Having some time off due to the coronavirus, I thought I would write a little mini-series of short blog posts (how I think blogs were intended to be, yet I usually end up with full length articles). Of all the things that could come to mind to write about, the first was beer. Possibly, because Jeremy and I are discussing what will be our next keg for the kegerator and whether local breweries who are delivering six-packs will also deliver a keg.
I thought I would share some of my favorite beers, brands and styles. And tell you what I don’t like. It would be a lot easier to do this if I kept track of my brews on Untappd but in sheer defiance of my immediate family who are obsessed it, I refuse to download it and attempt to remember my favorite beers from memory. See, every time we get together and go to a brewery everyone’s faces are in their phones rating beer!
Alright, so my first exposure to good beer (aside from through my Dad) was when I moved to Germany at 22. In college I thought Sam Adams was beer snobbery compared to the typical Keystone and Natty Light. For the incredible quality and truth to form, I LOVE a German Helles and Hefeweisen, and a Czech Pilsner. And occasionally, a Dunkelweiss.
The Helles is the perfect sit outside on a patio and drink a good beer while chatting with friends beer. Pretty much everywhere in Bavaria makes a good one, and Payette Brewing right in Boise makes a good American version. The Hefeweisen, a good Hefe, will taste like banana and clove with notes of bubblegum and blows your mind that Germans make it with four ingredients. Forget Blue Moon and American Wheat beers, but find a Franziskaner Hefe or Dunkelweiss, and it is a mouth treat. And there is no better Pilsner, skunk and all, than Pilsner Urquell, which thankfully isn’t too hard to find stateside.
Ok, then American craft beer. Off my Euro high horse (not even going into Belgians) and some good microbrewery craft beer. So, IPAs got big while I was in Germany and I came back to some seriously hoppy beer that tasted like earwax to me. I wrote off IPAs and avoided them. Then, the lower IBU Hazy came around and I opened back up. And now, I’m seeing other lower IBU IPA (like 55 and below) and I am loving them.
Other styles I love to try: certain sours; sucker for saisons; nut browns, certain pale ales and English style bitters, peanut butter and coffee porters and stouts.
Styles I typically do not like: Imperials, barrel-aged or otherwise; barleywines, Berlinerweiss, red ales (except McCall Brewing, very good red ale).
This is really hard from memory, so you know these are the ones that stick.
Favorite craft breweries (quality, variety, and/or atmosphere) and not in this particular order, I just numbered to keep them organized:
- Crux Fermentation Project, Bend, OR
- Payette Brewing, Boise, ID
- Wicked Weed, Asheville, NC
- Live Oak Brewing, Austin, TX
- Snake River Brewing, Jackson, WY
- Devil’s Backbone Brewing Company, outside Charlottesville, VA
Favorite individual beers:
- Crux Fermentation Project: Everything. But seriously, Off Leash IPA, X-Bock, and Imperial Farmhouse
- Listermann Brewing (Cincinnati, OH): Peanut Butter Porter
- Three Stars Brewing (Washington, DC): Peppercorn Saison (and literally nothing else they brew)
- Payette Brewing (Boise, ID): Mutton Buster Brown, Flyline Vienna Lager, 808 in da 208 Helles
- Rogue Brewing (Newport, OR): Chocolate Stout
- Bear Island Brewing (Boise, ID): Cucumber Kolsch and Jerk Hefe (Veteran-owned Brewery!!)
Gah, I KNOW I left a ton out. Still not doing Untappd!
