The 13 best beers this year

Here are just a few of my personal favorites for each occasion, classified by season, from my year of getting back out on the beer trail.

SPRING

Best Picnic Beer
Side Project “Pulling Nails #15”
American Wild Ale, 7% ABV
St. Louis

St. Louis’s second-most-famous brewery is renowned for its impossible-to-find barrel-aged stouts and barleywines (name-check M.J.K. and Beer : Barrel : Time). But that coveted Missouri cooperage also yields some world-class sours and wild ales. Pulling Nails, which the brewery calls “an ongoing experiment,” is always a must-try. The 15th iteration was fruited, blended and then bottle-conditioned to produce a tart but not face-twisting brew that smacks of raspberries and cherries. It has all the complexity of a wine you’d share with friends after a picnic lunch, without the booziness.

Best Spring Break Beer
Goodfire “Super Prime”
Double IPA, 8% ABV
Portland,  Maine

Whether it meant hitting the beach with college buds or migrating southward with family, I think we were all eager to get our summers jump-started last spring. In my case, that meant pulling away from the darker, maltier winter beers and reaching for the hops. Goodfire, one of a cluster of exceptional small breweries in Portland’s East Bayside neighborhood, took its hazy staple Prime recipe and upped the amount of Citra hops for an even more citrusy brew that still manages to be soft and dangerously crushable despite the amplified 8% ABV.

Best Boating Beer
Halfway Crooks “Radix”
German-Style Pilsner, 4.8% ABV
Atlanta

My buddy John brought some cans of Radix on ice from Atlanta to the Mobile-Tensaw Delta in southern Alabama. After a day out on the brackish waters, steering clear of gators while snapping drone shots of the dense wetlands known as America’s Amazon, we found that this crisp, flavorful lager hit all the right notes—white peach and lime zest with a hint of pepper on the finish. And the low ABV ensured that we finished the fourpack.

SUMMER

Best Ballgame Beer
The Alchemist “Kiss of Dank”
American IPA, 5.2% ABV
Stowe, Vermont

Having grown up a Midwestern baseball fan, I was raised to believe that it was sacrilege to drink anything but a pale American lager at the game (and I’ve spilled more than my fair share of ballpark Buds rooting for the home team). But just because the players want to stay hydrated with water doesn’t mean fans have to. Instead, pass me this infinitely drinkable  offering from NEIPA veterans Alchemist. Only recently made available in cans, this IPA comes to bat with a funky wallop that belies its brightness. And at 5.2% ABV, it drinks as easy as a Miller or Coors without striking out on the flavor.

Best Fourth of July Fireworks Beer
Lua “Eye to Eye”
Smoothie Sour, 6% ABV
Des Moines

Lua’s creation is about as close as you can get to a summer popsicle in a beer. The Iowa brewery is adept at tossing half a dozen different fruits into a cauldron and coming up with a treat that is somehow greater than the sum of its ingredients. Each sip of Eye to Eye reveals hints of Cara Cara orange and tangerine or mango and peach or pineapple, guava and grapefruit—while as a whole, it goes down like a refreshing brunch mimosa. But the full mouthfeel almost makes you want to freeze it on the end of stick on a simmering summer day.

Best Festival Beer
Monkish/Trillium “Foggiest Window”
Imperial Double IPA, 8.1% ABV
Torrance, California/Canton, Massachusetts

The tough times and hard pivot of the past few years brought a lot of breweries to the brink. But from what I can tell, the experience did little to extinguish the sense of adventure of the ones that survived. Brewers are still innovating, pushing new spins on traditional styles. Recently, there’s been a big rise in craft lagers, particularly pilsners. But make no mistake: IPAs are still king among consumers. And when venturing back into the festival atmosphere, brushing shoulders with strangers at a concert, fair or even a beer festival (hey, you need a drink while you’re waiting in line for samples), you sometimes want to stick with what you know. This juicy double, a collaboration from hazy masters Trillium and Monkish, has a comforting citrus nose, a classic tropical taste with just the right tough of bitterness and a perfectly balanced mouthfeel. Definitely a standout in the still-crowded field.

FALL

Best Fire Pit Beer
Southbound “Mountain Jam”
Dry-Hopped Lager, 5.1% ABV
Savannah, Georgia

Even though we can now gather a little closer around the fire, it’s nice to have a beer for some extra warmth. Traditionally, you’d look to a darker, more autumnal lager, like a marzen, dunkel or festbier. But if you’re not ready to break out the Oktoberfest lederhosen, Mountain Jam is an easy transition brew between summer to fall. Dubbed a “Southern Lager,” it’s dry-hopped to unlock a complex bouquet of Citra, Amarillo and Cascade varieties of hops, while maintaining a sweet taste and crisp drinkability.

