The Lions' Pride

When in MD I picked up three bottles of DuClaw Colossus which weighs in at 22%. While I did get one for myself, the others are for beer exchanges. In the summertime I cannot seem to find the right time for a beer this big. The good thing is they generally age well.

Loving Sixpoint Apollo while grilling this summer.

Yea I've been there a few times. Pretty cool place. Staff is friendly. Pretty nice selection. Nice draft list. Sometimes some good prices on *glass*, if you're into that sort of thing. Prices are all cheaper than what you'll find in PA... but that's almost purely a function of them being taxed less. Which, by the way, is why it is technically illegal to buy beer/wine at VE and then transport back over the state line into PA. They also have a half-decent scotch list, if you're into single malts.

If I lived within 10 minutes of that place, I'd be a "regular". As it is, I make a trip out a couple times a year. Cool spot. Perhaps a bit over-hyped at this point, but worth a detour if you ever find yourself anywhere near the area.

There's a pretty nice bottle shop out in New Kensington that might be a bit closer to you... I know, i know, when you think craft beer, "New Kensington" doesn't spring to mind, but just take my word for it and check it out. Nice draft list (fully-automated, online, you see on the website what the patrons are seeing on the screen in the bar) and some pretty cool/rare stuff. Up over 1200 bottles at one point... Goes by the name "House of 1000 Beers" these days, but I still call it "6-and-Save", cause I think the new name is corny.

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As for the OP, great question, hard question, but I'll take my best shot at it with the following:
Fav American Pale: Oskar Blues Dale's Pale Ale
Fav American IPA: Fathead's Headhunter
Fav American DBL IPA: 3 Floyd's Dreadnaught
Fav. American Wheat Beer: 3 Floyd's Gumballhead

Fav Red Ale: Troeg's Nugget Nectar
Fav Barleywine: Troeg's Flying Mouflon

Fav Classic American Stout: Sierra Nevada Stout
Fav Imperial Stout: Dogfish Head World Wide Stout
Fav Sweet Stout: Bell's Special Double Cream Stout
Fav Porter: Willoughby's Peanut Butter Cup Coffee Porter

Fav Fruit Beer: Kasteel Rouge
Fav Quad: Ommegang 3 Philosophers
Fav Triple: St. Bernardus Watou Tripel
Fav Dubbel: Westmalle Dubbel
Fav Belgian Pale: Bruery Mischief
Fav Belgian Dark: Rochefort 6
Fav Sour: Cantillon Rose De Gambrinus

Fav "Big Brewery" beer made with adjuncts: Yuengling Black & Tan
Fav Mass Produced Beer without adjuncts: Guinness
Fav American Light Macro: Bud Light Lime

Fav Pumpkin: Epic Brewing Fermentation Without Representation
Fav XMas Beer: St. Bernardus Christmas

Fav Beer from PA: Troeg's Perpetual IPA
Fav Beer from Pittsburgh: Draai Laag Aureus
Fav Beer from Cali: Stone Ruination
Fav Beer from Belgium: Kasteel Rouge

Toughest Category to pick a favorite: Probably IPA/Imp. IPA. Maybe Belgian Quad. And I love Christmas Beers too. A lot of great ones made, particularly over in Belgium.

Favorite overall beer: Fathead's Headhunter. Probably. But if you put a Ruination, Dreadnaught, Double Jack, or Deviant Dale's in front of me, I'd probably change my tune.

I kind of want to give you a hard time about including Bud Light Lime on that list, but good god man, I can't do it after you put together such a comprehensively awesome beer list.

If you like Belgian beer, I cannot emphasize enough that you should check out the offerings of this tiny new brewery in Millvale called "Draai Laag". They only make 3 different beers so far, and they're 2/3 with me. The one is pretty "meh", but I felt like the other two are exceptional.

The best beer being made in the Burgh, IMO. But I like big, bold beers, and I find a whole lot of what comes out of places like Church, Penn, and even (to a lesser extent) East End to be a little bland and unimaginative.

