Most extreme

[chazwicke]

Well there are so many extreme beers out there now I thought it might be interesting to see what we could come up with. What is the most hoppy. What has the highest alcohol. Which is the smokiest. What is the biggest in flavor. What is the stoutest stout? Fruitiest? Not to mention Christmas and spiced beers or biggest barleywines. I am not looking for the best. Just the most extreme. And I don't want a list of the worst either.( We all know what they are). What are the biggest of the big?

[steveh]

Uh, not to be a stick-in-the-mud, master of the obvious - but, shouldn't we move this thread to the "Extreme Beer" category, already in place in the community?

S.

[newportstorm]

"Extreme" is a term I've begun to loathe. So many brewers have or will soon jump on the bandwagon for the short term and churn out some horrid "extreme" brews. I'm all for experimentation (like Dogfish Head does) but the results aren't always pretty.

But to answer your question I think the following:

Biggest Stout - Dogfish Head WWS 23% abv

Highest ABV - flip-flopping between WWS and Sam Adams Utopias

Smokiest- personally Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Marzen

Fruitiest - Dogfish Head 120 min. IPA - lots of grapefruit, pineapple and citrus going on in there. Strangely I don't think it is the hoppiest tasting beer.

Hoppiest - Stone Ruination IPA

Just my $.02 - Cheers!

[hopjack13]

alesmith speed way stout
the imperial stout from stone is also a huge beer, im going to age them for a while im sure they'll only get better.
highest abv???????????
alskan smoked porter i also enjoy but it's more of a meal
and th ruination is really hoppy i havent tried anything for dfh as far as the 120 or 90 min

[chazwicke]

I am with you about extreme beers Newport. Big beers are fine but I generally prefer a good example of the style that I am drinking and not something that overwhelms. I think the attention seems to go to the extreme beers and many other fine brews get missed. However, That said, I really like Schlenkerla and the new weizen is fantastic. Sorry Steveh. I should have posted this in the proper area. I beg forgiveness.

[steveh]

No need to beg - it's all about the beer! ;) It's just that the Extreme section is looking rather lonely. And I agree, the term "extreme" has suffered from the excess sought by the uninformed. I love a good, flavorful mild any day.

Can Schlenkerla's Weizen be labled extreme?

S.

[chazwicke]

I would not really call any of the Schlenkerla brews extreme. I really like the weizen. It is some of the best that I have had since Bamberg.

[paul84043]

This shold be over at the Extreme beer section, I went over there and looked...one post....it's a ghost town...I'll bet if they moved it into the same section that most of us post in regularly, it would get more attention...
Anyway, that being said....the biggest beer I have ever had was some Arrogant that a friend sent from So. Cal....
It's hard to choose...regular Arrogant Ale is one KICKASS beer, I actually think it's "bigger" than the Ruination IPA, the IPA is actually easier to drink because the hoppiness tends to balance the Malt Assault fairly well.
Anyway, that's my vote.

[bhoshour]

As a rule, I don't prefer the EXTREME examples, so I don't know id my answers will be that accurate, but of the ones I've sampled, here goes:

Stoutest Stout = Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout.

Best Christmas Beer = My personal favorite for this catgeory is Allagash White or Aventinus. Aventinus has that Christmas cookie taste in my opinion.

Hoppiest = Since my last post (ha ha) I have been well informed that Tupper's Hop Pocket Ale is not the hoppiest beer out there, but it certainly is the hoppiest I've had thus far. Great beer!

Smokiest = Alaskan Smoked Porter

Fruitiest = Geez, pick any framboise or lambic (I don't really care for either, but they have to win this category hands down.)

Highest ABV = Sam Adams Barleywine

[guzzler67]

Two extreme styles jump out at me initially. one is Dogfish Head's Midas Touch. Some would classify it as a traditional ale but to me it's in a category all by itself. Very different.

The other extreme might be the worst beer I have ever tried: Cave Creek Chile Beer. Vile, putrid, rancid (those are some of its better qualities). There is actually a chili pepper in the bottle.

I bet some home brewers have created some interesting extreme beers while experimenting.