Consumer Reports rates top craft beers

  • Los Angeles Times
  • Tuesday, July 2, 2013 2:16pm
  • Business

Just in time for the Fourth of July, Consumer Reports has issued its list of the best craft beers in the United States, based on a blind taste test of 23 craft ales and lagers.

Three India pale ales came out on top: Stone IPA, Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA and Samuel Adams Hopology Collection Latitude 48 IPA.

Rounding out the top 10 were: Shock Top Wheat IPA, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Lagunitas IPA, Widmer Bros. Hefeweizen, Widmer Bros. Drifter Pale Ale, Goose Island 312 Urban Wheat Ale and Long Trail Ale.

Consumer Reports praised Stone IPA as “very fragrant, with floral, fruity and juniper notes from the added hops.”

Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA, it said, has “a great mix of malt and hop notes and is more intense than most.”

The publication rated Brooklyn Lager as the top lager.

Some beer snobs were not impressed with Consumer Reports’ choices.

“Stick to cars and electronics, Consumer Reports,” one beer fan wrote on the Beer Advocate website.

“I cannot understand why they do a review of craft beers, where there are thousands of examples and a lot of subjectivity for preference,” another commenter said.

The website Beer &Whiskey Bros. took issue with the inclusion of Shock Top as a craft beer. Shock Top is produced by Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewer. “Go home, Consumer Reports. You’re drunk,” the website said.

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