Best Beer Websites (Updated 2016)

Looking back at my first post, here, I've come a long way in terms of knowledge of what's out there.

My favorite beer websites that I find myself adding page counts to often are as follows:

1) Good Beer Hunting
Simply the best blog out there in terms of journalism. The imagery is wonderful and I know that these guys have done their research worldwide to represent on their blog the best in beer. Among the myriad of increasing numbers of craft breweries in the United States, if I read about a brewery on Good Beer Hunting, I know it is a brewery worth checking out. There are 'Stories' (highlighting a brewery or story about a brewery/brewer/beer), 'Sightlines' (articles about the legal going-ons in the brewery world, aka takeovers, craft vs macro, etc...), 'B-roll" (snippets inspired by trips all over the country), and 'Podcasts' (interviews with brewers and the like) to keep you drooling for more. I especially like the 'Read.Look.Drink' stories where different writers highlight an interesting article, something visual they find enticing and a solid beer they are currently enjoying. Head there now!

2) Beer Street Journal
I'm not sure any website keeps up with beer releases as well as Beer Street Journal. Want to hear about all those amazing beers that will release all over the country that you cannot get access to? Limited editions, plans to can, full retail releases--it's all here! The site is sort of broken down into three sections on the main page: 'News' (releases of notice), 'Don't Miss This' (the highlights of the pack), and 'Headlines' (brewery related news). There is also a way to sort by 'Coming Soon', 'New Beers' (future releases), and 'Seasonal Returns'. You can also enjoy all the bottle and can artwork as you peruse.

3) Paste Drink
Gotta give Paste huge credit for creating an amazing buzz over their Blind Taste Tests of various styles, released almost monthly for about the past year and a half or so now. They started with 116 IPAs in April of 2015 and crowned The Brew Kettle's White Rajah IPA, then a year later they saw a field of 247 IPAs beat out by none other than Auburn, NY's, Prison City Pub & Brewery Mass Riot IPA. There have been plenty of other styles blind tested along the way as well as tasting notes galore about seasonal releases, 'Features' and my personal favorite 'Lists'.

4) YCH Hops
I just like going to the 'Hop Varieties' section of the combined Yakima Chief and Hopunion LLC website to see the variety of hops and what tasting notes they provide for different varieties to see if my nose can pick up any new smells accurately and my taste buds are properly trained. I seldom succeed, but it's still fun to pretend!

5) My Beer Cellar
Fun website to visit. This is the Craigslist of cellared beer and old rare bottle collectors. Go and see how much  a bottle of 2014 Three Floyds Bourbon Barrel Aged Dark Lord with Vanilla Beans sold for ($465!). There's people on this site that will sell of entire collections of cellared beer for thousands of dollars!

6) Beer Flavor Wheel
My go-to Beer Flavor/Aroma identifier. It's fun to just look through the descriptions and see if they spark an idea while tasting.

7) Beer Geeks
On Ora TV, all episodes online for free streaming. Produced by the same producer as did Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. Each episode highlights a brewery, makes a beer, tastes beer, cooks with beer and pairs food with beer. Definitely worth watching.

8) Untappd
If you're not one for the app or your mobile device's battery is dead, head to their regular website where you can input brews you've had, search by style a conclusive list of every beer every made EVER. EVER. And it connects to your device so you can see all the beer check-ins you've ever had as well. Wish list, badges, real time check-ins. Some prefer to not get all Geeky, but I'm at the other end of that spectrum for sure.

9) Two Brews
This was fun while it lasted, some guys in VT and then OH and VT when one of them moved away had a tasting podcast. Just ordinary guys trying to better understand the beers they were consuming. Since I love Vermont beer, this hit the spot for me.

10) Belgian Smaak
A blog site I recently discovered about Belgian beer and chocolate and haven't made a regular go at reading yet, but the immense variety of Belgian beers and breweries intrigues me to learn about some brews from the other side of the pond.

