur beers. I can get these any day of the week. Do you know why? Because they aren’t good. They aren’t rich, full of flavor and impactful. No one brags about these rejects or travels at great lengths just for a sip. Anyone who is anyone wouldn’t care less if they weren’t on the shelf tomorrow.

They are...common. They are the salmon to my great white whale.

Store Four: One 4-pack.

The clerk knows why I am here. It’s clear that he isn’t stupid. He asks my name and if I’ve been to his store before. Lying is easy when you do it to get something you want. After a moment’s pause, he walks three steps to the right, bends down and picks up a case. He rings it up at the register and adrenaline starts racing through my veins.

Before he hands me the beer, he looks at me and asks how long I have been chasing the truck around today.

Chasing? I just stumbled in randomly I say.

He asks how many bottles I already have.

None yet.

Store Five: A CASE.

Craft beer is a competition.

I am winning.

Beer Snob of the Week