Mens Journal Top 25 American Beers

Beer Luvvas,

I've been so swamped with non-beer related things this fall, I'm way behind passing along what some have considered one of my best columns this year:

Mens Journal Top 25 American Beers! This year they went American only v. previous years of Beers of the World, which is fitting given my focus on American Microbrews in my Beer of the Month Club.

Best Dark Beer
1. Ommegang Three Philosophers
2. Pennichuck Feuer-Wehrmann Schwarzbier
3. Oskar Blues Ten Fidy Imperial Stout

I'm a little disappointed that neither Deschutes The Abyss, nor Lost Coast Old Rasputin is on this list; but I'm not familiar with any of their top three. I must admit that Three Philosophers has scared me off given it's "blend of two classic Belgian styles" and my taste buds' revolt to almost all Belgian styles...

Best Ale
1. Stone Levitation Ale
2. Lagunitas IPA
3. Odell 90 Shilling Scottish Ale

I love all three, and there are many, many, many more ales that could be added to this list. But those who frequent this blog occasionally are not surprised.

Best Belgian Style
1. Flying Fish Exit 4
2. Southhampton Grand Crue
3. Bruery Orchard White

I'll trust these guys on this category....

Best Cutting Edge
1. Allagash Confluence
2. Deschutes Dissident
3. Dogfish Head Squall IPA

I have a couple Dissidents aging next to Abyss, Mirror Mirror and Black Butte XXI (I'm a Deschutes fan), but I haven't sampled the others...comments from Readers??

Best Lager
1. Left Hand Polestar
2. Victory Prima Pils
3. Full Sail Session Black

Yet another category where I haven't tried a single offering. My list of brews to quaff continues to expand!

Best Beer Cities (and Best Brews)
1. San Diego - Alpine Ale & Lost Abbey Duck-Duck-Gooze
Stone? Pizza-Port? Karl Strauss? AleSmith? hmmm....
2. New York City - Captain's Reserve Imperial IPA & Brooklyn Intensified Coffee Stout
Not up on NYC brews, not at all....
3. Portland (really?) - Hopworks Urban Crosstown Pale & Deschutes Hop Trip
Out of all our beers, is a Pale really one of our best??? I have problems with that....
4. Philadelphia - Stoudt's Pils & Victory Storm King Stout
Victory Hop Devil!!!!
5. Chicago - Goose Island Matilda & Two Brothers Cane and Abel Red Rye
I've had some Goose Island which has been good, but Matilda doesn't come to mind....

Well, I hope y'all have some interesting comments to post about these brews...til next time:

Prost to Mens Journal's Top 25 American Beers!