Oakes Weekly

Ratebeer Best

It’s that time of year again – the Ratebeer Best has been released. Our annual compilation of ratings is always a hoot to read, and always seems to cause a little bit of controversy. Remember when Westvleteren was mad about getting hassled by the media when some website said they were the best in the world – yeah, that was us. Not the hassling part! Just the adoration part. We just love beer, and the Ratebeer Best is our way of letting the world know what beers we love.

We love big beers. No mystery about this. The Top 100 beers list is chock full of monsters both malty and hoppy. In fact, I’m going to have to crack an imperial stout just to get in the proper frame of mind to write this article. Intense flavours are something that most beer geeks in the world value. This contrasts with beer lovers, who often prefer more subtle flavours and simpler styles. No problem – the Ratebeer Best has a number of style categories, too.

Every year, some new brewers arrive on the scene and immediately being to pile up the awards. This year, Tampa’s Cigar City Brewing was one of those breweries. This brewery is a beer geek’s wet dream, with well-crafted regular brews and a neverending supply of specialty and one-off variants to explore the possibilities of the palate. Other brewers making waves this year were de Molen from the Netherlands – makers of a couple of my favourite brews last year and SoCal fan favourite The Bruery.

If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out here. Then join the conversation about Ratebeer Best here.

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