Beer of the year
Check in tomorrow when I unveil my six favorite beers of ‘08. They’re not necessarily the best beers I tasted, but the circumstances - the people, the places, the events - that surrounded the brews made them all very memorable.
In the meantime, several other bloggers have handed out their annual awards:
Jack Curtin’s Liquid Diet says that little bike ride I took to Cooperstown with a bunch of friends was the “Grand Beer Adventure of the Year.” He also named Joe Sixpack “Beer Writer of the Year,” awarded, I suspect, because I hauled my ass out to Phoenixville to hand-deliver the sickly gentleman his copy of “Christmas Beer.”
Rick Sellers, Draft magazine beer director, agreed, Philly is America’s best beer-drinking city.
The Madison Beer Review (Wisconsin) named New Glarus its brewery of the year. Unfortunately, you can’t get New Glarus in Philly, which means only one thing: road trip.
Jay Brooks rates the 10 top news stories of ‘08. Philly Beer Week is No. 7, just behind the unveiling of Budweiser American Ale. Shockingly, the list does not include the death of Zima.
Pete Brown has a nice rundown on all things beer on the other side of the Atlantic. Orkney’s Dark Island Reserve is his beer of the year, followed by Brooklyner-Schneider Hopfen-Weisse. I wouldn’t kick either of ‘em out of bed.
William Brand calls Russian River Pliny the Elder the best beer of ‘08, another beer I’d gladly gulp. Chicagoist says its best beer was Bosteels Deus (Brut des Flandres), which is just fine, but completely overpriced at $40 per bottle.
Hoosier Beer Geek declared Mikkeller Santa’s Little Helper the year’s best. Mikkeller is one those trendy Scandinavian brewers with a decent but pricy portfolio; curiously, though, this Christmas beer was actually contract-brewed by DeProef in Belgium. To be honest, I enjoyed S.L.H. from Port Brewing even more.
The Beer Rover doesn’t mince words: The worst beer of the year was the house brew at some place called the Venetian Restaurant in Point Loma, Calif., made by Karl Strauss. The best beer of the year: Stone Vertical Epic 08.08.08, with another vote for Pliny the Elder.
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:30 am
[…] gotta stop saying nice things about this guy, especially since he goes out of his way to refer to me as a “sickly gentleman” here (he neglects to mention that the copy of Christmas Beer he delivered was for a review in Celebrator […]