Now, if we could just figure out a way to justify that Fathead's is somehow "Pittsburgh Beer", well... that'd change everything :)

I've heard great things about Headhunter. Would like to try that one sometime..

Bell's...

Two-hearted Ale and Hopslam (when you can get it) are two of my favorites, but haven't tried nearly all of them.

I also have Oberon at the moment, but I'm not as big of a fan as most people are.

Edit-Sorry Ehoffman. Didn't notice you already mentioned Bell's

I liked Bell's Oberon but preferred their Oarsman Ale.

If you like "West Coast IPA" (Ruination, WCIPA, Racer 5, Double Jack, ect), you'll like it. If you love those beers, as I do, you'll love it.

"American IPA" is the most competitive category at GABF. I think last year they had 179 entries. Headhunter came home with the Bronze. 3rd place. Out of 179. Pretty sure it brought home Silver in 2010. They've got a pretty long list of awards (from pretty heavy-hitters in the "beer awards" world, like GABF) they've brought home with Headhunter at this point.

They do a real good Stout ("Voodoo Monkey") and a great Imperial IPA ("Hop JuJu") as well.

They just bought Troeg's old 25 bbl system, so capacity has dramatically increased and production is soon to follow. Hopefully it's availability, both in Pittsburgh and beyond, increases as a result. In theory, it should eventually be as available as Troeg's has been for the last x number of years, since they're now using Troeg's old equipment...

Yep, I never close that window on my phone browser. Not a fan of those that still do julian calendar dating, bought a 1+ year old 6 of Little Sumpin Sumpin last week. Going by julian, it would have been 1-1.5 mos. old, drinking it, it's not that fresh. I should have known better because it was an out of the way bottle shop that still had Founders Breakfast available.

Supposedly it's right on East Ohio State, in between the on-ramp and off-ramp to 28.

I say "supposedly" because although both Google Maps and my Garmin indicate that it's there, I was down there about a month ago and decided to try to find it, and although I had my GPS with me I went past there 2-3 times and could not see any signs anywhere.

They're only "open to the public" 6 hours a month. I believe every other Friday they open their doors for 3 hours in the evening. Obviously, I haven't made it to that yet, but I believe they fill Growlers. Not sure if they sell beer by the pint or not. They may not have that license yet. I know it took Full Pint several months before they were allowed to sell you a pint.

I know you can get a bottle of it at Sidelines in Millvale... they'll charge you like $5 or $6, though. Even though growlers are generally overpriced, you'll likely do better than $0.50 an ounce with a growler. I've seen it at various bottle shops, too. But the one I frequent the most, in New Kensington, has trouble keeping it on the shelves.

Beer as with so many things being subjective... I am going to say that there are many more than 6 breweries that are topnotch when it comes to variety and quality. Even though I love Bell's they struggled with consistency and had issues with freshness not too many years ago while they were becoming a national power in Craft beer. There may be 6 national powers that really turn out a quality product with out compromising creativity and are still large enough to distribute from coast to coast (If that is what you meant then I whole-heartedly agree), but some of the appeal to me is the differences in particular regional brewing and how the different cultures in different areas affect the choices made in the brew kettle. On this note... I love NE, Midwestern, Oregon, and Colorado brewers, but if you have never been to San Diego/Southern California you are missing out. There are at least 10 breweries (and that is very conservative) that make as good a beer as anyone else in the country. I'm not even some huge hophead, but to me this area is and has been for some time making the best beer in the world.

Kinger do you know the distribution for Fatheads? I don't make it down to the Burgh much and was hoping they would expand.

Fitz,

I'm probably not up to date as much as Kinger, but I'll give it a shot. The Fatheads in Cleveland is where the brewery is currently located. On occasion a few kegs will be sent to Pittsburgh but it's short-lived.

As far as distribution goes, I'll see if Kinger can tackle that one.