Enjoy some awesome beer reading!

#questforbeer1000

Recently two best friends of mine from high school and I got together for what became the #questforbeer1000. It all started on a Friday night of frolic in downtown Rochester at Lost Borough Brewing Co. and Three Heads Brewing Co., a rendezvous to sketchy Park Bench Pub on Monroe Ave. for darts and pool and a ginormous plate at Mark's Hots. The next day it continued as we toured the countryside and Keuka Lake, hitting up Abandon Brewing Co. near Pen Yan and Nedloh Brewing Co. in Bloomfield on the way back. Finally, two more days and two more nights of a dash to the finish line all in the #questforbeer1000.

What is #questforbeer1000 all about? He's not really giving the readers much to go on yet, you might descry...
It's like this. I love the app Untappd. None of my friends use it, but they marvel at how I religiously tracked each and every beer I've even tasted for the past two years. Ok, maybe marvel, maybe roll their eyes. But still, imo it's quite a feat! Anyway, at Nedloh, I was putting in my tasting notes and rating my flights thanks to a brewery that cares about providing a WIFI connection (you suck Abandon), and my friends Matt and Tim [and his Mary] asked how many unique beers I had logged. A quick count revealed that after our adventures at Nedloh I would have 959. Only 41 to go.
Sounds like a challenge? Challenge accepted!

So, a determinedly quick 15 minute trip to AJ's Beer Warehouse in Henrietta (Seriously I've never been in and out of that store so quick with that many people at one time let alone myself buying that much beer!) gave us the remaining 41 beers that I'd never tried before. Everyone checked their selections with me, we basically grabbed anything good (isn't it all good?) off the shelves in our efforts to be fast and left with one goal in mind. Before Matt left to return to Hawaii Monday night, where he now resides, they would enable me to reach my goal of 1000 beers. #questforbeer1000

I won't trouble you with every beer we tried together the entire weekend, but I will point out some highlights and even some serious highlights. The coincidental part being that beer 1000 was THE BEST of the bunch (all agreed!) and will be remembered forever.

Friday highlights:
Three Heads Brewing Sip Hop Hooray - juicy, citrus, cat pea, biscuity malt base, love me some IPL. 7.4% ABV. I gave this a 3.25/5

Saturday highlights:
Nedloh Brewing Co. Collings - I don't think I gave any of Nedloh's beers less than 3/5 rating, but this stood out as a take on I assume a tom collins, sweet but balanced, citrus peel, seltzer notes. Did I mention it's gin barrel aged? 5.3% ABV, super drinkable. I gave it a 3.5/5.
Nedloh Brewing Co. Ryder's Rye Porter - I love rye porters, so naturally a brown sugar, molasses, anise, spicy rye deep brown draught is for me. 6.5% ABV. I gave this 3.25/5.
AleSmith Lil' Devil - lovely bright citrus zest nose, bubble gum, grapefruit peel, peppercorn, herbal, spicy, floral, dry with spicy malt, not bad for my first AleSmith. 5.75% ABV. I gave this 3/5. More info here.
Bell's Brewery Oatsmobile Ale - seen this for a while, never pulled the trigger, glad I've had it now, citrus, reminds me of citra, herbal, floral, orange gold color, cereal malt, bubbly mouthfeel, just an all around modern hop pale ale that is packed with flavor. 4.3% ABV. I gave it 3.25/5. More here.
Embark Craft Ciderworks Peach Apricot Saison - see a bottle of this get it! tart, slight funk, spicy, tonic water, semi-dry, full mouthfeel, this is a nice cider and I'm more and more impressed with Embark the more I have them. I gave this 3.25/5.
Anderson Valley Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout - love me some oatmeal stout, rich, coffee, roasty, cocoa powder, dark chocolate, slight barnyard that adds nice complexity. 5.8% ABV. I gave this 3.5/5. More info here.
Jack's Abby Sunny Ridge Pilsner - Jack's Abby blew on to my radar with Calyptra, now I'm ready to try everything they have. citrus, honey, fluffy white foam, bready malt. An april-july release pleaser. 5.1% ABV. I gave this 3.5/5. More info here.
Jack's Abby Copper Legend - an oktoberfest of exception, spices, citrus, honey/orange blossom, vanilla, peach, tangerine, gold color, and caramel malt. 5.9% ABV. I gave this 3.5/5. More here.
Stone Brewing Co. Mocha IPA - we've all seen the trend towards coffee and chocolate in IPAs, but have you had this? Worth it. roasty hoppy nose, marshmellow, dark cocoa, pine, amber color, tastes like a black IPA, drippy legs. 9% ABV. I gave this 4/5. More here.

