Best beers 2019 edition

I don’t keep track of beer consumption the way I do wine, but this list should be fairly representative of my favorite beers of 2019 by style. Plus a few other fun categories thrown in. Rick - you are forewarned that some of these beers contain multiple levels of bullshit. [wink.gif]

What beers floated your boat in 2019?

Best German Style Pilsner - Heater Allen Pils. There’s a reason I drink more of this than any other beer. Runners up - Zoiglhaus Brewing Zoigl-Pils and Suarez Family Brewery Qualify Pils

Best Italian Style Pilsner - Wayfinder/Heater Allen/Modern Times Terrifica Horror Pils. An outstanding beer that I can’t get enough. A nice change of pace from the German and Czech style Pilsners. A style I hope to see more of as the domestic versions I’ve tried (Von Ebert, Chuckanut) are quite nice, not to mention the Italian OGs that started the trend.

Best non-Pilsner Lager - Heater Allen Bobtoberfest Oktoberfest Lager. Runner up - Wayfinder Funeral Bock

Best Smoked Lager - Heater Allen/Wayfinder Rauchbier Hell. Perfect amount of smoke IMO. Some think smoked beers are to be consumed sparingly, but I’d happily drink this regularly.

Best Baltic Porter - For a straight BP, it would be Heater Allen Sandy Paws Baltic-Style Porter. But the Wayfinder Gravity Drop Guji Coffee Baltic Porter was insanely good and a textbook example of how coffee infused beers should be made.

Best non-Fruited Lambic - 3 Fonteinen Armand & Gaston. Runner up - Gueze Tilquin

Best Fruited Lambic - Cantillon Fou Foune. Always a magnificent beer. Just wish I could drink more than once or twice per year. An all-time fav beer

Best Mixed Fermentation Ale - Floodland Meditation on Light. Adam is working magic in his small brewery. I’m very lucky to be in the limited bottle club, but also to have the brewery within walking distance of my house.

Best non-fruited Saison - Floodland Superior Stabat Lupus. Mouthwatering citrus, somewhat hoppy and easily crushable. Hope Adam makes this beer again in 2020. Runners up - Floodland ALTAR, Floodland Grails & Waysigns, and Little Beast Fera Brett Saison

Best Trappist Style Beer - Westvleteren VIII. Hard beer to beat…and find

Best Hazy IPA - Tie between Revision Brewing Reno as Fuck, Structures Die in Haze, and Ruse Dial M for Mosaic. If I could recall their names, a few Modern Times beers I tried at the breweries in San Diego and Portland would make the list

Best non-Hazy IPA - I don’t drink many non-hazies these days, but Boneyard Beer RPM and Georgetown Brewing Lucille are always welcome

Best Hazy Pale Ale - Fremont Brewing Hazy Cowiche Canyon Fresh Hop Pale Ale. My all-time favorite fresh hop hoppy beer made hazy? Yes, please!

Best non-Hazy Pale Ale - Tie between Suarez Family Brewery Hecto, Chestnut Brewworks Halleck Road, and Ferment Brewing Pale Ale.

Best non-BA Stout - Fort George Waves of Silence Imperial Stout (Codename: Capsize) with coconut & maple syrup. Runner up - Wolves & People Farmhouse Brewery La Truffe Stout with truffles and hazelnuts

Best BA Stout w/o adjuncts - Holy Mountain Brewing Inosculation (collaboration with Junebaby chef Edouardo Jordan) incorporating Einkorn, Millet, Black Rice, and Smoked Corn aged one KY Bourbon and TN Whiskey barrels

Best BA Stout w\ adjuncts - 2019 Holy Mountain Midnight Still with Coconut, coffee & vanilla. Runners up - various Modern Times beers I tried at the breweries in San Diego and Portland and whose names escape me, but coffee, coconut & vanilla were involved

Funniest beer - Tie between Level Beer Stable Genius Hazy IPA (can art was great) and Rooftop Brewing Impeachmint IIPA.

Worst beer - 2014 Cascade Kriek. Tasted like liquified trash. Was delicious on release, but obviously not meant to age.

