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Whether clean and malty or dry and spicy, the beers that claim this category cover a wide range.

• Editors' Picks
• Bière de Garde

Courtesy of Tania Hewett-Mader and Nick Mader of Kansas City’s Alma Mader Brewing, this locally popular pilsner embraces Bohemian malt and Noble hops, including an aromatic burst of spicy Saaz in the whirlpool.

• Beer Recipe
• Pilsner

Whether it’s pinpoint pilsners, lush, juicy IPAs, or big, balanced stouts, the upstarts at family-run Alma Mader in Kansas City have something that just about any kind of drinker can love.

• Breakout Brewer
• Kansas City

There wasn’t any one moment when David Walker knew that the brewery he founded with his brother-in-law was going to be successful. Instead, they’ve laid layer atop layer over 25 years to add reach while improving quality.

• Podcast

For Chris Lohring, founder of Notch Brewing in Massachusetts, there is real beauty to be found in beers that follow known traditions while offering character that makes them uniquely loveable.

• Pick Six
• Lager
• German

From deceptively easy-drinking to weighty and ponderous, the comforts of these dark delights run the gamut. Here, five pro brewers share their favorites.

• Stout
• Porter
• Five on Five

Microscopic and difficult to measure, thiols can nonetheless add up to big tropical aromas in IPAs and other beers. In this video tip, Alvarado Street brewing director J.C. Hill describes a way to free up more thiols using a special yeast.

• Video
• Thiols
• Beta-Lyase

Courtesy of Joe Bowden, head brewer at Munkle Brewing in Charleston, South Carolina, here is a homebrew-scale recipe for the beer that won GABF gold in 2018 in the category Belgian-Style and French-Style Ales.

• Beer Recipe
• Bière de Garde

As a niche style, bière de garde doesn’t always medal at the Great American Beer Festival—but Munkle’s 5 Branches took home gold in 2018, then Echo’s Junebug did it again in 2019. Here, the head brewers from both breweries sketch out the blueprints.

• Bière de Garde
• Farmhouse Ale
• French-Belgian Ale

From our Love Handles department for beer bars we love: In Kailua, Hawaii, the Aloha State’s first self-pour bar doubles as a community nonprofit.

• Love Handles
• Hawaii
• Self-Pour

John Mallett of Bell’s concocted this recipe at the Craft Beer & Brewing Brewers Retreat a few years ago. It’s different from Bell’s Cherry Stout, but he says it shares many of the same themes—including a rich, varied malt profile.

• Beer Recipe
• Fruit Beer
• Stout

Here, two brewmasters who know their way around a dark grist—T.L. Adkisson of Foothills in North Carolina, and John Mallett of Bell’s in Michigan—share advice on balancing juicy fruit with a rich, roasty profile.

• Fruit Stout
• Fruit Beer
• Berries