By the Pint's Top Ten Beers

St. Bernardus is a name that often comes up when people talk about Westvleteren. Westvleteren 12 is regarded by many who've had it (which is a very small fraction of the overall population of craft beer drinkers) as the best beer in the world. Part of it's allure is the nearly unobtainable nature of this beer. St. Bernardus, on the other hand, is a much more widely available beer and one that is considered a very close second when talking about the best beers in the world. As someone who hasn't had the Westvleteren 12 or St. Bernardus, I'm approaching this beer with few preconceived notions about these beers and I'm looking forward to evaluating each one on their own merits.

Belgo Old Guardian was one of just a couple Stone beers I recently picked up in a visit to Colorado. Knowing that Stone was already in talks to bring the bulk of their line up to Missouri, I wasn't looking to stock up on their beers... but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to grab a few of their seasonal and limited release beers. I always wanted to try the Old Guardian Barley Wine, and honestly had never heard of the Belgo version, so I decided to pick up a bomber. Barleywines are great, most of the time... I'm a little apprehensive about Stone's take on the style, but I'm willing to give it a try. I'll try anything if you add a little Belgian yeast to it.

Schlafly's Bière De Garde just feels right. It tastes great, looks great and goes really well with a robust pizza. What more can I say? This was the first true Bière De Garde that I ever had and I return to it every time I want a hearty and sour full bodied beer with my dinner. This Bière De Garde smells like a farmhouse... but in a good way. It smells warm and wheaty, sour and a little fruity. The flavor of this beer is complicated and yet still familiar. It is sour and creamy with just a hint of spice. It's as if they took a wheat beer, a trippel and a Märzen; pour them all in to a vat and through the mystical art of brewing, came up with this delicious Bière De Garde. My one gripe with this beer, and it is a small one, is that it ultimately is more sour than sweet. It's a small complaint, but I'd love to try a version of this beer that has a little more sweetness in the aftertaste.

When I bought this Chimay sampler a few months ago I didn't really plan ahead as far how I was going to drink these three bottles. I ended inadvertently drinking them in the most american way possible, which would be Red, White and finally Blue... I started off with the Red because it is the Chimay I see most widely distributed. I drank the White next because it was the end of summer and I was wanting something a bit "lighter" ...like I said, I didn't do much research ahead of time. That left me with a bottle of Chimay Blue which I was a hesitant to open up, at least until I was ready for a nearly double digit ABV beer. I recently went to the grand opening of a new liquor store in town and they had all of their beers sorted in order by rating, from highest to lowest. I couldn't help but notice that Chimay's Blue garnered a 100 point score, ranking right up there (at least according to this liquor store) with Nøgne Ø #100 and Old Rasputin. Since I recently drank an Old Rasputin, I figured the time was right to finally crack open the Chimay Blue that's been waiting so patiently for me.