Golden-blond with a lithe body, lively mouthfeel, resilient foam, and sneaky strength—equally at home on the dinner table or next to your easy chair—here are a few of our favorite tripels.

**Aroma:** “Toasty caramel malt sweetness with low spicy phenolics, similar to a saison. Subtle fruity ester profile of dates, cherries, and plums. Low green pepper note. A bit of the mild/earthy/ spicy Noble hops aroma.” **Flavor:** “High fruitiness with rich dark fruits of plum, cherry, and raisins. Slight phenolics balance well with the fruit. Aftertaste is fruity with slight alcohol note. Toasty and biscuit malt sweetness. Nice smoothness in this beer. Some slight Noble hops bitterness and earth- iness help to cut the sweet. Subtle malt sweetness and light fruity character are overtaken by a rather strong spicy Noble hops flavor and bitterness.” **Overall:** “High carbonation, fruit, and a great warming all in balance. Well- centered in the style. Has all the makings of a great quad, but hops are a bit too forward—almost as much Noble hops character as malt and fruit.”

Beer offers all kinds of once-in-a-lifetime experiences, from drinking the rarest beers to attending festivals at all corners of the Earth. Beth Demmon asked five pros what’s on top of their beer-bucket lists. What’s on yours?

**Aroma:** “High phenolics with notes of pepper and floral notes. Lemon, orange, black pepper, hints of fruit, some spicy Saaz-like hops notes and faint graininess.” **Flavor:** “Crisp! This beer exhibits a lovely crispness that sticks with you as it goes down. Nice blend of banana and citrus esters balanced by carbonation and sharp hops bitterness. The aromatic promises are fully delivered: lemon on the back of the tongue and spices near the front. A dark rich sweetness reminis- cent of a dark honey. A touch more fully bodied than expected, but the beer is so crisp that it works.” **Overall:** “Light and fruity. The brewer displays a subtle hand with yeast man- agement. Though the initial appearance could have been clearer, the aroma gives way to a generous palate of flavors that, while simple, create a wonderful drinking experience. A classic tripel that departs from the norm and does it well.”

The West Flanders brewery, launched in 1946 to brew the beers for a nearby (and equally well-known) monastery, has adapted decade by decade as ingredients fluctuate and technology progresses. But their goal—to faithfully produce these abbey beers in a way that’s true to the original recipes—remains the same even as the tools change.

**Aroma:** “Sweet malty aroma with notes of biscuits and wheat. Some nice fruity citrus notes with coriander and floral characteristics. Subtle sour apple and white grape. Hints of black pepper.” **Flavor:** “Light wheat malt sweetness with a slight honey character. Orange and lemon citrus with nice, mild, fresh coriander. Dry, lingering, slightly tangy finish accompanied by good background bitterness.” **Overall:** “An excellent exemplar of the style. Spices are noticeable but not overpowering. Well balanced between bitterness and malt sweetness. A crisp wit beer with fruit, citrus, and orange character. Very refreshing and flawless.”

**Aroma:** “Sturdy banana esters, moderate toffee-like malt, slight clove, and no hops character. As it starts to warm up, a slight alcohol note becomes apparent. Light fruit esters—banana, cherry, and apple. A very subtle aroma overall.” **Flavor:** “A spot-on flavor profile for a dubbel with fruit esters (light raisins, banana, and clove) that dominate, but don’t overwhelm the satisfying deep malt body. Hops bitterness is moderate but sufficient to balance the beer. High carbonation. The flavor is much bigger than the aroma suggests.” **Overall:** “A wonderful, well-executed example of a classic dubbel. This could easily be the standard bearer for a Belgian brewery’s lineup. Neat spicy phenolic. Less fruity esters than some of the others and a very accomplished malt character.”

For the cofounder of San Diego’s Societe Brewing, beer should be flavorful, easy to find, inexpensive, and beautifully crafted. His six-pack neatly mirrors Societe’s focus, with Belgian inspiration and a nod to the dark, hoppy beers of Southern California.

“Nose brings a blend of coffee, toffee, caramel, and toast with notes of dried fruit, cherry, pepper. The sip mirrors the nose, with a malt-forward toffee-like body complemented by notes of fig and cherry.”

A year of focused tasting panels plus two full days of blind judging and lively discussion among our editorial panel—including Kate Bernot and Stan Hieronymus—culminates in this: the roll of honor. Here are the 20 beers that awed, delighted, and inspired us the most, representing the pinnacle of the craft today.

Brewed on the edge of the Mojave in St. George, Utah, Silver Reef’s Más Fuego Rauchbier won gold at the World Beer Cup last year. Here’s what goes into the elegant smoked beer that’s gained a following among brewers and other beer-savvy visitors to Las Vegas.

Brew up this beer now so you’ll have it on hand when the dog days of late July and early August start beating down.

From the team at Silver Reef in St. George, Utah, here’s a homebrew-scale recipe for the smoked lager that won gold at the 2024 World Beer Cup.

When your fermentation gets stuck, it pays to have the right tools on hand.

Belgian witbier is a fantastic beer style, especially for the summer-to-fall transition, but you need to resist the impulse to overload it with spices and fruit! Here’s how to brew one you can drink by the liter instead of making wheat-based perfume.

Brewers today are used to choosing punchy hops for their IPAs. However, great lagers require a different approach and a different kind of bitterness—yet, they need not copy the classics. Here’s how some new varieties are pointing the way toward lagers that still taste like lagers, “but with a twist.”

Skip the green beer and leprachauns. Irish red ale is a surefire crowd pleaser and among the easiest beers to brew.

In the dog days of summer it's a great time to brew up a large batch of what can conventionally be referred to not by its proper BJCP Style Guidelines name (Czech Pale Lager) but instead by a more descriptively-accurate name: Session Pilsner.

Hard seltzer isn’t hard to make—unless you want to do it well. Like all the pro brewers across the country who went from turning up their noses at the stuff to embracing its popularity, you too can do the same crowd-pleasing 180° in your home brewery.

For this glimpse into the past of big stock ale and barleywine, we’re grateful to beer historian Ron Pattinson. This previously unpublished recipe is based on brewing logs from more than 180 years ago.