When I saw that issue # 48 of Beer Advocate had the tally of Top 25 Beers of 2010, I had to say that I braced myself for mostly monster stouts. And yes there are 5 in the top 10 alone and 10 overall (not counting the 5 strong ales, which fall under the same BIG BEER rubric for me). What surprised me was the strong showing of # 2 for the Kern River Citra DIPA one of my favorite beers of 2010 and I had only a teeny glass of one. The second surprise was 2 rye beers making the cut, one from Summit and one from Boulevard (granted in the 20-25 section).
SO I am pleased that anything broke through the Stout barrier of the top 10 and I like that rye is gaining acceptance. But still the list is tremendously one sided. Nothing in the top 10 is below 8% abv. Amazingly all but 2 beers are above that 8% mark and 14 of 25 beers are above 10% abv. It is almost as if a beer geek can take most of the year off and come cold weather time start drinking because that is where the great beers are apparently. No session beers to be seen. No brown ales. No hefeweizen. It’s really a turn off.
Click on the image below to see the full list and let me know what you think of the group. By the way, not to boast, but I sampled 7 of the top 25.
