One of my interests other than beer is Fantasy Football, or soccer to people from across the ocean. For anybody interested, my team is currently top of the league. We have to pick fifteen players, limited to two per club, and to make it harder we operate an auction system so even then we cannot pick the best two players per club whilst preserving our budget.
All this made me think of a fantasy beer fridge. I allowed myself fifteen beers but limited it to one per style and one per country. This really is much harder than you think and it took me quite some time to arrive at my final 15.
How can I only pick one beer from Belgium and the US? How can I only pick one Doppelbock or one Imperial Stout? Additionally I am only allowed to pick beers I have actually drank already, and that are still in production.
My final list will not please many people. My favourite beer Rochefort 10 is not even included; there is no lambic, no IIPA, no Barley Wine, no wheat beers, nor any trappist beers of any style. It's a pretty eclectic list but it covers enough styles that I would be happy if somebody told me these are the only 15 beers I am allowed to drink for the rest of my life. I have used the styles credited to each beer on RateBeer.
I challenge readers to come up with their own list, either to post here or if you own a blog, on your own site. It really is hard, but great fun.
The list is below, in alphabetical order by country.
| Austria | Doppelbock | Schloss Eggenberg Urbock 23° |
| Belgium | Sour Ale | Struise Earthmonk |
| Canada | Belgian Strong | Unibroue Trois Pistoles |
| Denmark | Brown Ale | Mikkeller Jackie Brown |
| England | Mild | Potbelly Beijing Black |
| Finland | Porter | Huvila Porter |
| France | Sweet Stout | Alphand Stout |
| Germany | Smoked | Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen |
| Netherlands | Pilsener | Christoffel Blond |
| New Zealand | IPA | Emersons 1812 India Pale Ale |
| Norway | APA | Nøgne Ø APA |
| Poland | Baltic Porter | Zywiec Porter |
| Scotland | Old Ale | Harviestoun Old Engine Oil |
| Sweden | Imperial Stout | Nils Oscar Imperial Stout |
| USA | Fruit Beer | New Glarus Belgian Red |
5 comments:
Good grab with new glarus! Their Wisconsin red and their raspberry tart are the beers I use to rebut the philistine argument that fruit does not belong in beer. I wonder how you got ahold of some though, they do not distribute outside of their home state! Their owners said something about the best beer and politics being local affairs...
Here my list made without looking at yours. I made decision that Scotland, England were being treated seperatly as thats what rate beer does. I include MY rate beer scores
Italy Barley Wine Baladin Xyauyu 4.8
Sweden Imperial Stout Dugges Idjit 4.7
Belgian Strong ale Bush Prestige 4.6
Denmark Porter Olfabriken porter 4.4
Scotland Traditional ale Heather ales Ebulum 4.4
Wales Stout Bull Mastive Welsh Black 4.4
England Old Ale Gales prize old ale 4.3
USA Sweet stout Left hand milk stout 4.2
German Hefeweizen Weihenstephener Hefe Weisebier 4.1
Czech Schwartsbier Louny Tmavy Lezak 4.1
Ukraine Baltic Porter Lvivske Porter 4.0
Norway American Strong Nogne O God Jul 4.0
The rest made it into the team dispit just falling short of my Excelent score
Canada Fruit Spinnakers Current Noir 3.9
Australia Brown ale Coopers Dark 3.9
Poland ? Lager King Kobra 3.7
Craig
To hard , my tastes are to focused.
off the top of my head I can get to 5
England, Old Ale, Gales Prize Old
NZ, bitter, Galbraith’s Bob Hudsons Bitter
Scotland, Scottish Ale, Traquir House Ale
US, Porter, Anchor Porter.
Australia, Stout, Coopers Vintage Stout.
Brendan. I got the New Glarus from a RateBeerian in the USA together with Raspberry Tart which is also excellent.
Craig. Nice list except King Cobra :-(
Kieran. Not a bad 5 a side team!
Well, i didnt expect the Cobra to be up to much but it was bottle conditioned so thought id give it ago. So as i didnt expect much i ended up keeping it a year or two, and actually was really suprised by it. Enough that i bought another and am deliberitly aging it.
Again though by its score it only sneaked onto the list as the coutries were starting to hit hard. I could probably have got a better 15th choice but one of my higher choices whould have been poorer and decided that id rather have a great beer in my top 5 than a poorer one just to get a slightly better 15th.
My one big regret was not being able to get a Struise beer in there.
Craig.
Post a Comment