New ACBHOF Initiative: Landmark craft beers

Fulfilling the goal of recognizing and celebrating the people who built the American craft beer industry has been, and will always be, our primary objective.  However, with so much to recognize and celebrate in the American craft beer industry, it makes sense to also recognize the beer brands that made this industry great.  That’s why the ACBHOF has announced a secondary annual initiative we have named “Landmark Craft Beers.”

This program, created to honor individual beers that have left a lasting mark on American brewing and drinking culture, will recognize those singular brews that have helped define, advance, or transform the craft beer movement in the U.S.  It’s helpful to look at beers that didn’t just become popular—but actually shaped brewing practices, pushed boundaries, or paved the way for entire styles or movements.

In order to choose which beers might wear this mantle, it was necessary to set parameters by which they should be judged:

• They helped increase awareness and popularity of craft beer in America.

• They changed the way Americans looked at beer.

• They introduced new and exciting beer styles in America.

• They set a benchmark for the style or process

The inaugural class of Landmark Craft Beers includes five foundational brews, as voted on by the Hall’s distinguished group of electors and advisors:

 ● Sierra Nevada Pale Ale – The beer that brought Cascade hops to national prominence and helped define the American Pale Ale style.

● Samuel Adams Boston Lager – An icon that helped to bring full-flavored beer to mainstream audiences in the 1980s and put American craft beer on the global map.

● Anchor Steam Beer – The resurrection of a truly American beer style, and one that helped define the image and concept of craft beer for decades to come.

● Celis White (Witbier) – A revival of a nearly extinct Belgian style that brought traditional wheat beer to American craft drinkers.

● Anchor Liberty Ale – An early pioneer in the creation of the modern concept of American IPA, and an early standard bearer for what would become the country’s most important style of beer.

Additional inductees will be announced annually, with nominations open to the public and evaluated by a panel of beer historians, brewers, writers, and industry veterans.