Joe Stange

It’s a hell of a process. From more than a thousand submissions and blind tastings throughout the year, we arrive at an elite 20—not just great beers, but examples of the truly sublime. These are the liquids that moved our minds and reshaped, yet again, our ideas of what beer can be.

• Best in Beer
• Best 20 Beers
• Editors’ Picks

In this special episode of the podcast, Craft Beer & Brewing cofounder and editorial director Jamie Bogner and executive editor Joe Stange walk through the process behind the editors’ picks for best beers in 2026 and share some of your readers’ choice favorite breweries, beers, and more.

• Podcast
• Best in Beer

Quality dried sansho might be a magic powder with magic powers, tingling our brains while boosting crowd-pleasing citrus flavors—but with great power comes great responsibility.

• Sansho
• Special Ingredient
• Botanicals

From our Love Handles files on our favorite spots to enjoy craft beer: This bright and airy café and shop celebrates the latest and greatest from one of the country’s biggest and busiest beer scenes.

• Love Handles
• Chicago
• Beer Tourism

Lean, dry, and highly drinkable—but with the full-spectrum hop punch of an IPA—the extra pale ale is engineered for volume, for warm weather… and for thirsty brewers ready to hone their technique.

• XPA
• Pale Ale
• Hops

In Sonoma County, California, Fogbelt Brewing is refreshing and reviving an American classic—Mendocino’s Red Tail Ale—and finding a receptive audience.

• Amber Ale
• American Amber Ale
• Red Ale

Easily found in the springtime, this bitter flowering herb can contribute a unique depth to your beer—and a taste of ancient history.

• Yarrow
• Special Ingredient
• Foraging

American amber ales aren’t fossils—they’re more like liquid signals sent through time and space from an earlier generation. And today’s brewers continue to refine and polish them to an appealing ruby hue, while the opportunities for flavor and quality are greater than ever.

• Amber Ale
• American Amber Ale
• Red Ale

Most professional craft brewers get their start as homebrewers, often with simple extract-based kits. Pinter’s mission to make that process easier—and the beer better—is helping a new generation of future brewers connect with the art and craft of making.

• Podcast
• Homebrewing
• Extract Brewing

From our Love Handles files on our favorite spots around the world to enjoy a great beer: This characterful bar off an alleyway in New Zealand’s capital city offers a friendly welcome, local craft, tasty pizza, and a galaxy of Star Wars bric-a-brac.

• Love Handles
• New Zealand
• Wellington

This truly indigenous, widely available American grain offers nutty, earthy flavors that would seem to be compatible with malt-forward beer. Yet relatively few breweries have tried it.

• Wild Rice
• Rice
• Special Ingredient

From our Love Handles files on our favorite places in the world to drink great beer: In lager-loving Bamberg, this atmospheric pub stays up late to pour some of the best from the city and the region.

• Love Handles
• Bamberg
• Germany