The 20 Most Influential Beers of All Time

From: Boston, MA Style: American strong ale ABV: 24% and up Website: samueladams.com John Holl says: "As one of the first craft beers to push the limits of high alcohol percentages, the Utopias continue to have an air of mystery about them. First released a decade ago and usually put out every two years, each incarnation is aged in various wine and spirits barrels, giving the beers complex boozy characteristics, akin to a fine cognac. Adding to the allure is the high price tag—close to $200 per bottle—as well as the vessel it comes in (it’s shaped like a brew kettle)."

From: Sonoma, California Style: Pale ale ABV: — Website: — John Holl says: "Although short-lived, the flagship offering from what is considered the first microbrewery in the modern American beer age inspired a movement to think small and brew local. Ken Grossman, founder of Sierra Nevada, was one such person who followed the lead of [Jack McAuliffe and] New Albion and started his own brewery. Once thought lost to time, the beer was recently brewed by Sam Adams and will be available nationally for a limited time in early 2013."

From: Brooklyn, NY Style: Light beer ABV: 4.6% Website: – Samuel Merritt says: "[This beer from] Rhinegold Brewery in Brooklyn was very influential as it was the first light beer ever, formulated by famed brewing chemist Joseph Owedes with a new method of enzymatic action that resulted in fewer calories (95) and 2.6 grams of carbohydrates. Though not a commercial success, it gave rise to the idea of low-calorie beer. Eventually, in the hands of Miller, light American lager became not only the most popular style of beer, but also [came to comprise] half the volume of consumption. A delicious backlash was to follow, of course."

From: San Francisco, CA Style: California Common/Steam Beer ABV: 4.9% Website: anchorbrewing.com Samuel Merritt says: "This beer was influential because of the beautiful story that came with its assertive, yet delicately approachable, flavor profile. The minty, woodsy snap of Northern Brewer hops gives us subtle satisfaction—as does knowing that Fritz Maytag is a pioneer in today’s beer business. He inspired us by his act of saving an old brewery and showing his passion and pride in the beers. This story and liquid combined make for an extremely satisfying beer experience, and if there’s an American beer with its own American story to tell alongside it, it's Anchor Steam and Fritz."

Samuel Merritt says: "In the interest of influence, my point is not who made this stuff, but that it was made to begin with. To me, generic beer was the all-time low point in flavor that the brewing world needed to bring about change and get the discussion going about flavor. This is the ultimate I don’t care what it tastes like, just feed it to me situation. Sometimes, things have to get really bad before they get better, and this is proof of that for the beer world. It is the beer that broke the beer drinker’s back."

From: Healdsburg, CA Style: Rye IPA ABV: 8% Website: bearrepublic.com Mike Lovullo says: "Before everyone was making differentiated IPAs (obviously including those with rye malt), Bear Republic made Hop Rod Rye. This 8%, 80-IBU rye IPA uses 18% rye malt that imparts a beautiful earthy and spicy character to the bitter hop finish."

From: Aying, Germany Style: Doppelbock ABV: 6.7% Website: ayinger.de Mike Lovullo says: "Although the style originated at a monastery in Northern Italy, it was quickly introduced by Bavarian brewers to compete with bocks. The modest ABV has crept up in American imitations, but there's no doubt that the cascading layers of malt complexity and the caramel and toffee notes of Celebrator have inspired anyone trying to recreate this style."

From: Malle, Belgium Style: Tripel/Trappist ABV: 9.5% Website: trappistwestmalle.be Mike Lovullo says: "This is considered by most to be the 'mother of all tripels.' This style was first brewed in the Westmalle abbey in 1934, and the recipe has stayed practically unchanged since then. In many a blind tasting, I've only found Allagash Tripel to come close."

From: Brussels, Belgium Style: Gueuze ABV: 5% Website: cantillon.be Mike Lovullo says: "From the historic lambic brewery Cantillon in Brussels comes the incredibly layered, funky, and acidic gueuze style. This blend of three lambics of different ages (typically one fresh and the other two aged for 1-3 years) is an inspiration to all trying to make any type of sour ale."

From: Cologne, Germany Style: Kölsch ABV: 4.8% Website: reissdorf.de Mike Lovullo says: "The town of Cologne, the namesake for Kölsch [Cologne is Köln in German], not only has more breweries than any other city in the world, but it also has a federal law protecting its right to brew this pale, top-fermenting ale. The kölsch style is a bit of a hybrid style as it uses an ale yeast, but ferments at lower lager temperatures. The result is a very crisp beer that finishes like a pale lager, but still has the fruity accents of an ale."