Best Hayride/Apple-Picking Beer
OK Cider Co. “Barrel-aged Appletoberfest”
Dry Cider, 8.4% ABV
Oklahoma City

Cider is synonymous with fall. While it’s often found on tap lists alongside lagers and ales, hard cider has more in common with wine than beer. But some ciders are more beerlike than others. Take the products from OK Cider Co., which was founded in 2017 by beer lovers looking for a gluten-free experience. They’ve stocked their menu with ciders that mimic the most popular beer styles, like the Screwy Mimosa “New England-Style India Pale Cider,” hopped to ape a juicy IPA, or the Cison, a dry Saison-inspired cider. Last fall, the cidery took its caramely Appletoberfest and aged it in Elijah Craig barrels to imbue it with tannins, oak and a warm bourbon finish.

Best Turkey Day Dessert Beer
Drekker “Frosé Chonk — CherryBerry Almond Cheesecake”
Pastry Sour, 6.8% ABV
Fargo, North Dakota

Skip the seconds. Save room for dessert—and don’t worry about the pumpkin or pecan pie. This Fargo-based microbrewery is known across the Plains for its decadent Chonk (slang for an overweight cat) sours. But this year, Drekker teamed with California’s Kings Brewing Company to stuff its already fat kitty with extra cherry, strawberry, almonds, cream cheese, graham crackers, vanilla beans and lactose for a thick, filling mouthfeel. It’s essentially a slice of PieCaken in a can.

WINTER

Best Beer Party Bus Beer
Sante Adairius Rustic Ales “Context And Proportionality”
Barleywine, 13.4% ABV
Capitola, California

I know this is strangely specific, but you can sub in any gathering for “beer party bus”; it doesn’t have to be on wheels. While in Denver for the Great American Beer Festival, my buddies and I took a break from the event and chartered a shuttle to bus us around some Colorado breweries. Obviously, we needed beer to tide us over between stops. This California bottle was a standout—fig, caramel, coffee and chocolate. The bottle was only 500 milliliters, so we had to stretch it out among the group. Fortunately, at 13.4% ABV, a little went a long way.

Best Dinner Party Beer
Pure Project “Corylus (Batch 3)”
Imperial Double Stout, 12.9% ABV
San Diego

Sometimes sharing beer is about getting to taste as many different brews as possible in one sitting; other times it’s just about not having to drink an entire bomber by yourself. But the best beers for sharing are ones that start a conversation. The third iteration of Pure Project’s voluptuous imperial stout was aged in Breckenridge bourbon barrels for up to 13 months, giving the beer a complex taste that unveils itself layer by layer as it warms. The scent of hazelnut and whiskey yield to strong flavors of brown sugar, then fudge, then nuts, then coffee. It’s the kind of experience that will have you talking at the dinner table long after the plates have been cleared.

Best Game Night Beer
8-Bit Aleworks “Pineaperture Science Innovations”
Wheat Wine, 11.3% ABV
Avondale, Arizona

Nothing exemplifies our return to connectivity more than the ways we game. Online Fortnite was a godsend during the pandemic, but gaming’s best when you can look your teammates and opponents in the eye, whether it’s a weekly poker game, a decades-long Dungeon & Dragons campaign or a random trivia night. Avondale, Arizona’s 8-Bit Aleworks may use retro marketing to trigger nostalgia for the games of our youth, but it also taps into the imagination at the heart of all great games with its beer. This microbrewery finds new hidden levels outside of the traditional IPAs and stouts. Take this wheat wine (the name is a nod to the puzzle game Portal), lighter and less bitter than a barleywine. The creamy blend of sweetness and booziness has plenty of pineapple, but it’s tempered by a soft vanilla finish. It’s a delectable potion that can sustain you through any late-night quest.

Best Nightcap Beer
Sun King “Espresso Old Fashioned Extraction”
Belgian Quad, 14% ABV
Indianapolis

Now that we’re back out on the town, the tendency is to try to push each gathering, each date night, each special occasion just one drink further. This is the cocktail-inspired brew with which to do it. A couple years ago, Sun King took its Belgian quadruple and aged it in bourbon barrels with cherry and orange peel, in an homage to the classic old fashioned. This year, the brewery added a dash of espresso for a little extra coffee kick. The result is a sipper that only gets better as the night goes on.