Craft Beer Power Rankings 4-20-13 Edition (Rank The Dank)
We’re holding a special holiday edition of Craft Beer Power Rankings, in which we ‘rank the dank’ for April 20, 2013. Cheers!
5. – Russian River Pliny The Elder – One of the original dank beers. Christmas trees baby! As long as you get this fresh, you will see how magical it is.
4. 3 Floyds Zombie Dust – The midwest makes a ton of great beers, but historically aren’t as famous for dankness like the left coast. 3F added Zombie Dust to their already killer west coast style portfolio, and this one is probably their biggest hit of them all. It straddles the line of American Pale Ale and IPA, and no matter what you call it, you can close your eyes, take a sniff and a sip, and you will probably agree that it smells like something sticky icky. As anyone in a 10 mile radius of the brewery, it gets brewed, bottled and sold with no breaks in between. Cause it’s that dank.
3. Kern River Citra DIPA – It’s definitely worth the trip to the brewery. The Citra hop is so popular because it smells amazing, and provides great hop flavor without abrasive mouth punishing bitterness. While many people are utilizing this fairly new hop, Kern River has done the best single hop ale we’ve tried.
2.Alchemist Heady Topper – The Alchemist is doing the lords work, and put Vermont on the beer geek map. Definitely seek out a trade for a fresh four pack if you haven’t already. Smells crazy dank from the can, and despite warnings of cloudy beer, it’s extra pungent poured into a glass. We still haven’t figured out what Heady Topper means. Hmmmm.
1. Stone Enjoy By IPA – Stone has always made some pretty dank IPAs over the years, but this kicks the ass of Runiation Tenth, 10th Anniversary and our old friend Ruination. Much like the beers listed here, this beer his heavy on aroma hops, but not as bitter as your nose would lead you to believe. This beer gets the nod on todays power rankings because it’s easier to get then some of these other amazing dank beers, and as long as you can read, you’ll never mistakenly get an old bottle of it. If I could get all five of these beers easily and fresh, it would have been a five way tie.
