Well, here we are again. And here you are.

There used to be some consensus among the people ranking about what Snallygaster was for: out of market beers, one offs, gravity kegs, and other rarities. That’s gone now and it’s giving me an existential crisis. More on that at the bottom, because you’re not here for it. Looking at what we have here, the DC Beer team is interested in expensive lambics; out of market lagers and mixed fermentation ales; and fresh hops. You could do worse!

Our ironclad methodology:

Per usual, the standard is “what we’ve done here is think about what our predilections would be on the day-of; which beers would we be most likely to drink, to wait in line for?” This takes into consideration a great number of things: the esteem in which we hold a brewery, our relative style preferences (slightly more on this below), our understanding of a given beer’s reputation, ABV, and availability (we’re not, for the most part, going to Snallygaster to drink things we can typically get). Our power rankings are a rough approximation of our relative preference for the beers that will be available. Note that not all of us have had all of these beers. We make no claim to that effect (it would be extraordinary if we had).

How did we go about doing this? Each beer was ranked 1 to 4 according to each scorer’s personal preference–there are 6 of us ranking this year–and predilection for ordering. We averaged those scores, then we did a second round of scoring, also 1 to 4, within that point system, so that every beer that got a 2, for example, was then ranked against its peers. Why a second round? Because if the average score of a beer after one round is 1.5, we round it up to 2. If a beer scores 2.333333, it’s also a 2, so that second round allows us to differentiate between beers. Beer one might end up ranked 2.1, while beer two could end up ranked 2.4.

Obviously this is not scientific, indeed, it is even more idiosyncratic than normal this year, so don’t come beating down our social media for putting your favorite IPA at 3.1 instead of 3.3. Make your own power rankings. Want to chat about what you think we got wrong or under- or over-ranked? Let us know at Snally, we’ll be around. We’d love to hear from you.

Snally 25 podcast stage schedule

A few last things before we finally get to it:

  1. We’ve tried to be sensitive to last-minute changes to the beer list, but exceptions and mistakes will occur. If there’s something on here that doesn’t make it to Snallygaster, remember that it’s just beer, there are at least 400 other options, plus a few off-menu beers. Also remember that while there will be long lines for Cantillon, there probably won’t be for Tilquin. Tilquin is good, dammit! Drink that, too.
  2. No hard feelings, breweries. It’s not that we don’t like you or your beers (generally, at least), this is the nature of the power rankings, which tend to depress the scores of locally available year-round and seasonal beers, many of which are excellent.
  3. The list at Snallygaster really is an embarrassment of beer riches that we shouldn’t take for granted. Yeah, 78 of these beers have the word “hazy” in there somewhere and more than 40 of them use vanilla or vanilla flavoring, but there are also 50+ lagers. The average Untappd score of the festival list is 4.08. Kudos to Greg, Tim, Bruno, and the NRG team for putting this together.
  4. Want to join in the fun? Tickets are still available, but don’t count on them being sold at the gates. Also, proceeds go to a good cause.
  5. We are old. We care not for lactose in sours or IPAs, and barely tolerate it in pastry stouts. So you won’t see us in line for ill will or Mortalis; that’s just how it goes. We do not “ISO” on Instagram, nor do we trade in Facebook groups or other fora. If you do, and are interested in writing about beer, we are interested in giving you a voice. Really. Let us know.
  6. What’s new? If a beer has less than 10 Untappd check ins, we didn’t list the rating. Thanks to DC Beer Patreon member Jeff, you also get a Bayesian Untappd Rating, which takes into account the number of ratings (above 10) a beer has and uses that to modify the scores. More high ratings means a higher score overall. Pretty cool! But a reminder: Untappd is not the be all-end all of the beer world. Allagash White is a world class witbier and has a 3.7 on that site. Biases abound. If you see an error in the spreadsheet, and we bet you’ll find at least one, blame Jake.

Phew. All that said, awaaaaaaaay we go! Have fun and be safe at Snally!

The top 25ish

To ensure a variety of breweries, only one beer per brewery in the top 25ish. (Brewery, Beer, Description, ABV, DC Beer Score, Untappd, Bayesian, Location)

More more more!

Other beers rated 3.3 and 3.2 by us. (Brewery, Beer, Description, ABV, DC Beer Score, Untappd, Bayesian, Location)

Ranked 3.2 by us:

Ranked 3.1

Again, alphabetical order. (Brewery, Beer, Description, ABV, DC Beer Score, Untappd, Bayesian, Location)

ranked 2.4

ranked 2.3

You can keep reading if you want to, but there are 60 beers and ciders ranked 2.3 by us and the rankings are on a public spreadsheet.

ranked 2.2 to 2.1

Look, we’ve got a public spreadsheet for you.

ranked 1.4 to 1.3

There are some really good beers here, dammit.

ranked 1.2 to 1.1

This is where you can find the frooted smoothie seltzer sours with lactose. Also, good beers that DC is blessed to be able to purchase at grocery stores.

Jake’s existential angst: Without putting specific breweries or colleagues on blast, I’m flabbergasted at what the DC Beer crew came up with this year. Seasonal beers you can buy at a grocery store are scoring 2.2. In past years those were solid 1s. A beer at least 3 of us know to be suspect in cans scored a 3.2. Beers we can get by driving 10 miles to the brewery or, for imports, hitting a better beer store any given day are scoring 3.3. I just don’t know anymore, man. This list used to mean something and now I’m not sure it does. I’m not saying the power rankings were ever a consumer guide to the fest, but it used to reflect something like a rough consensus on how we, DC Beer, approached the fest. I can talk your head off about this later if you’d like.

Anyway, if you read all the way down here maybe you deserve to drink a sour ale made with fruit puree, cookies, and ice cream. See you on Pennsylvania Avenue tomorrow!