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Jeanna Malines here reporting from the frozen tundra of Florida! Well, not really, but it did drop below 50 and all the natives busted out parkas. Seriously.
So the powers that be at ACB have asked us all to come up with our favorite regional beers of 2013. At first, I thought this was going to be a cakewalk. Just my opinion? No research or fact-checking? Easy peasy! Then I got to thinking about all the great beers I have had this year and I realized that I was in trouble. There’s a reason I love tapas restaurants – I have no discernable decisive abilities.
It doesn’t make it any easier that Florida is literally teaming with new breweries. It is nearly impossible for this poor girl to keep up with all of the new openings – and the quality of the beer that is coming out of my region is absolutely world-class.
So without further ado, here are my top 3 beers of 2013, in no particular order other than the order in which I would drink them!
Gose – Rapp Brewing Company
This sessionable sour wheat ale nearly fell into extinction in the mid-1940s and again in the late 1980s, but has made a comeback in the last few years. And Rapp’s Gose is a shining example of what a truly perfect beer can be. It’s not only because this is the beer that won the brewery a gold medal at the 2013 Best Florida Beer Competition or even because it has gained national attention as the #1 rated Gose – the reason that this beer is making my best of list is that it is about as flawless a beer as I have ever had. In a time when almost everything is a Double-Imperial, quadruple-hopped, barrel-aged something or other, this beer is the antithesis of the American affinity for monster trucked craft beer. It’s 4%, it’s stripped down, it’s perfect.
Oliver Wheat Wine – Intuition Ale Works
This barleywine girl took a detour over to wheat wine in 2013 and this one was the best one I had all year. Oliver Wheat Wine was a collaboration of the entire production team over at Intuition Ale Works and the beer is named after one of the production team member’s sons, Oliver. Brewed with a high percentage of wheat and fermented with Belgian yeasts, I fell in love with this lighter-bodied funky version. OF COURSE, one of my favorite beers of the year just HAD to be a one-off… but a little birdie told me that maybe… just maybe a version of the Oliver Wheat Wine might be coming back fermented with 100% Brett! I love Brett. Bretty Brett Brett!
Life is Like – Cigar City Brewing / Mikkeller
I love a good collaboration, and it just so happens that Cigar City and Mikkeller go together as good as chocolate and cherries. So what better beer to make together than Life is Like, an Imperial Sweet Stout brewed with cherries and cacao nibs and aged in bourbon barrels? Like so many things that we come to love, it’s a connection to the past that triggers something in us. Something intrinsic that connects the dots between the past and present. And this beer is that good – memory-inducing good. The first time I had this beer, it literally transported me to the holidays when I was a kid. Chocolate-covered cherries were a staple in my house from Thanksgiving to Christmas and I looked forward to them every year, all the while knowing that their presence would be fleeting. For in January, they would join the candy corn and Cadbury eggs in the confectionary witness protection program.
