Top 10 Beers of the Year
Benedict Světlý Ležák 12° (Prague)
Good friends are the ones who, when they happen to be in Prague the week before they visit you, are thoughtful enough to pack a couple of liter-sized PET bottles of your favorite Czech beer. Distinctive floral-hop notes—chamomile and elderflower—meld with sweet herbs; the sip careens from a quick malt hug through a bracing, addictive back-slap of bitterness and dry finish. I’d drink it every day if I could.
Burgh’ers Sword & Sorcery (Pittsburgh)
First, they wowed us with their lager-brewing acumen at the Homebrew Con kickoff reception in June. Afterward, we went straight to their taproom to get stuck into bigger glasses of the stuff. As much as I enjoyed the German-style pilsner and helles, the winner for me was this bitterish, bready, dry-hopped cream ale that tasted like a necessary American throwback.
Senne Saison du Meyboom (Brussels)
Not to discount the joy of drinking fresh Taras Boulba in its hometown, but this bottle I packed home electrified new zones of sensory synapses: resilient foam; a minty-herbal-floral nose evoking white wine, chalky stone, and roses; and a resolute bitterness just rounded by the slightest cereal sweetness. As an interplay of hops and fermentation, it’s incredibly complex and totally quenching.