Craft Beer Power Rankings 3-21-13

Welcome to the first edition of Danny Fullpint’s Craft Beer Power Rankings. What this means is, I will rank the top five beers of the week based on a number of factors.  The biggest factor will by my observation on the impact the beers listed are making on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Ratebeer and BeerAdvocate. Other factors will be the impact the ranked beers have made on release week or during pre-sale.  You might have a completely different perspective on this, and we encourage you to share them in the comment section below.  Cheers!

5. Stone Enjoy By 04.20.13/ 04.01 – Stone has made a powerful push with this beer, using Twitter and Instagram hashtags, and while the entire Stone distribution footprint hasn’t gotten their hands on this beer, those who have, have been trading it heavily, comparing it to Pliny, taking pictures of it, and in our neck of the woods, driving around the city looking to get more than a two bottle allotment. Adding the 04.20 ha ha factor took the presence of this beer to another level than it was last batch, much like when they did 12.21.12 (The End of the World) bit.

4. Clown Shoes Chocolate Sombrero – We’ve heard from retailers that this sells out within minutes of stocking it.  Clown Shoes has a nice following due to the controversy of their labels and unique recipes.  I think it’s safe to say Chocolate Sombrero is their biggest hit to date.

3. Cigar City Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout 2013 – We are over two weeks out from Cigar City’s Hunahpu’s Day. We have it on good authority that while way more beer was brewed and bottled, that way more people came out to snag it up, thus keeping the supply and demand level unbalanced like every other year.  Whether it be RB, BA, Reddit or Facebook, this is a huge ISO at this point.

2. DarkLord Russian Imperial Stout – Much like Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout, there is a chain reaction to the release of this beer and it’s demand level.  The minute ticket’s go on sale for Dark Lord Day, the beer Dark Lord gets on everyones radar. The vintages trade well and the anticipation for this years batch and barrel aged variants peaks pretty high. Those who are shut out of the event seem to want the beer 10x more than they did two months ago.

1. Aleman / Two brothers / Stone DayMan Coffee IPA – We were skeptical of this beer. A coffee IPA? The first 22 oz. format of Stone Collaboration had one advantage before hitting the shelf: the name DayMan. Possibly a coincidence, DayMan is also a reference to an episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, in which one of the main characters Charlie writes a musical called Day Man. Whether you put a picture of this beer on Facebook or Instagram, comments reciting lyrics from Charlie’s musical will follow. This caffeinated beer is buzzing (see what I just did there) because it’s a crazy style, has that name to hook you in and Stone’s behind the social marketing.