RateBeer Ranked: An Analysis of 2014’s Best Beer

With the changing of the calendar, January didn’t just bring a new year, but new reasons to dissect the beer industry and what us enthusiasts are going crazy about these days.

While it took extra work to compile the best of the best beers in 2014, RateBeer, one of the two preeminent rating sites, along with Beer Advocate, has just released its own annual lists, which includes the top 100 beers in the world.

The collection of top-rated brews has evolved over the years, most notably taking a dramatic shift last year, when RateBeer stopped ranking the best beers in numerical fashion, but opted to simply provide an alphabetized listing.

But that won’t stop me from navel gazing at another “best beer” list, especially when it provides us with valuable insight into beer lovers and the liquid we love so much.

So even thought this year’s list may have flown under the radar because it doesn’t rank your favorite beers, that’s what I’m here for…

Style Breakdown

As you might expect from a list like this, big beers like imperial stouts and double IPAs perform rather well. Here’s a chart of styles:

.. and for those completists out there, here is the numerical breakdown:

RateBeer Style	Number of Beers
Imperial Stout	36
DIPA	14
IPA	9
Strong Ale	9
Barleywine	6
Imperial Porter	3
Quad	3
Wild Ale	3
Pale Ale	3
Scotch Ale	2
Stout	2
Lambic	2
Saison	2
Sour Red	2
Porter	2
Fruit	1
Traditional Ale	1

ABV Analysis of Styles

Previous research has strongly pointed to a correlation between ABV and high rankings, and this was also the case for RateBeer’s latest list of best beers.

The average ABV of all 100 top beers was almost 10 percent, coming out at 9.95 percent. According to methodology by Bart Watson, staff economist for the Brewers Association, an average ABV for craft beer is 5.9 percent ABV. That puts RateBeer’s average more than two standard deviations from the average. It’s also well above the national average of 8 percent I derived from Beer Advocate’s ratings.

No surprise, the average ABV of specific styles also falls on the far end of each style’s spectrum.

For example, the 36 imperial stouts on the list had a combined average ABV of 11.55 percent, which is almost at the max (12) of BJCP guidelines. The 14 double IPAs weren’t as high, averaging 9.01 percent with a max of 10, per BJCP guidelines.

Regular old IPAs came off a bit more even, with nine beers averaging 6.8 percent, easily below the BJCP max of 7.5.

I find this interesting because not only does it reinforce the idea that high-ABV beers are valued, but high-ABV beers for individual styles specifically perform well.

Best of 2015’s List

So what beers were exactly the best beers in the world? You’re welcome to see the full alphabetized list, but I’ve ranked them by RateBeer’s weighted rating system. Here are the best of the best.

The top 25:

Beer	Style	ABV	Rating
Toppling Goliath Kentucky Brunch	Imperial Stout	12	4.44
Westvleteren 12 (XII)	Quad	10.2	4.44
Cigar City Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout – Double Barrel Aged	Imperial Stout	11	4.38
Russian River Pliny the Younger	DIPA	11	4.35
Toppling Goliath Mornin’ Delight	Imperial Stout	12	4.35
Bells Black Note Stout	Imperial Stout	10.5	4.32
AleSmith Speedway Stout	Imperial Stout	12	4.3
Rochefort Trappistes 10	Quad	11.3	4.3
Cigar City Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout	Imperial Stout	11	4.29
Founders Backstage Series # 2: CBS (Canadian Breakfast Stout)	Imperial Stout	10.6	4.29
Founders KBS (Kentucky Breakfast Stout)	Imperial Stout	11.2	4.29
Three Floyds Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout	Imperial Stout	15	4.29
Bells Expedition Stout	Imperial Stout	10.5	4.28
Russian River Pliny the Elder	DIPA	8	4.27
Alchemist Heady Topper	DIPA	8	4.24
Goose Island Bourbon County Stout	Imperial Stout	14.4	4.24
Three Floyds Dreadnaught Imperial IPA	DIPA	9.5	4.23
Hill Farmstead / Blaugies Le Sarrasin	Saison		4.22
Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch Weasel	Imperial Stout	10.9	4.22
Westvleteren Extra 8	Strong Ale	8	4.22
Bells Hopslam	DIPA	10	4.21
Deschutes The Abyss	Imperial Stout	11	4.2
Firestone Walker Parabola	Imperial Stout	12.5	4.2
Hair of the Dog Matt	Strong Ale	12.5	4.2
Perennial Barrel Aged Abraxas	Imperial Stout	11	4.2

Congrats to Toppling Goliath for owning some classic “best” beers.

The Difference of 10 Years

For fun, I pulled the top-25 beers from RateBeer’s 2006 list to compare to 2015. While there are holdovers – Westy 12 and AleSmith Speedway Stout are never going away – it’s fun to get this perspective.

Here are the lists, side-by-side:

	2006	2015
1	Westvleteren 12 (XII)	Toppling Goliath Kentucky Brunch
2	Three Floyds Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout	Westvleteren 12 (XII)
3	Rochefort Trappistes 10	Cigar City Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout – Double Barrel Aged
4	Bells Expedition Stout	Russian River Pliny the Younger
5	Kuhnhenn Raspberry Eisbock	Toppling Goliath Mornin’ Delight
6	AleSmith Speedway Stout	Bells Black Note Stout
7	Stone Imperial Russian Stout	AleSmith Speedway Stout
8	Three Floyds Dreadnaught Imperial IPA	Rochefort Trappistes 10
9	Goose Island Bourbon County Stout	Cigar City Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout
10	Westvleteren Extra 8	Founders Backstage Series # 2: CBS (Canadian Breakfast Stout)
11	AleSmith YuleSmith India Pale Ale	Founders KBS (Kentucky Breakfast Stout)
12	Struise Pannepot	Three Floyds Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout
13	Dogfish Head World Wide Stout 2001/2003-Present (18%)	Bells Expedition Stout
14	Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout	Russian River Pliny the Elder
15	St. Bernardus Abt 12	Alchemist Heady Topper
16	Thirsty Dog Siberian Night Imperial Stout	Goose Island Bourbon County Stout
17	Rochefort Trappistes 8	Three Floyds Dreadnaught Imperial IPA
18	Pizza Port Frank Double IPA	Hill Farmstead / Blaugies Le Sarrasin
19	Great Divide Yeti Imperial Stout	Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch Weasel
20	Dogfish Head 90 Minute Imperial IPA	Westvleteren Extra 8
21	Founders Breakfast Stout	Bells Hopslam
22	Dieu du Ciel Péché Mortel	Deschutes The Abyss
23	Great Lakes Barrel-Aged Blackout Stout	Firestone Walker Parabola
24	Abbaye des Rocs Brune	Hair of the Dog Matt
25	Bells Kalamazoo Stout	Perennial Barrel Aged Abraxas

I love seeing “classic” best beers in 2006 like 90 Minute, Breakfast Stout and Yeti, which seem rather ho-hum by today’s standards. They’re amazing beers, but we’ve got lots more like them today.

What’s next?

It wouldn’t be an analysis if I didn’t have more research to share! Next up, a comparison between RateBeer’s 2015 and 2014 lists to see if there’s any differences worth noting.

Related:

• Comparing “Best Beer” of the Last Two Years
• A Historical Analysis of “Best Beers”

Editor’s note: RateBeer’s lists are numbered for the year they are released (2015) but cover the prior year (2014). So future references will match. For example, 2014’s list represents 2013, 2013 covers 2012 and so on.

+Bryan Roth
“Don’t drink to get drunk. Drink to enjoy life.” — Jack Kerouac