From: Chico, CA Style: Pale ale ABV: 5.6% Website: sierranevada.com Jeff Gorlechen says: "The granddaddy of American craft beer, this beer is still as good as ever. Even though palates change as you discover the overwhelming vastness of what beer is and what hops are (it's an IPA world right now and we are all just living in it), the consistency and quality of this beer remains the aspiration of all breweries. Even as Sierra has grown to become the second-largest of American craft microbreweries, the pale ale and all of their other beers remain benchmarks in their categories. I've never had a disappointing beer from them."

From: Santa Rosa, CA Style: IPA ABV: 6.1% Website: russianriverbrewing.com Joshua M. Bernstein says: "Beer geeks rightfully praise Vinnie Cilurzo’s Pliny the Elder, the double IPA against which all others are judged. Thing is, the path for Pliny was blazed by Blind Pig, an IPA brewed to compensate for a flawed brewery [the beer was originally brewed by Cilurzo at Blind Pig before he brought it to Russian River]. Blind Pig’s equipment was so antiquated, off flavors were all too common. To compensate, he added heaps of hops, setting a bitter template that brewers worldwide now follow."

From: San Francisco, CA Style: Barley wine ABV: 8–10% Website: anchorbrewing.com Joshua M. Bernstein: "Few beer drinkers had ever heard of England’s strong, warming barley wines until 1975, when San Francisco’s Anchor Brewing released Old Foghorn Barleywine Style Ale with an American twist: plenty of flowery Cascade hops. The beer set the hopped-up guidelines for American brewers’ interpretations of the style."

From: Pilsen, Czech Republic Style: Pilsner ABV: 4.4% Website: pilsner-urquell.com Joshua M. Bernstein says: "Last fall, I had the chance to visit Pilsen, the Czech Republic birthplace of the pilsner. In America, Pilsner Urquell’s flavor is often dulled by time and temperature. But in Pilsen, the beer is a crisp, aromatic thing of beauty. One taste, and you’ll see why it was so revolutionary. The brewery has now started a cold-shipping program to ensure that the beer is Czech-fresh."

From: Portland, Maine Style: Witbier ABV: 5% Website: allagash.com Joshua M. Bernstein says: "Pierre Celis may have saved the witbier with Hoegaarden, but Allagash’s Rob Tod has given the cloudy, wheat-driven beer a permanent spot at craft beer bars and restaurants across the nation. Mussels steamed in his witbier is a modern classic. Allagash White is the beer Blue Moon wishes it could be."

From: Dublin, Ireland Style: Irish Dry Stout ABV: 4.2% Website: guinness.com Jimmy Carbone says: "Until the late 1950s, Guinness was poured like other real ales of the time—from a wooden cask, either by a gravity faucet or a hand pump. But some of the publicans had trouble with the beer when it got too lively and foamy. Guinness pioneered the use of a nitrogen/carbon dioxide blended gas to stabilize the beer. Many cask ale fans might curse Guinness for this innovation, but I'm taking the reverse course, and here's why: Once I'd become familiar with various cask beers, I believed the common Guinness was an industrial version of what was once "real ale." No other beer has a head quite like the Guinness head—it's an invention of modern scientific thought. Every time the classic head rises in a glass of draft Guinness pulled anywhere in the world, it can be traced to the use of nitrogen as a component of the beer’s dispensing gas. But the nitrogen is simply mimicking what a good pub owner had traditionally been able to do with careful handling of cask Guinness pulled through a hand pump. Now that casks are trendy again, the importance of the Guinness nitro pour comes into relief. By the 1960s, Guinness had pioneered the use of the nitrogen/CO2 mix in all their kegs and pub dispense systems. With this innovation in place, the style spread through out the world. Why most influential? As draft and craft beers made a comeback in the '90s, Guinness gave people a standard option that wasn't yellow; it made going out to pubs a different experience from sitting home with a six pack; and it kept color in beer, giving us a much-loved style stout that everyone could use as a reference point as they grew to discover craft beer."

