10 Great Beers You Will Never Taste

1. Toppling Goliath Kentucky Brunch Brand Stout
The absolute hottest beer of the moment may very well be a barrel-aged coffee stout from little Decorah, Iowa. Kentucky Brand Brunch Stout has so far been released about once a year, about 300 to 400 bottles each time, always straight from the brewery. Beer geeks have gone bonkers for this brew and by the end of the year it looks poised to become the No.1 rated beer in the entire world on BeerAdvocate.com. In fact, so coveted is it, that it inspired a counterfeiting scandal last year!
2. Side Project Fuzzy
Beer fans go nuts for sour ales and St. Louis's Side Project is currently making some of the most adventurous in the business. Their award-winning Fuzzy is aged in Chardonnay barrels with Missouri-grown white peaches eventually added. More importantly, it's only been released once, in tiny 375 mL bottles, and, of course, it sold out immediately. Shockingly, beer geeks even behaved themselves waiting for it—though many clearly didn't drink the one bottle they were allowed to purchase as it currently sells well on the secondary market.
3. Hill Farmstead Ann
Vermont's Hill Farmstead is probably the most acclaimed beermaker in the world at the moment and, indeed, if you live outside of The Green Mountain State it can be a little tricky to try many of their offerings. But travel to this beautiful state and a lot of Hill Farmstead beers flow fairly freely at the major beers bars in Burlington, Waterbury, and Montpelier. Not Ann, though, which so far has only been released twice in bottles. The recent 2015 release of this barrel-aged honey saison saw a Byzantine lottery system that made most Pappy releases look quaint in comparison.
4. Cantillon Blåbær Lambik
Though you might not believe it, as I said above, you will get to drink something from the ballyhooed Brasserie Cantillon one day. Yes, they are hard to get and you may never taste one in America, but fly to any major city in western Europe and you'll be able to find a good deal of Cantillon's flagship offerings in various bottle shops. Fly to Belgium at the right time, and you'll be able to find most all of their yearly offerings. One noted "Loon" will be a struggle, though, and that's their almost yearly (since 2005) release of their celebrated blueberry lambic. Made in partnership with the Ølbutikken bottle shop in Copenhagen, that's the only place where it's ever sold (though I did happen to luck into one at Brooklyn's Tørst in 2013). The 2014 vintage only saw 100 bottles sold for "takeaway." By my count, there's now 7.3 billion people on earth and, oh, about half of them currently self-identify as "beer snobs." Shit.
Continue Reading!