RateBeer’s Best 2014

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Message jamesewelch beers 259 º places 19 º 16:24 Sun 1/25/2015 Originally posted by Clownoisseur Either of you have an opinion on Four Quarters in Winooski? I’m friends with owner, so I’m a bit biased. Brian is a great guy and great to talk with about beer or homebrewing topics. I think it’s been difficult for him to focus on brewing due to long hours. Recently, he put in his notice that he’s quitting his full time job and will focus full time on brewing/brewery starting in Feb/Mar. He’s also bought some new (larger) tanks. I’ve liked most of his beer, but there’s room for improvement. I like his philosophy on beer and what he’s trying to do with it. I think having him work normal hours at the brewery will help - imagine getting off work, rushing home to see kids, then starting brewing after dinner and not getting home until 4am then leaving for work at 6am. That kind of schedule can’t be good for him (or his family) and I think the beer might have suffered a little too (wasn’t bad by any means, but I think the stuff he’ll be putting out later this year should be much better). Working 40+ hrs a week, another 30-40+ hrs brewing/brewery/distribution/events, and having a family with kids is a tough situation, so I’m looking forward to see what he does after he can take a breath and just focus on brewing and the brewery biz.
Message Prufrockstar beers 2132 º places 83 º 16:46 Sun 1/25/2015 To follow up a bit, I counted 29 out of 51 US regions that don’t have a "best new brewery" winner. For Washington state, I count 51 breweries that opened in 2014 according to the RB database. I would argue that this is a failure of whatever algorithm is used to generate this "best of" list. Can anybody provide more details on how it’s calculated?
Message Clownoisseur beers 531 º places 1 º 09:44 Mon 1/26/2015 Originally posted by jamesewelch Originally posted by Clownoisseur Either of you have an opinion on Four Quarters in Winooski? I’m friends with owner, so I’m a bit biased. Brian is a great guy and great to talk with about beer or homebrewing topics. I think it’s been difficult for him to focus on brewing due to long hours. Recently, he put in his notice that he’s quitting his full time job and will focus full time on brewing/brewery starting in Feb/Mar. He’s also bought some new (larger) tanks. I’ve liked most of his beer, but there’s room for improvement. I like his philosophy on beer and what he’s trying to do with it. I think having him work normal hours at the brewery will help - imagine getting off work, rushing home to see kids, then starting brewing after dinner and not getting home until 4am then leaving for work at 6am. That kind of schedule can’t be good for him (or his family) and I think the beer might have suffered a little too (wasn’t bad by any means, but I think the stuff he’ll be putting out later this year should be much better). Working 40+ hrs a week, another 30-40+ hrs brewing/brewery/distribution/events, and having a family with kids is a tough situation, so I’m looking forward to see what he does after he can take a breath and just focus on brewing and the brewery biz. Cool....thanks for the thought out reply. A friend mentioned them as being good, but the small amount of ratings on this site didn’t tell much. Think I will have to check them out!

Message Clownoisseur beers 531 º places 1 º 09:51 Mon 1/26/2015 The "Best Beers in The World" list came out today.... It left me curious as to how the "winners" are determined. For a small example, New Glarus only has Serendipity mentioned on the list.....yet, it ranks behind Belgian Red in the Fruit Beer/Radler category.... ...and they both rank behind Kuhnhenn Raspberry Eisbock (#1 fruit beer), which is left completely off the list. Kuhnhenn actually has a beer in the Ratebeer Top 50 and another beer in the Top 100 (Bourbon Barrel 4th Dimentia, #1 Old Ale)....yet has zero beers on the list.
Message MaxxDaddy P beers 415 º places 32 º 09:57 Mon 1/26/2015 Originally posted by Clownoisseur The "Best Beers in The World" list came out today.... It left me curious as to how the "winners" are determined. For a small example, New Glarus only has Serendipity mentioned on the list.....yet, it ranks behind Belgian Red in the Fruit Beer/Radler category.... ...and they both rank behind Kuhnhenn Raspberry Eisbock (#1 fruit beer), which is left completely off the list. Kuhnhenn actually has a beer in the Ratebeer Top 50 and another beer in the Top 100 (Bourbon Barrel 4th Dimentia, #1 Old Ale)....yet has zero beers on the list. This is because the ratings that factor into the best of the year are only from 2014. Serendipity outperformed Belgian Red in 2014, even though over the history of RateBeer, Belgian Red has the higher rating.
Message Clownoisseur beers 531 º places 1 º 09:58 Mon 1/26/2015 Originally posted by MaxxDaddy Originally posted by Clownoisseur The "Best Beers in The World" list came out today.... It left me curious as to how the "winners" are determined. For a small example, New Glarus only has Serendipity mentioned on the list.....yet, it ranks behind Belgian Red in the Fruit Beer/Radler category.... ...and they both rank behind Kuhnhenn Raspberry Eisbock (#1 fruit beer), which is left completely off the list. Kuhnhenn actually has a beer in the Ratebeer Top 50 and another beer in the Top 100 (Bourbon Barrel 4th Dimentia, #1 Old Ale)....yet has zero beers on the list. This is because the ratings that factor into the best of the year are only from 2014. Serendipity outperformed Belgian Red in 2014, even though over the history of RateBeer, Belgian Red has the higher rating. That makes sense. How do I see how a beer performed only in a given year?
Message MaxxDaddy P beers 415 º places 32 º 10:02 Mon 1/26/2015 Unfortunately, the statistics page for a given beer doesn’t have that information on it, at least to my knowledge. That would certainly be a cool addition, but I don’t know how much work that would require.

