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It's hard to get people to take a list seriously.
I get that. There's so much junk out there now, and people are inundated with clickbaity best of this or that lists compiled by people who've not personally actually had everything thing on the list they're publishing, let along tried another 30 things that were deemed unworthy.
Willamette Week's annual list of the top 10 beers of the year is not that sort of list. Really, it's not.
Each year, we open our Portland Beer Guide with profiles of 10 really special beers from the state of Oregon. We spend all year tracking down suggestions from people who think they've tried something worthy, squirreling away bottles, taking copious notes on draft only beers, and hosting an epic tasting debate where our team of beer writers assemble to discuss the best things to happen in Oregon beer over the last year.
And then we publish a list. Just like the lists Buzzfeed makes of the cutest animals gifs. I only wish there was a more dignified way to present the information.
So today, as we prepare to release our 2016 Beer Guide, I took some time to analyze our past lists.
We've been doing this since 2011, and as of next week we'll have named 50 individual beers as among the best the state has ever made. Today, I stand firmly by at least 43 of those. Who will I now throw under the bus? Read on to see.
Some overall details: No brewery has landed a beer on our top 10 list every year and no brewer has yet made the Beer of the Year twice. Because WW writers are who we are, Belgian and German beers have been overrepresented while English ales and American IPAs have been underrepresented. Because Oregon is as it is, Hood River breweries tend have a very strong showing while Bend breweries do respectably well and only one Eugene brewery, Oakshire, has ever made the list.
Breakside is the only brewery to have made the list three years in a row. Will they extend that streak to four?
Come out to the Oregon Beer Awards next Tuesday (tickets here) and you'll be among the first to find out, as I'll be announcing WW's annual top 10 along with the beers picked by expert from across the state in two days of double-blind tasting. For $15 you get a sandwich, a beer, and the chance to hobnob with the biggest concentration of Portland beer industry insiders that'll be assembled anywhere all year.
Our inaugural list was published in December 2011. This was before we had a Beer Guide, and was simply published in a regular edition of Willamette Week. I think it's a pretty good list, though.
1. Fresh Hop Seizoen
Logsdon Farmhouse Ales, Hood River
2. Killer Green Fresh Hop IPA
Double Mountain, Hood River
3. Doggie Claws Barley Wine Style Ale
Hair of the Dog, Portland
4. Vlad the Imp Aler NW Sour
Cascade Brewing Barrel House, Portland
5. De La Six
Upright, Portland
6. Black Butte XXIII Imperial Porter
Deschutes, Bend
7. Dunkelweizen
Occidental Brewing Co., Portland
8. La Ferme' de Demons Dark Farmhouse Ale
Block 15, Corvallis
9. Turmoil Cascadian Dark Ale
Barley Brown's, Baker City
10. Summer Squeeze Ale
BridgePort, Portland
I moved to Portland in October 2011. Everything was new and confusing, but I wanted to start a tradition of honoring the best beers of the year. To do that, I relied heavily on the expertise of Brian Yaeger, who is now the beer writer for the Portland Mercury, and my former assistant Ben Waterhouse, who is now a publicist.
Our first Beer of the Year was Logsdon's Fresh Hop Seizon—and the experience of drinking that beer on draft at Saraveza remains magical in my memory. Logsdon has slipped, and I can't stand as firmly behind the picks in that year's list as the others because I didn't have all the seasonal beers listed. My subsequent experiences with breweries like Hair of the Dog, which Ben has a serious soft spot for, have not really confirmed what we did there. But I know we were right about the beers we picked from Logsdon, Deschutes, Upright and Block 15.
Our first glossy Beer Guide was published in March 2013. It also included a list of the previous year's best beers.
This is probably my most personal list, which led off a new publication I conceived and launched. Our first Beer Guide included 59 breweries within an hour's drive of Portland. The edition we'll release next Wednesday has 109. That's how fast beer has grown in this area.
The 2013 list was heavily inspired by my own discoveries and taste—which tends toward the sweet, hot and weird—but also influenced by Brian Yaeger and the group of writers who helped us compile the guide.
The list is notable for not including an IPAs, a decision I explained in an editor's note which has since been misquoted many times by people who say it says things it doesn't, and which I do stand behind today. How many IPAs that were at the top of the pile in 2013 are still at the top? None. (Don't argue back yet—we'll make the case next week.)
Here's what beers were great in 2013, most of which are still great today.
1. Beer of the Year: Urban Farmhouse
(The Commons, Portland)
2. Oblique Black & White Coffee Blonde Stout
(Cascade, Portland)
3. Piledriver
(Hopworks, Portland)
4. Sahalie
(Ale Apothecary, Bend)
5. Aztec
(Breakside, Portland)
6. Citra Hot Blonde
(Barley Brown's, Baker City)
7. Milk Stout
(Widmer Bros., Portland)
8. Loki Red Ale
(Fearless, Estacada)
9. 25
(Oakshire, Eugene)
10. Devil's Kriek
(Double Mountain, Hood River)
This is the list I have to defend the most often because of Loki Red, which comes from an inconsistent exurban brewery that's out of favor with the Brewpublic set. I stand behind it, because everyone in the room who tried it—seven or eight writers—agreed it was fantastic, and among the best red ales they'd ever had.