From: Kelheim, Germany Style: Weizenbock ABV: 8.2% Website: schneider-weisse.de Jimmy Carbone says: "[To understand the American craft beer movement you have to look at] the great beers of Europe that inspired many of us in the '90s to love good beer. While Brooklyn Brewery should be credited for its Brooklyn Lager, which brought back the pre-Prohibition, amber lager style, its biggest contribution to the rise of craft beer in NYC was its import and distribution business (the Craft Beer Guild) in the '90s. When I was starting out in 1992, buying beer and wine for the Coffee Shop in Union Square, Brooklyn Brewery's Craft Beer Guild sales reps—Ed Raven and Jim Munson—paid me a visit with a box of 50-plus American and European craft and specialty beers. Schneider Aventinus, Duvel, Chimay, Rogue, Sierra Nevada, and Samuel Smith were just a few of the beers that I can remember. The trusting curatorship that this company brought to the crazy NYC beer and liquor business allowed me to slowly develop the taste for and appreciation of good craft beer. (As a reminder, in 1992 we primarily sold cases of—in this order—Amstel Light, Heineken, and Red Stripe.) The leading European beers—Duvel, Chimay Red, and especially Aventinus—stood out. Why is Aventinus the most influential beer for me? Many German beers kept up historical traditions into the '90s. And especially on the East Coast, there just weren't too many American options. We didn't even know what craft beer was. Germany still had traditional producers of beer like Schneider, and it was represented well by the Craft Brewers Guild. Aventinus was everything American beer was not in the '90s—strong, well-balanced, flavorful, and made with tradition. I remember several Oktoberfest-type events where I drank Aventinus exclusively! When I first opened Jimmy's No. 43 in 2005, my first draft lineup (in addition to three lines for local start-up Sixpoint) were all beers I had learned to love 10 years before from the Craft Brewers Guild—especially Aventinus from Schneider. Dark German wheat and dark bock beers are styles that haven't been adopted by too many American craft breweries. Aventinus—a strong, dark wheat beer—is one of many traditional German beer styles just waiting for enterprising American craft brewers to take up. I choose Aventinus because it represents the great diversity of German beer styles, and it shows us that the American craft brewing industry still has so much potential."

These days, we're so spoiled with great beer that we barely bat an eyelash when we walk into a bar with 20 taps devoted to craft brews, or run to the corner deli to pick up a bottle of world-class Belgian beer to pair with our takeout pizza. With new local breweries popping up every day and far-flung imports hitting shelves from the likes of Iceland and New Zealand, the choices can feel overwhelming. But as we always say when someone tells us they love Kanye West but have never heard of Rakim: Respect the OGs, son! As the beer market matures, it's important to have a sense of context—to understand how we got here, and appreciate the trailblazers that took brewing to new heights (or dragged it so low that others were inspired to fight back). Of course, determining a beer's influence is a tricky and subjective matter. Yet it is one that brings up a lot of questions worth asking: Which beers set the standard within their respective style? Which IPAs ushered in the era of the American hop bomb? What is the gateway beer that has converted the most newbies into beer nerds? To get a diverse range of opinions on the topic of influence in beer, we gathered a virtual panel of beer-industry pros—brewers, distributors, publicans, and importers—as well as a few journalists to weigh in. They include the following:

• Joshua M. Bernstein, author of Brewed Awakening and editor of Craft Beer New York
• Samuel Merritt, founder of Civilization of Beer
• Mike Lovullo, specialty brands manager for Union Beer Distributors
• Jimmy Carbone, owner of Jimmy's No. 43; host of Beer Sessions Radio; founder of the Good Beer Seal
• Jeff Gorlechen, cofounder of Sixpoint Brewery
• Dave Brodrick, founder of Blind Tiger Ale House
• Don Feinberg, co-owner of Vanberg & DeWulf
• John Holl, beer journalist and author of The American Craft Beer Cookbook
• Chris Schonberger, editor-in-chief of First We Feast

If you've had most of these beers and think we missed some key players, let us know in the comments. And if most are new to you, consider this the craft-beer survey course you never got in college: Once you've tried these 20 brews, you'll be well-equipped to assess the next wave of shiny new suds to show up at your local bar.

From: Tourpes, Belgium Type: Saison ABV: 6.5% Website: brasserie-dupont.com Chris Schonberger says: "If anyone in American know their Belgian beers, it's Don Feinberg. Before the majority of Americans had even heard of a farmhouse ale or a sour, he was driving around Belgium seeking out small, traditional breweries and bringing their beers back to America in suitcases. After establishing Vanberg & DeWulf in 1982, he went on—with the help of his wife, Wendy Littlefiled—to introduce the country to world-class beers like Duvel, Rodenbach Grand Cru, and Frank Boon’s lambics. Given this history, I can forgive Don for answering with the slightly argumentative response, "Belgian beer," when asked about the most influential brews of all time. If he had left it at that, I might have pegged him a curmudgeon. But, in fact, his reasoning is both heartfelt and instructive, and worth sharing here:

"Belgian beer broke the ridiculous hold of Reinheitsgebot [the German purity law regulating how beer can be made] on the American imagination. It showed home brewers, craft brewers, and big brewers that it’s what’s in the bottle that counts, not some absurd adherence to an approved ingredient list or narrow stylistic guidelines. It showed the essential importance of  fermentation, and the value of re-fermentation for stability (why pasteurize when you can re-ferment?). It showed that that sugar is an ingredient to be prized if you want drinkability with your higher alcohol; that hops are just one of the spices brewers should use; that sour is good, that strong is good, that aging in barrel or in bottle is good, that more than one fermentation is good, that fruit is good; that, in sum, there is no one great beer, there are only great beers and anyone with a palate and passion can  go out and  make one."

