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Critic’s List: Kate Bernot’s Best in 2023

Here are the high points of the year in beer from our contributing editor, one of the most prolific and astute journalists covering the industry today.

Kate Bernot Nov 17, 2023 - 8 min read

Critic’s List: Kate Bernot’s Best in 2023 Primary Image

Top 10 Beers of the Year

Wesley American Pale Ale (San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina) I had to return to this brewery three times to make sure it wasn’t just the gorgeous Patagonian surroundings that made this beer special. Those helped, but this pale ale was captivating on its own merits: Huge orange-blossom and honeysuckle aromas mingled with white peach and canned pineapple juice, while the flavor ever-so-softly wove clementine, apricot, peach skin, and dried pineapple with supportive Wonder Bread malt. Any North American brewery would be proud to brew this.

Keeping Together A Mutual Surrender (Santa Fe, New Mexico) Averie Swanson’s beers taste like she’s inviting me to be part of her memories. I don’t know what place or time inspired this “saison rosé” for her, but I want to live it: It’s basically the spritzer of wine beers, all electric watermelon fizziness and high jammy-plum notes. It’s brewed with second-use cabernet franc and merlot grapes from Walla Walla, but their reduced tannic presence makes this a warm-weather refresher.

Bale Breaker Frenz IPA (Yakima, Washington) In this collab with Sierra Nevada, the marriage of New Zealand and American hops is so prismatic: The aroma integrates Nelson Sauvin and Nectaron’s vinous and stone-fruit tones alongside lush, green lemongrass and candied orange. The malt support deserves its own callout: The honey-on-bread impression is smooth as silk, paving the way for a parade of honeysuckle and fruit-smoothie flavors—strawberry, apricot, nectarine—that taste like biting into real fruit.

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