In this special once-per-year episode, we reveal all your favorite beers, breweries, beer cities, and more—as voted on by Craft Beer & Brewing readers—plus, we walk through each of our Best 20 Beers in 2022.
Lauren and Joe Grimm of the eponymously named Brooklyn-based brewery have built processes to optimize yeast health and performance, whether brewing hazy IPAs or wild and spontaneous beers.
Helmed by authors Michael Tonsmiere and Scott Janish, Sapwood Cellars’ shared focus on hop-forward beers and oak-aged mixed fermentations was a given. However, over the past four years, they’ve pushed into new territory and found spaces for even more creative exploration.
Two brewers share insights into their gold medal–winning beers: a thiol-focused hazy pale ale and an unconventional American light lager brewed with Vista hops.
Cryo, Incognito, Salvo, Spectrum, Phantasm, and more are all tools that Garrett Ward uses to punch up hop flavor in their juicy (yet still bitter) IPAs. He discusses how they use these new hop formats in both hazy and clear American IPAs.
Two pros share insights into their gold medal–winning beers: an international-style pilsner brewed on a single-infusion, two-vessel system, and a cold IPA with a “cool pool,” dry-hopped during active fermentation.
The cofounder of Lucky Envelope in Seattle discusses building confidence with helles and other traditional styles, getting comfortable with his Chinese-American heritage in the beer world, and finding new avenues of expression with traditional Chinese ingredients such as lapsang souchoung tea.
Matt Brynildson of Firestone Walker, one of the most respected brewmasters on the globe, answers your brewing questions about collaborations, hops, lager mashing, product development, and more.
Brian Hutchinson and Jonathan Lee of Cannonball Creek in Golden, Colorado, embrace constant change, even when it means huge recipe changes for gold medal–winning hoppy beers.
Bale Breaker’s location on the family hop farm, Loftus Ranches, offers proximity and access to hops of which many brewers could only dream. Brewmaster Kevin Smith shares perspective on brewing hop-forward beers, gleaned from decades growing up on—and now brewing on—the farm.