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Dry and lively with earthy-herbal hop flavors, saison should be refreshing, with any spicy character better driven by yeast and hops than by actual spices.

• Make Your Best
• Saison

Brewed with barrel-aging in mind, this barleywine-style ale from Lumberbeard Brewing in Spokane, Washington, leans heavily into locally malted triticale—an unusual wheat-rye hybrid.

• Beer Recipe
• Barleywine
• Strong Ale

In a fast-moving era, Switchback founder Bill Cherry bucks the trend by choosing slow growth and less-popular niche styles—such as smoked beer—that afford time to learn and focus through iterative brewing.

• Podcast

The “happy-hour crowd” was once a main source of revenue for many craft-beer bars and breweries. However, the landscape is changing, and event programs such as bar trivia can help these bars and taprooms adapt and cultivate community.

• Sponsored

Great Notion lead brewer Lara Hargrave offers some useful advice for using flavor extracts, graham crackers, almonds, and more in your pastry- and dessert-inspired beers.

• Video
• Video Tip
• Dessert Stout

Rather than run away from crystal malt, Kyle Harrop of Horus Aged Ales in Oceanside, California, embraces it fully with this deviant barleywine-strength ale.

• Beer Recipe
• Barleywine

Barleywines and wheatwines explore the boldest flavor frontiers of their respective grains. Now, daring brewers are applying that maximalist approach to wine-strength beers brewed with millet, rye-wheat hybrids, smoked malts, and more.

• Weirdwines
• Barleywine
• Triticale

At San Francisco’s Bartlett Hall brewpub, head brewer Nick Mamere has built an award-winning program that includes this porter—winner of GABF silver in 2019, gold in 2022, and one of our Best 20 Beers in 2023.

• Beer Recipe
• Porter
• Robust Porter

While the recipe is big for a Czech pale lager—it’s really 14°P rather than the typical 12°—it drinks well below its strength and makes a bright showcase for that floor malt and ample Saaz hops.

• Beer Recipe
• Pilsner
• Czech Pale Lager

The von Trapp family history is well known thanks to the prominence of a certain Disney film, but their dogged approach to brewing lager, just down the hill from the family lodge in Stowe, Vermont, has earned them fans throughout the region and beyond.

• Podcast

From enchanting drinking experiences to inspirational breweries, Josh Pfriem, cofounder and brewmaster at pFriem Family Brewers, takes us on a rollicking tour through Bavaria, California, New England, and Belgium for his selected six-pack.

• Pick Six

Toby McKenzie, owner and brewer at RedWillow Brewery in Macclesfield, Cheshire, England, shares this beefed-up version of their Heritage Porter, inspired by 19th-century recipes. Its layered malt bill gets added complexity from malt made from Chevallier, a landrace barley variety.

• Beer Recipe
• Porter
• Imperial Porter