Top 10 Beers of the Year
The Veil Vast:ONE and Culminate (Richmond, Virginia) Vast:ONE drops the cherry string down a note for a resonant droning crunch, with musty cellar harmonics and a complex acid profile that highlights the fruit’s woodier, almondy sides. Brilliant and unapologetic, its low-key rumble interspersed with some roundly tart cherry hits, it’s one of a handful of American fruited spontaneous beers that hold their own with Belgian forebearers. Culminate—a blend of one-, two-, and three-year-old barrel-aged spontaneous beers—pushes the sour lemon, lime, and orange notes hard, with touches of oak and barnyard. The sip is lively, dusty, earthy, with an aged character that balances the fruit-juiciness. Acidity is perfectly controlled in both; drink both at cellar temperature for best results.
Burial The Distortion (Asheville, North Carolina) Like a Deafheaven song, a delicate, exquisite melody peeks through a swirlingly intense cacophony, achieving a precarious and dangerous balance. Bright pineapple and citrus/pith hooks draw you in, while layers of soft tropical and herbal bitterness give it an edge.
Cellarmaker Wild Gooseberry Chase (San Francisco, California) I’m increasingly drawn to brewers who push hops in new directions, and Cellarmaker’s masterful wrangling of Nelson Sauvin in this dry-but-hazy IPA achieves a beautifully vinous, pungent expression of one of my favorite hops.