You have spoken! And so have we. In this once-a-year special episode, Joe Stange and Jamie Bogner share Craft Beer & Brewing’s Best 20 Beers in 2021 and the results of the annual reader survey.
Amid the ups and downs and gradual, stutter-step return to social life, we experienced some transcendent beers—beers that shone, beers that enlightened, beers that made us stop and remember what it’s all about. Here are the pinnacles of the craft.
This recipe is inspired by Lithuania’s unique farmhouse ales—including those of Aldona Udriené’s Jovaru Alus, of Julius Simonaitis, and others. This is a great starting point for experimenting with raw ale, hop tea, or baking the mash for keptinis.
This no-frills pub/café near the Vatican features Italian craft, Franconian lager, and unique street food.
Also known as Myrica gale, this mud-loving shrub was once a key ingredient in the unhopped ales of medieval Europe—and it has a unique character worth considering for your beers.
The founder and brewer of Chicago’s Keeping Together selects an experience-driven six-pack that transports her back to cherished moments in time.
Like many Polish breweries, Browar PINTA embraces its country’s signature beer style—Baltic porter—with high-gravity gusto, going for hefty body and deep malt flavor. Lately, they’ve added a new dimension to these ponderous beasts: expressive dry hops.
In northern Michigan near the shores of Lake Huron, an active-duty airman moonlights as a pro brewer at Alcona Brew Haus. They’re releasing a special beer to support veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan—and you can brew it, too.
Whatever its strength, whatever its story, and whatever its color—amber or gold?—festbier ought to be drinkable in quantity. Here we dissect the diverging styles to find out what makes a great (Oktober)festbier tick.
Brewed since 1988, Bell's founder Larry Bell has called Cherry Stout the complex “pinot noir” of his brewery’s range. Its origins, however, are far simpler: It all started at homebrew club meetings in Kalamazoo.