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It was so much fun last year, let’s make it a new tradition: We asked five brewers from last year’s Best 20 to name their favorite new beer from the past year.

• Five on Five
• Best in Beer

There are many methods of sensory analysis that can be used in the brewery, but one of the most useful is the descripton test. DraughtLab cofounder Lindsay Barr explains how it works.

• Video
• Video Tip
• Sensory

From Northbound Smokehouse & Brewpub in Minneapolis, here’s a recipe for their Doppelbock that won gold at the 2024 World Beer Cup—and that beer also was the basis for their Eisbock, which won gold at the Great American Beer Festival in 2024 and 2025.

• Beer Recipe
• Bock
• Doppelbock

Besides having a nice red-amber hue and tasting great—earthy, malty, and spicy-bitter—this recipe shows how alternative base grains can make a significant difference in flavor.

• Make Your Best
• Alternative Grain Beer
• Amber Ale

An end-of-the-year look at the most-downloaded episodes, with highlights, insights, and soundbites.

• Podcast

This beer began as an attempt to brew something with a properly reddish hue for the holidays—but it serves just as well as an exploration of earthy rye and malty depth with a firm, spicy bitterness.

• Beer Recipe
• American Amber Ale
• Amber Ale

Looking for something rich and impressive to bring to that holiday gathering? You can serve this stout-enriched torte simply—ideally, with fresh whipped cream—but you can you also use it as a base for mousses and ganaches.

• Cooking With Beer
• Pairing Beer & Food
• Dessert

Northbound Smokehouse & Brewpub founder and brewer Jamie Robinson shares tips on how to brew the kind of eisbock that can win a gold medal—as Northbound Eisbock has done two years in a row at the Great American Beer Festival.

• Eisbock
• Brewer’s Perspective
• Bock

Want to brew an eisbock? The first times you try fractional freezing on a bock or other beer, you simply can’t know exactly what you’re going to get—but there are ways to maximize your chances of success.

• Eisbock
• Bock
• Fractional Freezing

While there are plenty of classics that have influenced the brewing journey of Pinthouse Brewing cofounder, brewmaster, and hop savant Joe Mohrfeld, it’s the beers of his friends and peers that continue to shape his approach in an immediate and constant way—and those are the beers he’s packed into his chosen sixer.

• Pick Six

The longtime quality director of Duvel Moortgat has scaled way, way down with a community-focused brewery just outside Leuven, but his creative approach to Belgian beer pulls flavors and inspiration from Scandinavia, the Pacific Northwest, and beyond.

• Podcast

From Austin’s Pinthouse, here’s an updated recipe for their core hazy IPA, Electric Jellyfish—the beer that Craft Beer & Brewing readers named their No. 1 beer of 2025.

• Beer Recipe
• All Access Recipe
• Hazy IPA