Pretty much everyone can agree the Commons deserved the honor of Beer of the Year, and while their new space is controversial, their bottled product remains excellent. Cascade's Oblique Blond Coffee Stout has gone on to become a regular fixture at their pubs, and spawned a lot of imitators. Double Mountain's subsequent batches of Devil's Kriek have not lived up to that one, but I still get the first bottle I see every year. Aztec is always great, and Ale Apothocary impresses me every time I have the scratch to buy a bottle—which is not that often since they're about $25 for 750 milliliters.
Widmer, sadly, has not made that wonderful milk stout again, and I have not had a Widmer beer I've liked nearly as much since, though their Alt did make the 2014 list to coincide with its anniversary.
Our 2014 list was released in the second edition of the Beer Guide.
Our 2014 list was the last to bear the stamp of Brian Yaeger, whose impressive palate and inimitable oratory style made him uniquely suited to selling me on his dumb ideas. It was also the last beer-of-the-year tasting to not include the loud and interruptive voice of Matthew Korfhage (who nonetheless elbowed the Commons' Bier Royale onto the list) and the quiet but firm voice of Parker Hall, who took Yaeger's slot in our stable.
1. Beer of the Year, Belgian Strong Dark
(Pfriem Family Brewers, Hood River)
2. Swill
(10 Barrel, Bend)
3. Workhorse/RPM
(Laurelwood/Boneyard, Portland, Bend)
4. 2013 Night Court Barleywine
(McMenamins Edgefield, Troutdale)
5.Passionfruit Sour
(Breakside, Portland)
6. Isarweizen
(Heater Allen, McMinville)
7. Bu Weisse
(De Garde, Tillamook)
8. Bier Royale
(The Commons, Portland)
9. Vanilla Bourbon Cream Ale
(Sasquatch, Portland)
10. Most Premium Russian Imperial Stout
(Gigantic, Portland)
The 2014 list is, to my mind, pretty much unimpeachable.
Pfriem's Belgian Strong Dark was a beer we fell in love with at a media tasting—a rare thing, indeed. It was still keg-only then, but is now in bottles, as it's designed to be and I drink it frequently. I also like the runner-up, Swill, when it's not exploding, even if it's now a Budweiser product. I haven't had a barrel-aged beer from McMenamins that matched the splendor of that 2013 Night Court, but Sasquatch's Vanilla Bourbon Cream Ale, which started as a one-off, has become one of its best sellers.
The reworked Workhorse and RPM recipes helped pave the way for today's citrussy New Breed West Coast IPAS and Bu Weisse, then a new product, has gone on to become a full-fledged phenomenon in the beer geek scene. While I did not personally like the new barrel-aged version of Gigantic's Most Premium, the original was stellar.
Our 2015 list, from last year's Beer Guide.
1. Engleberg Pilsner (Upright Brewing, Portland)
2. Peach Slap (Batch No. 1) (Deschutes Portland)
3. Hop-A-Wheelie (Boneyard, Bend)
4. Top O' The Feckin Mornin' (Feckin, Oregon City)
5. Schwarzbier (Pints, Portland)
6. Alpenglow (Batch No. 1) (Fat Head's, Portland)
7. La Tormenta (Breakside, Portland/Milwaukie)
8. Red Sea (Big Island/Caldera, Ashland)
9. Altbier (Widmer Brothers, Portland)
10. Golden Promise Single Malt Pale Ale (Pfriem Family Brewers, Hood River)
Last year's list has, to my mind, aged less gracefully.
First, what I'm happy about: Upright's Engleberg Pilsner absolutely deserved its Beer of the Year honor and local craft lager trend it pioneered has only grown. That perfect batch of Peach Slap was made by brewer Jason Barbee, who is now doing great things at Ex Novo. Fat Head's continues to crank out excellent beers. It's great that we gave some much deserved love to Caldera—were the brewpub not seven hours away, we'd check in on them often, because they make great beer.
But Boneyard, which has always been inconsistent, is delivering knock-outs less and less frequently these days. I order a lot of RPM, and I've only had one grade A glass in the last six months. I'm about to stop bothering. Pints makes some great beer, but while brewmaster Alan Taylor focuses on his new Zoiglhaus project in Lents, it's not where it was last year. The new bottled stuff from Pfriem is blowing that Golden Promise out of the water—I worry that we might have done better to leave that beer out last year and double down on what they're doing exceptionally well now.
What is Pfriem doing well now?
Pick up a copy of the Beer Guide next week and you'll see.
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