So many great beers, so much envy on my part!

So I was sitting at work recently listening to an album called “Songs I wish I wrote” by Alex Goot. It was basically a mix of songs covering all sorts of genre’s that this guy has done in his own style. Some were great, some were ok, but it gave me an idea…what beer out there in the market would I loved to have brewed, and why.

This would be my view, if I bought a Hawaiian island!

I thoughts about it a bit more and decided that, instead of saying I wanted to brew beer X because it would make me a stack of cash, I would take a look at it from a few different viewpoints. Of course, I would love to have brewed every top selling product on the market and buy a Hawaiian island to retire to, but that would make for a pretty boring article…and I tip that I would cop a barrage of abuse from big brewery hating readers!

So here we go, some of the different brews I would have loved to have brewed…

The game changer

It is no secret that I love the Founders All Day IPA…any beer that can have that much aroma, taste and character with a 4.7% ABV is an absolute winner in my book. This one was launched in 2012 and kind of defined the session ale category in the USA. It now accounts for around 50% of Founders sales! Check out this great article on the history of the beer. As for it’s competitors in this space, there are many, which is a great thing for craft beer lovers who want to have a few drinks and still be able to carry on their conversation.

When reaching out to a few American based craft beer lovers for suggested alternatives to this beer, this what they came back to me with – Golden Road 329, Firestone Walker Easy Jack, Oskar Blues Pinner, and one of my favourite Session beers, Stone Brewing Go To IPA. Check em out peoples!

The way out there beer

For the creativity, the ingenuity, for pushing the boundaries and for just having a crack…I would loved to have been with Martin and James as they brewed their Tactical Nuclear Penguin, the 32% ABV Uber Imperial Stout.

I probably could have gone with their second world record setting effort, The End Of History, but something creeps me out about drinking beer out of a dead squirrels body!

The Nuclear Penguin was was part of their attempt to brew the strongest beer around, which was beaten, then beaten by them with the Sink The Bismarck, and so on to The End OF History. The fight goes on however, with someone in Britain brewing a 70% beer in 2014…craziness!

The solid performer

What’s your go to beer that you just know is going to be consistent every time you have it, has just enough of what you like in a beer to keep you happy and does so time and time again…that’s how I am classifying the solid performer for me. Special mention to Little Creatures Pale Ale and Stone & Wood Pacific, but I am going to go with the beer that really started my love affair with craft beer…Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. If you are a lover of craft beer, you have tasted SNPA, and more than likely loved it.

I talk to mates in the industry and no one knocks this beer for being brewed out of a huge brewery. Instead, they tip their hat for it blazing a trail for everyone in the industry to follow, and the fact that despite the brewery growing and changing so much over the years, you still get a very consistent product. I even read an article recently about how SNPA is your favourite brewers, favourite beer!

The new kid on the block

Photo thanks to www.beerdrinkers.com.au

Wow, this is a hard one to come up with because there are so many good new breweries opening up and they are brewing some great beers! I must apologise to Pirate Life Brewing & Garage Project for not including them here, because they are smashing it right now and are getting enough of the limelight! I also want to make mention about how much I loved “Return Of The Dread” from Little Creatures, the beer was new, but I am referring to the actual brewery as being new for this category, and they have been around a long time so they don’t qualify!

For my NKOTB, I am going to call out a brewery that released their first beer in 2015, so they are pretty new…Hop Nation Brewing Co. I had their “The Fiend” Australian IPA from my Advent Calendar last year and really enjoyed it. I have struggled a bit to find it since then, but that’s not unusual for me living in Hobart where craft beer supplying bottle shops are a bit thin. If you find this beer, try it!

The one I’ve never tasted

I spoke recently about my desire to be one of those cool kids online that are losing their mind over Ballast Point Sculpin Grapefruit/Pineapple IPA. I would love to the brewer that is the absolute envy of beer nerds right now, having created this internet breaking brew. I am not really sure of what the benefits are of having a bunch of beer nerd groupies hanging around you, well unless they had a talent like this beer nerd girl?

One day I will find this beer from Ballast Point, and it will be legendary. Maybe I will find this girl too, and ask her to hold my beer!

The cash cow

If I was to lose all credibility in this world of beer blogging, and only cared about cash, I would probably throw in Snow Beer here. Geez, if I had brewed that, and kept all the profits from it, I would probably be able to buy every single island in the Hawaiian archipelago! However, I have said many times that I am in this for the love of beer, not the money, so I will scale things back a bit and give this award to Sam Adams Boston Lager. Don’t get me wrong, this would have still allowed me to be filthy rich like its founder Jim Koch, just not Bill Gates rich!

I’ve mentioned before that this beer has a special place in my heart, I drank quite a few of these on out trip to Boston in ’06 and seek it out on tap every time I have visited the USA since to remind me of those good times. It’s not edgy, cool, retro, or anything else, it’s just a damn good, consistent, flavoursome brew…Sam Adams Boston Lager.

The international can of mystery

I had a long hard think about this beer. As you know, I really love beer in cans and so I wanted to award this beer to a beer that has done a lot for this particular serving option….Coors Light for their Cold Blue Mountains on their cans! Piss off, just joking!

Nah, I am going to go with the beer that introduced an innovation many years ago that seems to be  having a resurgence these days…Guinness and their “widget” that does some “sciencey shit” to the beer to allow it to pour just like it does at the pub, all nitrogenated and stuff!

Daggy

How do you define a daggy brew these days? Is it one your Dad drank, like Vic Bitter, DB Draught, or Pabst Blue Ribbon? Or is it something that has lost touch with its drinkers and trying anything it can to reignite love for the brand? Yes I am talking to you Old Milwaukee, but I do love Will Ferrell and his kooky YouTube spots!

No, for this one, I will choose one of the daggiest, yet very clever, beers from Australia? Why would I have wanted to brew this one? Well you know that Australians love sticking it to the Poms any chance we get, so what better way to do it than to fool them for the last 30 years that Australians actually drink this crappy lager, and make them pay good money more for it!

Side note: I guess the Poms kind of get us back a bit by sending “wife beater” (Stella) out to Australia as a premium beer…its a tie!

So there you have it, my wish list of beers I wish I had brewed. I have to say that this is only the tip of the ice berg, really, there are so many other great brews out there in the big wide world of craft beer that I admire for a multitude of different reasons. Perhaps I need to revisit this post with a follow up for “Most Technical Beer”, “Most Creative Additive”, “The Guilty Pleasure” and a “Beer Nerds Wet Dream”…yeah that’s kinda got a ring to it!

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BTW, did you see my review of Evil Twin Brewing Molotov Lite, or check out my 5 Failures in Beer Marketing from last week?

Until Wednesday, when I share my of rview of Willie The Boatman Crazy Ivan IPA…

Cheers to Great Beers!