Tuesday, November 17, 2009

The 25 Best American Breweries of the Decade (2000-2009)

Okay, so it's been exactly a month since my last post. For shame! I know!

It pains me that I can count the number of alcoholic beverages I've consumed, in the last month, on one hand. But, alas, in less than a week I'll be home for Thanksgiving. Hopefully I'll have time for a beverage or two, at a restaurant or two.

In order to stop the Femme Fermental drought, I've decided to post on Paste Magazine.com's "25 Best American Breweries of the Decade (2000-2009)"
Uncle Jack may have already said it best: "I never heard of Paste Magazine before this and know little more than what you can find at the publication’s website."

Yeah, we've never heard of Paste Magazine, but we'll read about what they have to say about beer. Here's the list

25. Great Divide Brewing Company
24. Sierra Nevada Brewing Company
23. Brooklyn Brewing Company
22. Brewery Ommegang
21. North Coast Brewing Co.
20. Stone Brewing Co.
19. Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales
18. New Belgium Brewing Company
17. New Glarus Brewing Company
16. Oskar Blues Brewery
15. Samuel Adams
14. Rogue Ales
13. Decshutes
12. Lagunitas Brewing Company
11. Bell's Brewery
10. The Lost Abbey
9. Weyerbacher
8. Three Floyds
7. Russian River Brewing
6. AleSmith Brewing Company
5. Founder's Brewing Co.
4. Victory Brewing Company
3. Avery Brewing Co.
2. Allagash Brewing
1. Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Paste Magazine doesn't know much about beer. They seem to put up a "list" of some sort everyday. After their beer entry, the next list was "Top 10 Best Fashion Designers of the Decade." I don't know if they are really an authority on anything. It's quite possible they searched the New York Times, found an article revealing the Times' love for Sam Calagione, and decided to put them first on the list. Who knows.

At the very least, they got some things right.

The order? That seems to be a more personal matter.

4 comments:

vickie said...

You really should start reading Paste Magazine! It may not know a lot about beer but it is the best music magazine out there for indie music! (Think Bright Eyes/My Morning Jacket/Hold Steady)

sholland said...

As a long time subscriber of Paste, I can add that they feature a side bar or column that somehow involves beer on a regular basis. Most of this info seems to gathered from visits to the legendary Brick Store Pub in Decatur, GA, which is near their editorial offices. So I think they have done some actual "research". Just sayin'.

sholland said...

Duh, and by "beer" I meant "craft beer".

Femme Fermental said...

Thanks S&V. I'm not very hip. I listen to hippie jam bands mostly. Good to hear from someone in the beer world who has actually heard of Paste before they made a comment about craft beer :)