Sunday highlights:
Embark Craft Ciderworks Crab Series Vol. 1 - a cider with crab apples, like old apples fallen on the ground, applesauce, straw, dry, great legs. 7.2% ABV. I gave this 3.5/5. More here. Get it while it lasts!
Bell's Brewery Java Stout - holy cow this is a great beer! coffee, marshmellow, vanilla, seriously roasty, really dark chocolate. 7.5% ABV. I gave this 4/5. More here.
Founders Breakfast Stout - most people would consider this the holy grail of coffee beers without going seriously heavy or expensive, coffee, chewy mouthfeel, marshmellow, vanilla, smores, roasty, more like iced coffee than anything really. 8.3% ABV. I gave this 3.5/5. More here.
Left Hand Milk Stout - one of Matt's favorites, had this and the nitro and loved this way more, smoky, campfire, whipped cream, balanced roasty finish, deep brown color.6% ABV. I gave this 3.75/5. More here.
Victory Brewing Co. Storm King - on a stout kick, but we had so many good ones to choose from, mineral, molasses, espresso, dark chocolate, nutty, mocha, very slow drippy legs. 9.1% ABV. I gave this 3.75/5. More here.
Lord Hobo Brewing Co. Hobo Life - a citra hopped session IPA, I'd heard good things about Boom Sauce (to come) and am glad I tried this too, pineapple, mango, citrus zest, green, grassy, melon, hazy yellow color. 4.5% ABV. I gave this 3.75/5.
Lagunitas Brewing Co. Aunt Sally - a sour with IPA sensibilities, lemon tart, drop hopped, citrus. 5.7% ABV. I gave this 3.5/5. More here.

Monday super highlights:
Great Divide Brewing Co. Espresso Oak Aged Yeti - wow. rich, oak, cocoa, espresso, figs, dark fruit, dark chocolate, molasses, powdery mouthfeel, dark brown color, drippy legs, vanilla, tan head. 9.5% ABV. I gave this 4.75/5. More here.
Lord Hobo Brewing Co. Boom Sauce - a whopper of a double IPA, mango, pineapple, resin, cat pee, juicy but nice bitter dry finish, tropical, melon, grapefruit, very nicely balanced, sugar. 7.8% ABV. I gave this 4/5. More here.
B. Nektar Meadery The Mutant Killer Zombie Manhattan Project Thingy - a mead, cherry, deliciously sweet but finishes semi-dry and tart, rose colored, wine, honey, tad warming, champagne. 10% ABV. I gave this 4/5. More here.

#questforbeer1000
The 1000th Beer
Omnipollo Symzonia - an imperial stout of 13% ABV. cinnamon, vanilla, roasty, coffee, you can only experience this, not describe it. As Matt put it, "it tastes of tan". an extra sensory mind blowing beer. 5/5. More here.

Go Get Symzonia!

Blind Tasting #1 and #2: IPAs

I've now done 10 IPAs worth of blind tastings to try and get a better understanding of what IPAs from those highly regarded that I like the most. My own past preferences went into choosing which to compare as well.

