Top Beers of 2010
Dec-31-2010

This has been a very, very good year for drinking beer. Shuffling through my smudged, beer-stained notes, I see I enjoyed countless IPAs, stouts and wild yeast-spiked sour ales. Though most were enjoyable, some suds rose to the top of the pint class. Here are eight of my most memorable sips of 2010.

Boston Beer Co.: Infinium Ale
The Samuel Adams crew spent two years collaborating with Germany's legendary Weihenstephan brewery to create this effervescent, 10.3 percent treat featuring a fruity, champagne-like twang. What makes Infinium extra-special: It's the first new beer style created under Germany's beer-purity law, the Reinheitsgebot, in more than four centuries.

Half Acre Beer Company: Daisy Cutter Pale Ale
One of my favorite new pale ales is the Chicago brewery's Daisy Cutter, which is jammed with a quintet of fragrant, aromatic hops (Warrior, Columbus, Centennial, Simcoe and Amarillo) that check in at 60 IBUs -- and just 5.2 percent ABV. That means citric, piney Daisy slides down nice and easy.

Brooklyn Brewery: Sorachi Ace
Brewmaster Garrett Oliver hit a grand slam with this lean and yeasty golden saison, which packs plenty of pepper and spice and some oddball flavors thanks to Japan's little-known Sorachi Ace hop. I'm talking lemons and buttered toast. This beer's a lovely little thing I could drink all night.

Stillwater Artisanal Ales: Stateside Saison
Baltimore-based gyspy brewer Brian Strumke, who travels to breweries across the country and Europe to concocts his ales, fashioned this farmhouse-style saison with Nelson Sauvin hops. That gives the sunset-orange elixir a decidedly wine-like character, which plays well with the notes of biscuits, citrus and tart funk.

Odell Brewing: Woodcut No. 4 Oak-Aged Lager
If you find an extra bottle of Odell's Woodcut No. 4 floating around, snap it up. The brewers took a strong, doubly potent m�rzen (the lager you sip during Oktoberfest) and aged it in new, freshly charred oak barrels. The results were transcendent: toffee, vanilla, earthy hops and malty opulence. It was one of my fondest drinking memories for 2010.

Cascade Brewing: Bourbonic Plague
Brewmaster Ron Gansberg's stunner is a blend of potent porters put to bed in oak, wine, and bourbon barrels, which is then mixed with a porter aged with vanilla beans and cinnamon. Finally, the blended brew slumbers for another 14 months alongside dates and Lactobacillus bacteria. While these flavors may seem as incompatible as oil and water, the result is lightly puckering with a blooming belly warmth and taste that flits from cherries to oak to milk chocolate.

Firestone Walker: Parabola
The California brewery's barrel-aged imperial stout is pure after-dinner pleasure. As expected, Parabola has a bourbon-like nose, but it also presents a gelato-smooth mouthfeel and bursts with cherries, chocolate and espresso. What makes it dangerous: the 13 percent ABV is well hidden.

Otter Creek: Alpine Black IPA
Though black IPAs have hit stormed beer stores this year (Deschutes' Hop in the Dark, Stone's Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale), I was smitten by this Vermont brewery's take. An addition of Citra hops gives the dark, caramel-tinged ale a beguiling tropical profile, with a bit of bitter citrus thrown in for fun.

Posted by Clay Kohut at 12:43 AM - Link to this entry  |  Share this entry  |  Print