Most disappointing beer - Tie between Anchorage Brewing Czech Pilsner and DeGarde The Noir Truffle. Anchorage because when I first had this beer on tap at the brewery in 2015, thought it was one of the best Czech-style Pilsner’s I’d tried. They finally canned it this year and it was merely ok. DeGarde because the bottle I had at the brewery in 2018 was a harmonious mix of the DeGarde funk and subtle, but noticeable, truffles. Three different bottles of the 2019 version, including one magnum, showed nothing but funk.

Best brewery experience - Benedictine Brewery. A new monastic brewery in Mt Angel, Oregon (approx 30 miles SW of McMinnville). The beers are just ok, but talking to the monks in the taproom was neat.

Best beer bar experience - Monk’s Cafe in Philadelphia. Went with a group of friends and we spent an entire November afternoon and lots of $ drinking from a great tap list and deep cellar.

The Ruby Brink has had Cascade Bourbonic Plague on tap the last month or so. Blend of sour imperial porters, aged in bourbon and wine barrels.

Bravo on this write up.

Thanks! What were your favorite beers last year?

It’s been awhile since I’ve had that beer, but recall liking it.

Last year, I became quite enamored with a few of Naperville’s Solemn Oath’s offerings—

Pants Man New England Pale ale
Kidnapped by Vikings IPA
Butterfly Flashmob hop-forward Belgian Ale

Scott, great post. I agree that Monk’s is an incredible beer destination. The cellar list is amazing and the staff are really well educated and helpful.

I have been drinking mostly IPAs, so will throw in a few best votes for various categories I recall from this year, with a heavy weight towards IPAs:

Overall Beer 2019: Treehouse Hurricane. Bought 3 mixed cases including King Julius, JJJulius, GGGreen and others and this one really stood out, for my palate (as are most of the picks below).

Beer Bar: Monk’s

Craft Beer Producer Bar: Modern Times, Point Loma

New Find (For Me): New Park, Hartford CT

Under the Radar Producer: New Trail, Williamsport, PA

Always Worth the Drive (Destination): Other Half, Brooklyn

Independent Catalog (Across styles) that is Widely Available (in Midatlantic Area at least): Troeg’s, Hershey, PA

Great Brooklyn, without the Hype or Hassle: Industrial Arts, Torque

Flagship IPA: Treehouse Julius

West Coast IPA: Pizza Port Swami’s

Go To Beer at a Bar with a Lousy Tap List: Stella Artois

Most Interesting Beer Label Names: Single Cut, Queens NY (the classic hits keep coming)

US Sours: Hudson Valley, Beacon NY and Fermentery Form, Phila, PA (tie)

US German Style: Eppig, San Diego, CA

Pale Ale: Toppling Goliath

US Pilsner Widely Available: Prima Pils, Victory, Downingtown, PA

Best Producer (Hard to get category): Hill Farmstead

I’m going to toss out a few beers that made a big impact on me in 2019.

Fieldwork Brewing Co. Pulp IPA. 100% Citra hopped. My favorite sub 7% IPA of the year. Incredibly built, soft, nuanced and complex. The citrus nose and flavor profile is mind boggling considering there is zero fruit additions.

Modern Times Beer. MT5! Double Dry Hopped. The best hoppy beer Modern Times has ever brewed. Unfortunately after this release last Spring MT for some dumb reason started upping the ABV’s on all their hoppy beers resulting in some beers that became too sweet for my palate. I am hoping they dial down the ABV% with their hoppy beer portfolio in 2020.

Monkish Brewing. Broadcasting Live DIPA.( 2019 Vintage) As the board’s resident Nelson Sauvin geek this is still by far the best 100% Nelson hopped beer I’ve had. You could just snort this for hours. For the first time ever, Broadcasting Live vintage 2019 featured hand selected Nelson Sauvin hops Henry hand chose from Free Style Farms in New Zealand, it jacked up the volume to 11 and then some.

Hudson Valley Brewery, Glycerin,Blackberry and Peach Sour IPA. Nobody brews sours like HVB IMHO. I had this at the Monkish 7th Anniversary party and drank my fair share of this at the festival. Incredible aromatics and layers of flavor’s.

