Three Beers on a Pod

The Indie Beer Show podcast Episode 8, as one of its features, posed the question of Top Three Go To beers.  I heard this as the top three beers, readily available and widely distributed, you see on a tap list and know the bar or restaurant knows its beers.  For example, if you go to a restaurant and that has Stone IPA on tap you know there is at least one good beer option.  The answers, outside of the first round, got pretty esoteric (Orval), obscure, and seasonal, and became more of a wish list than a go to list.  (The pod's primary hosts, Brian Beagle and Esthela Davila, kept their picks to year-round local beers.)

Listening to the show's hosts and guests discuss their beers I began to think of my go to beers, or the beers I look for when I enter a restaurant to assess the tap list quality and credibility.  My liquid safety blankets are as follows:

3.  Any Stone IPA.  Whether its IPA, Delicious, or any other Stone IPA, it is reassuring to me when I see a Stone tap handle.  

2.  AleSmith Brewing's .394 Pale Ale.  A fantastic beer that is widely available and gives immediate respect to any restaurant that carries it.

1.  Societe Brewing Pupil IPA.  Pupil is not rare, but it is not in as many locations as .394 or Delicious, which makes that much more of a go to beer when I see it. 

For honorable mentions, I'd include Arrogant Bastard, Modern Times' Black House Stout or Blazing World, and Pizza Port's Swami IPA.  I know my list is IPA-centric, but IPAs are the current defining craft beer style.  I look forward to seeing one of Eppig's lagers on tap lists all over town.