The Forest

Best Craft Beers!!

The results are in!  The Forest announces winners of our 2016 Craft Beer Festival. We urge our readers to try these excellent brews at your local tavern, or wherever fine spirits are sold.

9. FAT BICYCLE

A Moldovian style hard wheat and oatmeal lager great with difficult to swallow favorites such as tongue sandwiches or unsalted potatoes. Also for special moments such as toasts at volatile mixed ethnicity weddings, or simply enjoyed on its own in the company of cable TV.  Exudes a reassuring aura of inscrutably plain cherry liqueur bolstered with hints of Tennessee thistles and burned chaff.

8. SUITCASE MEDIUM ALE

Briefly discontinued after Bert and Marty Olson's gravel wall brewery in its namesake town's grain shipping district exploded twice in the same day, the mid Nebraska classic has returned!  It's now brewed with even more authority in a converted silo on the surviving Olsons' family farm. An authentic cornfield ale, it serves well with stolid Midwestern fare such as stove fried burgers or any potato chip lined casserole.  Dependably steady with a clever soybean pollen and shredded hay aftertaste.

7. LOST ESKIMO

Colder is bolder anytime you're talking about this tough sledding UPHB (Upper Peninsula Heller Bock) shivering wild rice winter gala ale.  Equally in the game whether cracked open at ice fishing breakfasts or strapped onto a recent hockey injury, the Eskimo is best left in your freezer until it bursts out of its signature amber bottle fully frozen. Real devotees have been known to lightly warm a spoon or buck knife and enjoy this chill brew right then and there. 

Limited availability outside Alaska, Greenland and Michigan. 

6. WURSTBOCK

The quality grains in this MNA (Mid North American) Maibock are soaked to mush in hot springs somewhere north of Little Rock, then shipped to Makoti, ND, for exclusive hot basted malting. With overtones of heirloom currants and highway marker, the upper plains near-favorite goes well with classic northerner delights from chips and asparagus dip to heavily curded Poutine. Shipped in 16 oz. cans only.

5. BAD HEIFER

If you're looking for an authentic Hefeweizen partly to mostly cloudy wheat beer with a genuinely beefy heft, mosey no farther than this Bad Bergzabern inspired jack straw lager.  First introduced at local, unlicensed rodeos, it has grown to be the gulp of choice at many Western style events.  It's busting with plenty of ABV (alcohol by volume) - and barely carbonated in order to slide down "in mass and fast" - for a guaranteed rapid onset buzz between quick mounts.  Yet it's big hearted enough to last for plenty of tall tales around the trailer lot.  Not recommended for young children or small women.

4. BUSTED PLANK

Lynne and Fred Linsdale, notorious crafters of central southern MPA (Mississippi Pale Ale), won't confirm that the proprietary yeast for this sweltering afternoon favorite was purloined from a remote backwater of a bankrupt European Union principality, but they're not denying it, either. No matter; enjoy its crisp, lightly carbonated unpretentiousness smattered with wafts of huckleberry root and split wood. Enjoyed by some with smoke hardened meats or Canadian Goose wings.  

Sold by growler only; inquire at your local draft house or hire someone to locate it.

3. NULL SKUNK

Ever tentatively downed an over-shelved, volume-priced brew and been caught short by that infamous stale initial bite and acrid aftertaste you were fearing even as you bought the stuff?  Not with Null Skunk - the mass produced microbrew you can count on to not deliver the worst a beer is capable of.  Filtered once, and occasionally krausened, this lazy lager gurgles down well with most bar snacks and the occasional Reese's Cup.  A dependable "go to" for those predawn hours when your friendly neighborhood gathering spot has run out of everything else.  Now available in 50-can bargain cases.

2.  77777 

Not for everyone seated in the barroom high tops, this ultra brisk THA (Tennessee Hops Alone) lager is uniquely backward filtered to remove all malted grain flavor and deliver one hundred percent hop bitters. It's replete with enough latent grain and malt related sugar to yield the spirits you need for that unbeatable beer grin, but makes no apologies for going all out on sheer acrid brightness and bite for today's "hyped on hops" crowd.

Often consumed with anything edible and close at hand.

1. FOREVER BLACK

Only when its middling quality grains have mildewed to complete blackness are they flash burned on zinc sheets over propane torches to yield the triple black malts exclusive to this near liquid potable. Decidedly incapable of quenching any thirst, it's the definitive ITOS (Indiana Thick Oat Stout) with overwhelming throat feel and flavor soaked heaviness to log in as our top pick. Perfect for challenging crafty beer groupies to leave their lumberjack shirts behind in Brooklyn and partake in some authentic maltose slogging. Takes on those annoying overgrown craft guy beards, as well, with a rich foamy head suitable for use with any razor.

Sold in single, hard ceramic stopped 150ml bottles.

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