10 Best Beers In America

Forget spending your hard-earned cash on fancy imported beers, and set out to swig the 10 best beers in America. America’s got plenty of its own great beers, from darkly colored stouts to pale or amber ales, you can find them in your local liquor or specialty grocery store, made by an American brewery.

1. Skip the Guiness and go New York on ‘em with Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout.   This deeply colored American beer is right on the mark, between sweet and bitter with nice notes of cocoa flavor.
2. Forget Stella and her Belgian friends, and celebrate your homecoming with American-made, Southhampton Grand Cru.  This Belgian style ale is strong and creamy and keeps it interesting with hints of orange zest, anise (think black licorice), and coriander (one of the key ingredients in Indian curry), because after all, who wants to drink a boring domestic beer?
3. Lager up with Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold, one of the best Dortmunder beers in America or across the pond.  Designed around the concept of the traditional German Dortmunder beer, the Great Lakes version is richer, hoppier and maltier than standard lagers while crisp and relatively low in alcohol at 5.8 alcohol by volume.
4. Stick to classics and pick a pilsner like Left Hand Polestar.  This perfectly carbonated, lightly malted brew is our top pick for simple, traditionally brewed American beer.
5. If you enjoy the hops, Dogfish Head Squall IPA is the American beer for you. Unfiltered, heavy on the hops but balanced with malts to make a drinkable brew.  This brand of beer is named after a head of land jutting out into the ocean where the founder, Sam Calagione grew up.
6. Enjoy the fruity dryness of San Fransisco’s Anchor Steam Beer.  Unique in how it is produced, this American beer is fermented at higher temperatures than standard lagers, resulting in the crisp and hoppy final flavor.
7. Sip darkly hued but very drinkable Full Sail Session Black, an American spin on dark beers. While many dark beers are so thick and heavy they qualify as a main course, Session Black with its smoky flavor and hints of chocolate, is apt to drink with a meal.
8. Drink a beer that combines the best of the beer worlds. Allagash Confluence, based in Portland, Maine, combines Belgian yeast strains, German, American, and English hops with an international variety of grains to create a tasty brew that starts out tart and swallows smooth.
9. Embrace your inner rebel with Portland, Oregon’s Deschutes’ Dissident beer. Aged two years and prepared with wild yeast, and whole Washington cherries (pits and all), this Flander’s style ale is a perfect marriage between sour flavor and sweet fruity aromas.
10.  Leave it to Colorado to perfect a cold-weather brew with Odell 90 Shilling Scottish Ale.  So when Winter weather hits, put down those skis and enjoy this rich and warming medium-bodied  amber-colored American beer.