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You are here: Home / Beers / GQ Picks 50 Beers To Try

GQ Picks 50 Beers To Try

April 23, 2010 By Jay Brooks 4 Comments

beer-50
Finally, mainstream magazines are learning. A number of them, usually men’s magazines, publish an annual list of their picks for good beers, whether global or just American, and varying in the number on the list. But they go wrong by trying to call their lists the “top,” “best” or some similar hyperbole. With such a subjective sensation as taste, getting people to ever agree on a list is a fool’s errand, and ends up pissing people off whose favorite wasn’t included or wasn’t high enough on the list. Personally, I love lists but have found they can be dangerous enterprises.

GQ published one today they’re calling I’d Tap That! 50 Beers to Try Right Now. And despite the awkward “I’d tap that” beginning (why do mainstream beer stories always start with a bad pun?) I think they’re taking the right approach. Just presenting 50 beers they think are worth trying to an audience who may not be familiar with many of them is, I think, the way to go. There’s no rankings, no suggestion that these are the beers, or that they’re better than all the rest. They’re just suggestions. And there are some pretty good ones, too. Of course, there are some I wouldn’t have put on the list, but that’s the nature of these lists.

27-bottles

GQ’s 50 Beers to Try Right Now

  1. Allagash White
  2. Anchor Christmas Ale
  3. Anchor Steam
  4. BrewDog Smokehead
  5. Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout
  6. Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron
  7. Fritz Briem 1809 Berliner Weisse
  8. Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold
  9. Hitachino Lacto Sweet Stout
  10. Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout
  11. Leelanau Whaleback White
  12. Lion Stout
  13. Ommegang Hennepin
  14. Oskar Blues Dales Pale Ale
  15. Oskar Blues Old Chubb
  16. Picobrouwerij Alvinne Melchior
  17. Pretty Things Jack D’Or
  18. Rodenbach Grand Cru
  19. Rogue Dead Guy Ale
  20. Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout
  21. Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale
  22. Sixpoint Sweet Action
  23. Smuttynose Barleywine
  24. Stone Imperial Russian Stout
  25. Stone Old Guardian
  26. Trumer Pils
  27. Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier
  28. AleSmith Speedway Stout
  29. Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye
  30. The Bruery Saison Rue
  31. Cantillon Iris
  32. De Struise Pannepot
  33. Dieu du Ciel Route des Epices
  34. Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA
  35. Jolly Pumpkin La Roja
  36. Marin Brewing Company IPA
  37. Orval
  38. Port Brewing Shark Attack Red
  39. Russian River Pliny the Elder
  40. Saison Dupont
  41. Schneider Aventinus
  42. Westvleteren Abt 12
  43. Harviestoun Old Engine Oil
  44. Great Divide Espresso Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout
  45. Double Mountain Black Irish Stout
  46. Samuel Adams Utopias
  47. Founders KBS
  48. Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier
  49. Russian River Beatification
  50. Monk’s Café Flemish Sour Ale

Then there are five more “bonus beers” under the sub-heading “In Defense of Bodega Beer,” which presumably means the downscale contrast to the upscale first fifty.

  1. Budweiser
  2. Tecate
  3. Magic Hat #9
  4. Red Stripe
  5. Yuengling Traditional Lager

Filed Under: Beers, Just For Fun Tagged With: Lists, Mainstream Coverage

Comments

  1. Mario (Brewed For Thought) says

    April 23, 2010 at 12:13 pm

    #42. Westvleteren Abt 12

    Yeah, go get it, right now. No problem.

    Good list though.

    Reply
  2. Rory says

    April 23, 2010 at 2:16 pm

    Is it me or do I see Racer 5 in the picture but not on the list?

    Reply
  3. easong says

    April 23, 2010 at 2:32 pm

    Pliny the Elder at 39, behind Marin IPA and Dogfish 120? No Pizza Port Hop-15, no Ballast Point Sculpin, no Avery Maharaja? Nary a Hop Stoopid? Indeed, not even a Racer 5? Clearly, we hopheads know how to regard this sort of list.

    Reply
    • J says

      April 23, 2010 at 2:58 pm

      Form what I can tell, they’re not in any particular order at all, so don’t get hung up about the order. Notice how they seem to start out in alphabetical order, then all bet are off. It’s just 50 beers with no rankings.

      Reply

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