The format: 

I knew what IPAs I chose each time but my wife chose them and poured them and I only had some foreknowledge of what to expect. This was to challenge my own preconceived notions and perceptions while tasting.

The first tasting:

I had chosen 4 IPAs for this tasting: Bell's Two Hearted Ale, Ballast Point Sculpin IPA, Stone Delicious IPA, and Elysian Space Dust IPA.

I drank all 4 before trying to choose which I had tried and in what order.

1) Bell's Two Hearted Ale - Citrus, particulate, big off-white egg shell foam, gold/amber color, bready/biscuit, honey, peach/orange/apricot/pineapple, clean, medium-full mouth. 7% ABV, more here. I gave this a 2.75/5, down from 3.5/5 from past imbibing.

2) Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits Sculpin IPA - the legend. never having had this before threw a wrench into my plan to detect all 4 brews from taste alone. Citrus, pineapple, tropical, mango, cream colored big head, a beautiful clear light amber, smooth, more bitter balanced, grassy, dank, full mouthfeel, syrupy and juicy. 7% ABV, 70 IBU, more here. I gave this 3/5.

3) Stone Delicious IPA - Burnt hemp, gold/slight amber, white foam, tea, grass, biscuit, citrus, pepper, herbal, full mouthfeel, fresh, honey. 7.7% ABV, 75 IBU, gluten reduced, more here. I gave this 3.5/5, same as from previous tastings.

4) Elysian Space Dust IPA - Tropical, pineapple, orange marmalade, apricot, white foam, pepper, light Amber, particulate, more bitter balanced, biscuit, cat pee, basil, herbal, juicy and full mouthfeel. 8.3% ABV, 73 IBU, more here. I rated this 3.25/5, down .5 from previous.

I think I did a poor job correctly choosing which beer was which if I recall. The only admission I will make is that I compared each beer to each other and that probably took some part in my ratings. For example if I found that I liked one beer more than another that I rated the same, the beer I liked less probably lost 1/2 a point. The winner of this taste was: Stone Delicious IPA

The second tasting: 

I had 6 fruit filled IPAs all new to me for this tasting, and it was done in two sittings so as to not get drunk and make my tasting more fruitful as well: Victory Blackboard Series (no. 1): Agave IPA with Grapefruit, Green Flash Tangerine Soul Style IPA, Lagunitas Citusinensis Pale Ale, Samuel Adams Rebel Grapefruit IPA, Flying Dog Tropical Bitch, and Ballast Point Mango Even Keel.

1) Victory Blackboard Series (no. 1): Agave IPA with Grapefruit - minerally like an English bitter, floral, slight citrus tart, grapefruit rind, herbal, very juicy, hazy yellow color, toasty full mouthfeel, honey, coriander? 7% ABV, more here. I gave this 3.5/5.

2) Green Flash Tangerine Soul Style IPA - Very lacy yellowish off-white cream, peel, citrus, lemon peel, tangerine, hazy particulate orange color, very toasty malt, slight skunk? Fresh hop nose. 6.5% ABV, 75 IBU, more here. I gave this 3/5.

3) Lagunitas Citusinensis Pale Ale - the ABV practically makes this an IPA, though I don't know the IBU. Particulate gold color,  big white foam, citrus, tart orange, herbal, slight sour, hemp, some pine, juicy, tropical. Good but not my favorite. 8% ABV, more here. I gave this a 2.75/5.

4) Samuel Adams Rebel Grapefruit IPA - grapefruit, spicy, peppery, hazy orange w/cream white foam, fruit background to the beer, dank, heavy, touch sweet then balanced by a rindy bitterness. 6.3% ABV, 52 IBU, more here. I gave this 3.25/5.

5) Flying Dog Tropical Bitch - belgian yeast notes of coriander, bubble gum, smoky clove, banana, pinneapple, tea, mango, melon, spicy, smooth then a slight malty bitter end, med full amber. 8% ABV, 55 IBU, more here. I gave this 3.5/5.