Sand Box Brewing, Continuum. Sour Blonde Ale with Blackberry and Boysenberry. This tiny Montclair Ca. brewery brews minuscule batches of these heavily fruited sours that people will line up for hours to get their hands on these insanely delicious refreshing smoothie styled sour ales. I was a skeptic until I tried Jason Zinns take on this style. Let’s not get started on the 450 North debacle, I’ll save that for another thread. Safe to say, Jasons beers are actually the 6% that’s printed in the label.

Other Half Brewing, All 5th Anniversary Everything Imperial Stout W/Banana. The only regret I have regarding this beer is I didn’t have more.

Modern Times Beer. Doom Hawk Imperial Stout. Vanilla, Coconut and cocoa nibs, a decadent liquified brownie in a glass winter sipper that is beautifully balanced for all the adjuncts.

Monkish Brewing, Little Twin Stars. Imperial Stout brewed with vanilla and coconut and cocoa nibs. The best Monkish beer at their 7th Anniversary was not one of the dozen or more highly sought after IPA/DIPAs they brew but this stunning pastry stout. The purity of flavors and texture was mind blowing. Rumor has it that this could see bottling in 2020 which would make a typical Monkish can release look tame.

Best Shelf Beer of 2019. Beachwood Brewing’s 28 Haze Later. The fact that I can regularly pick up a 4 pack of this superbly crafted Citra Mosaic and Galaxy sub 7% ABV IPA for under $14 is amazing, my numero uno checked in beer on Untappd for 2019 and for good reason.

Best Shelf Beer of 2019 Honorable Mention. Modern Times Space Ways, Nelson Sauvin hopped IPA. Super quality at an even more super 4 pack price of $12.

Cheers,

Bud

Was hoping to try Fermentery Form in Philly, but was not there the one day a week they are open.

Am too lazy to trade, but have greatly enjoyed all the IPAs I’ve had from them. My wife has two work trips to Boston this year, so need to find a way to join. And bring a suitcase just for beer!

Eppig was a top beer highlight of my trip to SD in 2019. Will be back in the spring & plan to visit again.

Agree on Hill Farmstead. Not that uncommon to find a few kegs of the base farmhouse beers here in Seattle. Was fortunate to attend a NYE party with a WBer who had received cans of HF hoppy beers - a double IPA and Nelson Pale Ale. He gifted me one of each and they were both great, although I preferred the pale.

Bud - I tried Doomhawk (can’t recall if in SD or PDX), and it was great. A top adjunct stout for me too!

Treehouse - doubleganger, Spring, and King Juliussss

Cantillon - Magic Lambic, Lou Pepe Kriek, 50N4E
3F - Zenne b2 (WOW!). Also loved b4 and b5

Floodland - Transmigration Of Light out of mag (thank u Travis!). Also close behind were seeker after light, and meditation in light.

According to my Untappd, the two beers I rated with a 5 of 5 last year were:

Rodenbach Alexander 2016
Two Roads Urban Funk Wild Ale

If memory serves me right, the best BA Stout I tasted last year was the Lagunitas Willetized. If you see it, definitely grab it. Such a great beer at an even better price.

Some of my favorite Old World treats from last year -

VIENNA LAGER - Ottakringer Brauerei from Vienna Austria.
Simply the finest Vienna Lager I have tasted - quite hoppy and aggressive - but what a beer
FAVORITE NEW GERMAN BREWERY: Hofbrauhaus in Freising Germany
Just entered the country for the first time last year, and every beer I had from them was first class. A gorgeous Kellerbier and a wonderfully dry Dunkel Bock top the list -
FAVORITE LOCAL BREW: BlackStack Brewing’s '755 Hazy IPA. My favorite IPA over the last couple years -

FAVORITE BEER WE MAKE: Yoerg’s Roggenbier.

The Double Dry Hopped Pulp is the best beer I’ve had in a long long time. Next time they can it, I’ll ping you.

And to the OP who posted Revision’s Reno as F*&k – great great call. A truly great beer.

I can only imagine the DDH treatment on Pulp, I’ll happily send you some Monkish cans in return.I just finished my four pack of Reno as F*&# this past weekend nursing my wounds from the ass kicking handed to us via the 49ers, that beer is truly special.

Cheers,

Bud

Good list!