Beer Appreciation Thread - Page 31

The craft beer industry may be a hotbed of innovation, but one beer continues to reign supreme above them all in an annual poll among homebrewers.

For the seventh year in row, Russian River Brewing Co.'s Pliny The Elder has taken the top spot in Zymurgy magazine's vote of best commercial beers. Pliny the Elder is a Double IPA with alcohol by volume of 8 percent.

"I say it every year, but we really are honored and humbled. There are so many great beers out there," Vinnie Cilurzo, co-founder and brewmaster of Russian River, told the American Homebrewer's Association, which publishers the magazine.

Zymurgy asked AHA members to vote for up to 20 of their favorite beers among any commercial beer available for sale in the Unites States. More than 19,000 votes were received for almost 6,000 different beers and from 1,763 breweries in the online poll.

While Russian River continued to rule in the top spot, Michigan-based Bell's Brewery was the only brewery to place two beers in the top 10: Two Hearted Ale at No. 2 and Hopslam Ale at No. 7.

Though much of the top 10 stayed the same as in 2014, Three Floyds Brewing Co.'s Zombie Dust (No. 8) and Firestone Walker Brewing Co.'s Wookey Jack (No. 10) were new entrants to the top 10 this year.

The top-ranked beers are:
1.Russian River Pliny the Elder
2.Bell's Two Hearted Ale
3.Ballast Point Sculpin IPA
4.Stone Enjoy By IPA
5.Founders Breakfast Stout
6.The Alchemist Heady Topper
7.Bell's Hopslam Ale
8.Three Floyds Zombie Dust
9.Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA
10.Firestone Walker Wookey Jack

On June 21 2015 06:19 screamingpalm wrote:


Source

Never heard of Russian River Brewing, but am certainly interested being a hophead.

On June 22 2015 14:12 Mordanis wrote:

lol, of the top 10 only 1 isn't some variation on the IPA theme. Hops for life, yo!

On June 21 2015 06:19 screamingpalm wrote:


Source

Never heard of Russian River Brewing, but am certainly interested being a hophead.

On June 22 2015 20:43 Acrofales wrote:

While I like a good IPA, it also seems to be the only thing being produced by new microbrewers. I wouldn't say that this list is full of IPAs because they are the best beers, I would say that there are only IPAs on this list, because microbrewers seem to be getting pigeonholed into creating IPAs. This makes sense, because while new microbrewers sometimes try their hand at Belgian ales or weizen, it is incredibly hard to make a better Belgian ale than the hundreds of Belgian breweries with centuries of experience. Same for weizen and the Germans. However, IPA is only recently booming and being explored for the rich flavours that it can have, as opposed to being "shitty beer that the English exported to India".