Kendall’s top beers of 2012

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I planned on doing a post of my top five beers of 2012, so I scanned through my 2012 Untappd check-ins (friend me). It was too hard to narrow it down, so I decided to go with top 10. Actually, that was too hard to trim down as well. So, here’s my end-of-year list of beers I really enjoyed in 2012. Style wise, they’re all over the spectrum. Most aren’t available in Tennessee, while a few are only found in Nashville. If you have a chance to try any, do your self a favor a treat yo’ self. I can’t pick a favorite, I loved them all in different ways. So, here they are in alphabetical order, I couldn’t even try to rank them.

  • Blackstone Chocolate Milk Stout – Like Nestle’s Quick for grownups.
  • Crooked Stave Surette – A great gateway sour for the uninitiated.
  • Fat Bottom Ida Belgian Ale – A new Nashville brewery’s most interesting beer.
  • Firestone Walker Wookie Jack – Dark. Hoppy. Perfect.
  • Flat 12 Tangerine Porter – I just had to try this. Glad I did. Best porter I’ve had in a long time.
  • Goose Island Christmas 2012 – Perfect for the holiday festivities. Probably gone by now.
  • Green Flash Double Stout – A big, bold beer. To me, halfway between Imperial Stout and black IPA.
  • Haymarket Pub & Brewery Angry Birds – A Belgian rye IPA? Yes, and it works really well.
  • Lakefront Fuel Cafe Coffee Stout – One of the best coffee beers I’ve ever had. Smooth, no bitterness.
  • Laughing Dog Pure Bred Citra IPA – Enjoyed this fresh at the Ponderay, ID taproom. Big and hoppy.
  • New Glarus Wisconsin Belgian Red – Tart cherry goodness.
  • No-Li Jet Star Imperial IPA – I love going to Spokane to see June’s family, No-Li beers make it even better (formerly Northern Lights Brewing)
  • Russian River Pliny the Elder – Like I need to tell you.
  • Schlafly Tasmanian IPA – I could put a dozen Schlafly beers on my list, but this is their 2012 homerun.
  • Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale – I love fresh hop beers, too bad most come out in the fall. The springtime arrival was perfect.
  • St Bernardus Abt 12- It may be sacrilige to say this, but I like it as well as Westy 12. And it’s a hell of a lot easier to find.
  • Surly Furious – A very well-balanced, hoppy big IPA
  • Westvleteren 12 – If I have to tell you, you wouldn’t understand.
  • Yazoo Bell’s Bend Preservation Ale – I said I wasn’t going to rank these beers, but this was one of my absolute favorites this year. I bought a case of 750ml bottles and drank them quickly to savor the fresh hop goodness. The unique thing about Yazoo’s fresh hop ale is the hops are grown on a farm in northwest Nashville in the Bell’s Bend community. The beer raises money to support the Bell’s Bend conservation efforts. A couple years ago, a bunch of jerks wanted to turn it into condos and office buildings. They failed. Thank God it’s still a farming community.

There are three beers I can’t leave off my list. They’re my overall top three, my regulars. I manage to always have some around even though none are sold in Nashville.

  • Bell’s Two Hearted Ale
  • Deshutes Black Butte Porter
  • Duck Rabbit Milk Stout