Forbes' top 20 beers

by Nick Vagnoni, Posted Apr 28th 2006 @ 4:05PM

Forbes' resident wine and spirits guy, Nick Passmore, recently posted a list of 20 of his favorite beers. The list, which it seems can only be viewed via a clunky slideshow, has a decent scattering of English and German imports, as well as some American craft brews. Passmore does a good job of making a roster of beers that aren't terribly hard to find. Still, don't expect to see them at your local gas station. Lists like these are bound to leave something out and upset someone. So, while I wasn't surprised to see an ale by Chimay, I was a little surprised it wasn't the blue label. My qualms aside, this is a decent place to take a few notes if you're looking to explore the beer aisle.

Filed Under: Magazines, Raves & Reviews, Lists, Drink Recipes
Tags: beer, forbes, list, magazine, nick passmore

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

4-28-2006 @4:36PM Aaron said... No Unibrau? Fin du Monde and Trois Pistoles are delicious...
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4-28-2006 @11:24PM Dr. Electro said... I think that Forbes guy's taste buds are a bit off. Anybody who prefers his brews to taste like burnt toast is questionable. I don't like the flavors of anything that has been burned. Burned foods get rather nasty.

I like all the Anchor brews but Anchor Steam is their best. The only Samuel Smith's brew I like is Old Tadcaster Taddy Porter. Really fine flavor and a lingering pleasant aftertaste. Chimay is all good, but the Trippel is the weakest of the three. The blue label Chimay is on a plane of existence all its own. There is nothing else on Earth that compares to the blue.

To end on an American note: Most of my fellow Americans never taste the beer they guzzle anyway so it's no wonder they buy all that sour, flat, icky, fizzy, horse urine slopped out by the big three American brewers. Budweiser actually stinks so badly I can smell it across a crowded taproom.

There, I have raved and I have ranted on beer. Evoe! Pass the Blau Chimay, bitte.
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4-29-2006 @4:28AM Alex said... It's interesting this list starts with the highly suspect Boddingtons ... this is hardly one of the 'coolest' beers in the UK, let alone on some kind of international basis!!

It's also interesting that at least two of the beers featured, Boddies and Hoegaarden, are, ultimately, owned by InterBev, who has closed down (or is in the process of closing down) the original breweries - Boddies in Manchester (production moved elsewhere in the UK, leaving Manchester with no brewery) and Hoegaarden, in Hoegaarden, Belgium. But there's no mention of this.

Anyone genuinely interested in beer would be interested in a beer's provenance ... and since water is a critical part of the brewing process it's unlikely that a beer that was brilliant when brewed in one place, using that water, is going to be the same when brewing is moved across the country.

If this were the case you wouldn't have 'burtonising' of water, would you?

Sigh.
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5-02-2006 @6:50PM Lora Day said... Agree with many on the list, but would have added: Belhaven Wee Heavy Ale, Okochim Porter, Wychwood Hobgoblin, Paulaner Salvator, Czechvar, Unibroue (Don de Dieu, Maudite & La Fin du Monde), and Fullers (ESB, London Pride Pale Ale & London Porter), not to mention St Bernardus Prior 8 & Abt 12. These brews are definitely 'list-worthly'!
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5-04-2006 @6:53PM Paul said... I'll take a pass on Passmore's selections. The list is very heavy with pilsners, lagers and hefeweizen, which of course fall on the PUSSY side of the beer spectrum. No stouts or porters were mentioned. He put Pilsner Urquel on the list despite the fact that it tastes like cat urine.

In general it seems that this guy goes in for heavily marketed and German beers. This is such a traditional and riskless route to take for a reviewer- maybe he just wanted to stick with nationally marketed beers so anyone could get them. I live in Seattle, and I think our local breweries could trounce the effete beers assembeled on this pathetic uberlist.
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