Message jamesewelch beers 259 º places 19 º 10:08 Mon 1/26/2015 Originally posted by Clownoisseur Cool....thanks for the thought out reply. A friend mentioned them as being good, but the small amount of ratings on this site didn’t tell much. Think I will have to check them out! Yeah, definitely worth a stop if you’re passing through Winooski. Most of his beer is just available at the brewery, although, he’s starting to get a few kegs distributed. I think that’s why there’s so few ratings (beer just avail at brewery) rather than bottles/cans/pubs.
Message AdamChandler P beers 6124 º places 278 º 10:09 Mon 1/26/2015 Originally posted by jamesewelch Originally posted by AdamJackson James, you talking about Pro Pig? Yeah, somewhat, but not directly. Not wanting to question the winners. Pro Pig is a great pub, but that raised the question in this discussion. I’ve been wondering and talked to others about it for a year or so (actually another brewer asked my opinion of this ’situation’ last year which started me thinking about it). Last year (or maybe late 2013) when VT’s brewpub boom started (Knotty Shamrock, Whetstone, Brewster, Pro Pig, Black Lantern, etc.) some of the other VT brewers started asking questions. Some of those brewpubs may have 8, 16, or 24 taps, but only 0, 1, or 2 of their own beer on tap at any given time. A few times, VBA members went to check out the brewpub and there wasn’t even a single self-brewed beer on tap. I was just curious if there was any others who had opinions on beer bars vs brewpubs vs restaurants when the majority of taps are guest beer vs all-self beer. Now, Pro Pig has a brewery in a separate/disconnected building down the street and they distribute their beer back to the Pro Pig restaurant (as of Dec, prior to that they were brewing in restaurant basement). For 2015, would that make them 2 separate places since the brewery will eventually serve small plates and guest taps and the restaurant will continue to work as normal, except no longer using basement for brewing. Also, then there’s guys like Lost Nation. I’d almost call that a brewpub too. Great food. 1 guest tap with all other taps from LN. Then Zero Gravity complicates things once their Pine St brewery opens in Mar/Apr - they’ll have a brewpub operations at Flatbread and a production brewery/tasting room (maybe food) at the production brewery across the street from Queen City Brewery. It’s just hard to define/differentiate brewpubs vs breweries that serve food vs restaurants/pubs with a couple self-taps and majority other-brewery-taps. very valid points that I agree with. for what it’s worth, Pro Pig Restaurant (Place) Is a Restaurant here on RB and there’s a separate entry for Pro Pig Brewery (Place). So maybe that works itself out next year. Lost Nation is a brewpub as far as I’m concerned and it’s very good. Nice drafts, great food, great ambiance, nice prices.
Message AdamChandler P beers 6124 º places 278 º 10:11 Mon 1/26/2015 Originally posted by Clownoisseur Either of you have an opinion on Four Quarters in Winooski? I’ve only rated a few of their beers. Will be visiting them very soon. Local opinion is pretty high. A few locals came to my place on Friday and all bought local beers they liked. 14th star was represented by 2 different people who are not beer geeks as "easier to get than Heady" so I think there’s some momentum when non tickers/raters are seeing 14th star and grabbing those cans to share with friends. James knows way more about the beer scene than I do but there are 10 new breweries on my list of must visit this quarter. VT beer is still growing. Really not sure where the ceiling is. With HF expansion and Alchemist expanding, I’m pretty stoked for 2015. I’m home Public Keg-Sales of HF Edward start when the snow melts. I’ll have Edward on Tap and a 4-pack of heady in my fridge at all times to cover pretty much all of my IPA needs. It’s been hard to reliably grab good IPAs in VT in 2014. Limbo was sporadic, 14th star and Fiddlehead are good but they’re both 2 hours north of me. HF is 75 minutes drive and Montpelier is 60 minutes so that’s not bad for every 4 weeks to grab fresh IPAs.