We polled thousands of readers for our Best in Beer issue, and the results are in! For the Homebrewers' Picks, we asked you everything from your favorite style to brew to your favorite ingredients to your favorite equipment.
To catch up, you can check out the Readers' & Editors' Choice and Critics' Choice posts.
What’s Your Brew IQ?
How do you define your level of brewing interest? Not surprisingly, most of you are mashers although there are strong contingents of extract brewers and those we might call “brew curious.”
How Much Do You Brew?
Your Favorite Style to Brew
Curiously, your favorite styles to brew don’t match up directly with your favorite styles to drink. Here are the top 15 from your brew kettles, scaled to the number of responses…
Top Malt
You might play the field, but you also play favorites. Here are your most-loved malts.
- 2-Row
- Maris Otter
- Pilsner
- Munich
- Vienna
Top Hops
From the trellis to your tulip glass, here are the hottest hops in your brewing arsenal.
- Cascade
- Citra
- Centennial
- Amarillo
- Simcoe
Top Fruit
Variety is the spice of life, and these fruit (and vegetable) varieties are your favorites for spicing up your beer.
- Raspberry
- Cherry
- Grapefruit
- Pumpkin
- Apricot
Favorite Brew Gear
Your list of the absolute best gear you’ve recently purchased or plan to purchase:
- Conical Fermentor
- Grainfather System
- Electric Brew System
- Plate Chiller
- Refractometer
- Braumeister System
- Big Mouth Fermentor
- pH Meter
- Brew in A Bag
- Counterflow Chiller
- PicoBrew Zymatic
- Catalyst Fermentor
- BrewJacket System
- Chugger Pump
- Kegerator
Homebrew Brands of the Year
Out of thousands of responses, only five votes separated first and second place, and a mere two votes decided third and fourth place, in your list of favorite homebrew brands of the year.
- Ss Brewtech
- Blichmann
- Grainfather
- Braumeister (Speidel)
- Big Mouth
- Spike
- Anvil
- PicoBrew
- Catalyst
- BrewJacket
The first annual Best of Beer 2016 issue of Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine® (December/January 2017) is available now. It features reader, contributor, and editor selections for Best Beers of the Year, Best Breweries of the Year, Best Homebrew Gear of the Year, and much more! Plus, we explore New England–style IPAs and introduce more up-and-coming breakout brewers. Subscribe today or order your single copy.