The man makes a good point. And so I'll let Don be the visionary and the teacher, and I'll be the list-obsessed Internet journalist and make a pick for him. The beers that Vanberg & DeWulf brought across the pond from Belgium have been undeniably influential in inspiring the American craft beer movement, for all the reasons Don notes above. And for me, looking at its catalog, the one beer that stands out is Saison Dupont—the farmhouse ale whose effervesce, earthy hop character, and dry finish have set the rubric for so many that have come after. Needless to say, there's a story there too: When the seminal beer writer Michael Jackson encouraged Don to go visit Marc Rosier (then the brewer at Brasserie Dupont), this beer was actually slated for extinction due to its lack of popularity. Don convinced the brewery to keep making it, brought it to America, and now the beer is considered among the world's best. (Interesting side note: It has also become popular back home in Belgium.) As Wendy Littlefield points out, "An English journalist and and American importer made it possible for Saison Dupont to become the most imitated style of beer by craft brewers."

From: London, England Type: English Pale Ale ABV: 4.7% (bottled); 4.1% (cask) Website: fullers.co.uk Chris Schonberger says: "Malty, sessionable, balanced, superb on cask—this beer, for many around the world, has become synonymous with traditional English brewing. The British old guard couldn't have asked for a better poster boy. English malts are the backbone so many of the foundational craft ales, and more often than not brewers look to Pride as the template for how to achieve that sturdy, biscuity base. And while its heavy export has made it world famous, the Fuller's flagship is just as much of a workhorse back home, holding down the fort for traditional English ales in the face of a market flooded with generic lagers."

From: Chicago, Illinois Style: Imperial Stout ABV: 15% Website: gooseisland.com Dave Brodrick says: "Back in 1994, to honor the 1,000th batch of beer made at the original Goose Island brewpub, Greg Hall put some Imperial Stout into bourbon barrels and completely changed the craft-beer world. Suddenly, everyone was talking about Bourbon County Stout, and every brewery seemed to have a barrel program. With Goose Island's sale to AB/InBev, the Brewer's Association no longer considers it a craft brewery, but there is no denying that Bourbon County Stout is still one of the most influential beers of all time."

Here are five more classics that came up in conversation when debating this topic, but didn't find a champion among the panel. Orval. Not only is this Trappist beer considered the quintessential Belgian pale ale, but it is also the direct inspiration for Goose Island's Matilda, and should thus be credited with introducing a huge number of drinkers to traditional Belgian brewing. Samuel Smith Taddy Caster Porter. This superb beer flies the flag for one of the most foundational beer styles: the English porter, which defined British brewing in the 18th and 19th centuries. As craft brewers around the world tinker with porters (largely revived by Americans), the likes of Taddy Caster and Fuller's Porter give them a standard to work from. Dogfish Head 60, 90, and 120 Minute IPAs. There's no doubt that Dogfish Head is one of the most influential modern breweries in the world, and founder Sam Calagione told us himself that the 60 Minute IPA is one of the most important brews of his career. By giving the brawny West Coast IPA tradition an East Coast spin, it played a key role in setting off the coast-to-coast arms race for hop bomps—and so-called "extreme beers"—that would come to define American brewing. The 60 Minute is also, simply put, one of the most common on-ramps for newcomers to craft brewing and IPAs. Ommegang Hennepin. You could make an argument for almost any of the Ommegang beers being on this list, as the brewery—established by Don Feinberg in Cooperstown, NY in 1997—was one of the first Belgian-style breweries in America. It introduced countless Americans to Belgian styles like saison (Hennepin is considered the first American saison) and inspired a generation of craft brewers to take Belgian brewing and give it a stateside twist. By collaborating with Belgian breweries (and, eventually, getting bought out by Brouwerij Duvel Moortgat, makers of Duvel), it's also been influential in creating a two-way conversation between the countries. Hitachino Nest Red Rice Ale. Firstly, it's remarkable how many non-beer drinkers recognize Hitachino over what many nerds would consider the classics of British, German, and Belgian brewing. However, its significance goes deeper than mere branding: 1) Its use of rice has opened many people's eyes to the potential of alternative grains beyond barley and wheat. 2) As a beer from Japan that it is not a generic lager, it has increased awareness that brewing history is not the sole province of Western Europe, and there is in fact a world tradition worthy of celebration.