About that Beer?

7

Yuengling_bottle When Officer Crowley, Professor Gates, and President Obama sit down to a beer at the White House (or perhaps it should be at a neutral place, like Fenway Park–next time the White Sox play the Red Sox?!), just what kind should they drink?

Since we love lists here at the faculty lounge — lists of laterals, lists of dean searches, lists of what we all make (or at least what those of us in the public sector make), list of coffee houses, lists of best restaurants in America — maybe it's time to start talking about ranking beers?  Close readers of the faculty lounge will recall that I'm no fan of coffee mixed with beer.  Make a choice; it's either time for a stimulant or time for a sedative.  Not both.  Plus, I just don't like the taste of beer poured into a coffee cup that's not been washed out.  Perhaps my more sophisticated colleagues will school me in what a rhubarb I am because of that statement.

No surprise, there're some rankings of beers out there already.  There are on-line rating groups, like beeradvocate.com, ratebeer.com (rankings here), beerchurch.com, qualityales.com and of course blogs, like beercrusade and beerviking, and the general food sites, like chef2chef, and a new one on me, rankopedia.  Man, faculty lounge has to team up with rankopedia — oh, the rankings we could have.

I imagine that Kim Krawiec would like the market to decide this one, so we could look for evidence of what beer's sold the most (or maybe what beer's sold the most in the upscale grocery stores or something).

Probably time to get the spreadsheet out and start running some correlations on price and rank.  Hey, this could lead to a whole genre, running parallel to the US News law school rankings literature out there.

So which beer?  Well, chef2chef lists the top 10 as: 

Yuengling (Pennsylvania) 
Guinness
Westvleteren
Duvel
Ommegang Abbey Ale
Kostritzer Schwarzbier 
Fantome
Rochefort 10
Heineken, and
Carlsberg. 

I've only heard of four  of those (and only had three of them).  They'll probably have some Boston beer.  Sam Adams is cliche, but that would be my guess. (Though they might try something basic and classic like Bud or Miller.)  However, it might be Yuengling, which has really remade its image.  I recall when it was a bottom shelfer — right alongside Schmidt's and Ballentine (alas, long since defunct–or I think they're defunct; maybe they're being marketed again).  But Yuengling's sort of yuppified now.  At least it's respectable to drink around my high-fallutin' colleagues, more or less.

Just remember, as beer is the drink of reconciliation, archeologists also believe it's what caused civilization in the first place.  (See, you never know when something you read in college will come in handy while blogging … twenty two years later!)

Update:  Actually, I guess it'll be Blue Moon beer.  Officer Crowley was having a Blue Moon (a fancy label for Coors, I now understand) and a burger in Tommy Doyle's Irish Pub in Kendall Square when he spoke with President Obama.

Update 2:  The New York Daily News has an article on this exact topic.  They suggested Samuel Adams Boston Lager;  Guinness; Goose Island Honkers Ale; Pabst Blue Ribbon; and Blue Moon Belgian White.  The Daily News says "They can't drink Budweiser
because it's no longer an American-owned company. They can't drink
Coors or Miller, because they're owned by staunch Republicans. PBR is
the next best thing for an all-American beer." (Isn't Blue Moon owned by Coors?!  But then again maybe it would be in the spirit of reconciliation to have a good old American beer like Miller or a Coors product.)

Presidential_seal_beer_can Update 3:   The sit-down now looks like it's going to be on Thursday, but each person's going to drink a different kind of beer?!  According the Boston Globe, Crowley will be drinking Blue Moon (no surprise given update 1, above); Gates will be drinking Red Stripe, and Obama will be drinking Bud (shows what the New York Daily News knows, eh? — see update 2 above).  Though now I see that there's a rule that the White House only stocks domestic beers.

Rorabaugh_alcoholic_republic Update 4:  Well, what do you know?  Sounds like they'll all be drinking different beers.  Maybe I can find some colleagues around the office this afternoon who'll go out and celebrate "beer diplomacy" with me at one of the hot spots around Chapel Hill.  Top of the Hill at 6 anyone?!  I like the image of presidential beer cans that CBS News has cooked up.  Or maybe I should pull out my old copy of W.J. Rorabaugh's The Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition — about alcoholism in the the antebellum era — to celebrate the day.  See, never can tell when things antebellum will appear in one of my posts, can you?  

Update 5:  Over at foxnews.com, Carolyn Smagalski  is suggesting Victory Hop Devil Ale from Downingtown, Pennsylvania.  I mention this because I grew up in West Chester, the next town over from Downingtown.  She also suggests Sam Adams' Utopias, which has an astonishing alcohol content (25%).

So we now know, it was Blue Moon, Bud Light, and Sam Adams.  Next time people have a beer summit, though, they might think about Everest beer.  It's from Nepal.  Their slogan?  "Be on top with Everest Beer."

7 Comments

  1. Calvin Massey
    Reply
    July 26, 2009,

    Al, I can't let this one go. For Heineken to be on any top ten list of "beer" is a travesty. Anyway, the list should be confined to lagers and ales. Perhaps Heineken might be number ten on the lager list, but any mediocre ale is better than a lager (unless, possibly, it's a Bavarian or Austrian lager). Belgian beers are in a category of their own. So, the tough initial choice for this alcoholic reconciliation is lager, ale, stout, porter, Belgian, or pilsner. Good luck.

  2. Eric Fink
    Reply
    July 26, 2009,

    Though I've been a lifelong (or at least adult lifelong) fan of Yuengling (especially the Porter), and used to represent the union at the Pottsville brewery, I find it hard to imagine anyone placing it at the head of a list of the world's best beers.

    Anyway, since Al is also in North Carolina, I'll make a pitch here for my current favorite regional brewer: Duck Rabbit. They make a variety of dark brews, all wonderful, among which I'm especially fond of the Milk Stout. It's a bit much, though, in the heat of summer, when I'm partial to Natty Green's Wildflower (a witbier), made right here in Greensboro.

  4. Scott
    Reply
    July 26, 2009,

    I just had the Ommegang Abbey Ale last night; it was terrific.

    Other favorites: Abita Strawberry, Chimay Blue, Dogfish Head 90-Minute IPA, Duvel, Gulden Draak, and New Belgium 1554.

  5. Matt
    Reply
    July 26, 2009,

    I like all the Ommegang beers, but think the Three Philosophers is their best. (Perhaps I'm prejudice.) I'd never had Yuengling before moving to Philadelphia but it's not a bad beer at all- better than Bud or Coors and not too expensive. It seems to fill the nitch that Henry Weinhards filled in the North West. (It's odd that what beer is "good" is very regional- when I was in college in the North west Rolling Rock was considered pretty cool.) I'm not very keen on Heineken, and
    Carlsberg and question how they could be on any serious list. My favorite beer is the Dogfish head 120 minute IPA, but at $10 per 12oz bottle I can't afford to drink it that often. (It's likely to be too hoppy for many people, too.)

  7. Mark Weidemaier
    Reply
    July 30, 2009,

    The best suggestion, though, seems to be from the Toronto Star – http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/673940 – which suggests Collaboration Not Litigation Ale, a blend of Salvation, a belgian-style strong dark ale produced by California's justly-famed Russian River Brewing, and Salvation, a belgian-style strong pale ale brewed by Colorado's Avery Brewing Co. Rather than fight over the rights to the name Salvation, they combined the two beers into a new product. Ain't life grand?

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