6) Ballast Point Mango Even Keel - amber color, bubbly white foam, small particulate, nose of dried super ripe mango, sugar, herbal, candy fruit, citrusy bitterness, spicy, medium full mouthfeel, biscuit malt. 3.8% ABV, 40 IBU, more here. I gave this 3/5.

I cannot remember which 3 I had each time, I believe in the order they are typed, but I did a much better job choosing them out from each other and picking up the right citrus flavors. The winners for me were: Victory Blackboard Series (no. 1): Agave IPA with Grapefruit and Flying Dog Tropical Bitch.

The Search for Beer for All Seasons

I'll hit you with the numbers. At present, I've documented trying 766 unique beers since July of 2014. That's often tastes and small samples, not full sized brews mind you. When I hit a beer fest, for example, I might add 30-40 different beers to that list.

With this amount of beer consumed, I've learned a thing or two about how I rate and taste beer.

First, festivals are the worst place, often, to rate beer. The kegs are the worst and I often get the worst tasting beer at festivals for some reason. That being said Whistle Belly, in Williamsburg (VA), was super fresh and amazing, while Rochester's Flour City Brew Fest continues to disappoint. Second, my tastes or perspective changes, sometimes based on the situation. I might not rate a beer very high one time, while another time it just hits the spot and comes together as a perfectly fresh example of that beer. My beer tasting proficiency has hopefully changed over time as well and some that I started trying at the beginning of this quest could receive higher scores now. Third, my ratings (on the scale of 1-5) are sometimes lower than they should be. I find a really good beer does not always receive as high a score as it deserves, and that might just be because I didn't find it memorable, unique or satisfying enough (or it isn't a fresh example).  Some beer may not warrant my going out to buy more of it I guess is what I'm saying.

I am really into freshness too! I rarely buy a beer if it's more than 2-3 months past it's BOD. Especially hoppy beers. Maltier beers can often get away from 6 or more months, but sometimes I wonder at a place like Wegmans where they do not always refrigerate (or consistently at least) and temperatures in store are not desirable for "cellaring".

That being said, do I rate beer purely based on my personal preferences? As someone who desires to be more knowledgeable about beer and styles, I have a hard time justifying that. But, what beers are going to make me keep coming back? 

The latter is a growing part of my search these days. Sometimes I envy the people who can sit back and hit a 6 pack of tasteless light beer because it is refreshing and enjoyable to do so, not always approaching beer with a beer snob attitude.

It's a constant balance I struggle with. I rarely just buy a 6 pack of one beer. More often it's a mixed or "craft pack" (but not from Wegmans, their craft pack single bottle selection is where aging beer goes to die). I've had a horrible time coming up with a list of beer I want to drink all the time. Part of my "go-to" list is dedicated to beers I can't drink all the time (seasonal or just high ABV so not sessionable and/or expensive), while choosing from 50 different IPAs, pale ales, or porters is difficult when I can't really taste them all side by side.

Subsequently, I've started blind tasting beers next to each other in small batches. For one reason to see if I can truly sense their flavor profiles without complete foreknowledge. For another, to see which ones I actually like the most. Check the results out of some tastings I did like that in the near future post.

For now, here are some beers I believe are ones I would drink all the time that are available, to my knowledge, all the time:

Rohrbach Brewing Co. Vanilla Porter - my favorite of Rohrbach's beer line-up. It's available in cans now instead of just growlers, which I never liked anyway. I still prefer it at the restaurant but cans will do fine, they just need to do a nitro pour. That could take that beer to the next level.

Rohrbach Brewing Co. Blueberry Ale - another Rochester favorite, a well balanced fruit beer that is not overwhelmingly blueberry but is still my favorite fruit flavor in beer besides maybe grapefruit in IPAs. The Last time I had Ithaca Beer Co. Apricot Wheat I was also really impressed.

Samuel Adam's Boston Lager or Brooklyn Lager - I need to do a taste test between these two and see which I prefer more, but even for how much volume these two major players in the craft brewing scene put out of these two beers they are solid choices. I've seriously enjoyed Boston Lager at times and found Brooklyn Lager to be really enjoyable too.

Lake Placid Brewing Co. Ubu Ale - I've often returned to this familiar friend, and having not had it for a while I think it's time is due again, but there's something really delicious and unique about Ubu Ale.

Guinness Draught - in cans this is just pure lusciousness, I cannot deny I love a Guinness now and again.

Hoegaarden Blanche - even though A-B InBev owns this beer, it sticks in my memory as one I really enjoy. It would be fun to put this to the test against other really good witbiers (i.e. Allagash White, Dogfish Head Namaste, Sam Adams Nitro White, Westbrook White Thai, and Brooklyn Sorachi Ace (yes a saison but very close to a witbier imo--I guess I've got my next six pack tasting figured out!)

Davidson Brothers Brown Ale - I want to put this one out there because I recently had it on cask and it was stupendously good, and it is now available in my area! I've also enjoyed Brooklyn's Brown Ale, Dark Horse Buffo Brown Ale, Shmaltz Messiah Nut Brown Ale and Bell's Best Brown Ale so there needs to be a taste off soon.

Citizen Cider The Dirty Mayor - as ciders go this is probably my favorite and have consistently seen it at my local beer shop too, but I have tried some really nice ciders lately with my wife participating in tastings by me choosing a bunch of ciders for her to try (i.e. Thatchers Gold, Embark Craft Ciderworks American Heirloom, Angry Orchard Old Fashioned, Original Sin Cherry Tree Hard Cider, Woodchuck Reserve: Cherry, Blue Toad Roc City Blonde or Amber, Blackbird Cider Works Premium Draft Hard Cider, and/or Cider Creek Hard Cider Saison Reserve).

The Bronx Brewery American Pale Ale - one that I've just been buying a lot lately in pursuit of a go-to session pale ale. It has hit the spot every time and that's what I'm looking for. Other Pale Ales that could be in contention for this spot could be Magic Hat #9, Oskar Blues Dale's Pale Ale, Three Heads Brewing Population Pale Ale, Butternuts Beer & Ale Porkslap Pale Ale, and/or Founders Mosaic Promise.

Goose Island Honkers Ale - before AB-InBev took Goose Island over I had no problem turning to Honkers Ale, now I feel like I need to find an alternative for ethical/moral reasons. I have not found any really great always available alternatives yet besides perhaps Fuller's London Pride.

Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier - could be a beer I turn to a lot for a weissbier refreshing summer style, I doubt I've had better. Victory makes a good Mad King's Wiess too but availability is not year round. Also Three Heads Brewing Captain Banana and Troegs DreamWeaver Wheat could be solid alternatives.

Victory Blackboard Series (no. 1): Agave IPA with Grapefruit - a relatively new addition to the fruit laden IPA trend, and a good one. Others include Grapefruit Sculpin (duh! so good, but the price point is pretty high...), Stone Delicious IPA, Alpine Duet (been seeing this one in NY lately, had it on cask at Whistle Belly and was floored), Elysian Space Dust IPA (slightly more expensive), Rohrbach Railroad Street IPA, Cambridge Brewing Co. Flower Child IPA (if I can find it in NY), Weyerbacher Last Chance IPA, Worthy IPA (if I can find it in NY, I often see it in VT when I'm over that way), Ithaca Flower Power, Great Lakes Commodore Perry IPA and/or Uinta Hop Nosh IPA.

Oskar Blues Old Chub - a solid scotch, but I'm almost sure I can find a better one. Perhaps Rohrbach Scotch Ale, Three Heads Rochestefarian, Founders Dirty Bastard (higher price point though), or definitely Davidson Brothers Scotch Ale (if it makes it's way here!). I'd love to pitch the nitro version of Old Chub against the regular one too.