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As Mike Saboe was embracing craft beer and homebrewing in the early ’00s, he sought far and wide for inspiration. Looking back now, as brewmaster at Toppling Goliath, he recounts six beers that had an outsized influence on his approach to everything from hop-forward beers to burly barrel-aged stouts.

• Pick Six
• Toppling Goliath
• Iowa

With thanks to Todd DiMatteo and his team at Good Word Brewing in Duluth, Georgia, here’s a homebrew-scale recipe for the rum barrel–aged barleywine that became one of our Best 20 Beers in 2022.

• Beer Recipe
• Barleywine
• Barrel-Aged

Maplewood founder Adam Cieslak and head brewer Roger Cuzelis discuss grain selection for balanced stouts, ensuring plenty of flavor without going to heavy on the roast.

• Video
• Stout

With thanks to Greg Browne, head brewer at Art History in suburban Chicago, here is a recipe for their Czech-style dark lager, inspired by the beer at the famous U Fleků brewpub in Prague.

• Beer Recipe
• Dark Lager
• Czech-Style Dark Lager

Committed to brewing the best European-style lagers possible, Art History Brewing in Geneva, Illinois, is expanding into a brewhouse outfitted with a wish list of bells and whistles.

• Breakout Brewer
• Lager
• Chicago

After chasing larger volumes through distribution for the past 12 years, the pandemic led to reckoning and reconnection for these two breweries in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Now, they’re sizing down to let customers and brewers, rather than distributors, drive the creative narrative.

• Podcast

A dry Irish-style stout is ideal for pairing with shepherd’s pie—and a splash or two also finds its way into this moderately spicy version with ground bison, a dish sure to keep you warm while waiting for spring.

• Cooking with Beer
• Dry Irish Stout

Sanitation is the first essential step in making great beer—and it’s not difficult to do it right. From our Illustrated Guide to Homebrewing, here are the basics and some useful tips.

• Homebrewing
• Sanitation
• Cleaning

If “fruit beer” was once a niche style, it has since evolved into something much more significant, absorbing other traditions along the way to become a vibrant celebration of some of the most popular flavors on Earth. Here are five picks from the pros.

• Five on Five
• Fruit Beer

You can simply add a bunch of fruit to a beer and see how it goes. Or, you can take a step back, carefully consider the flavors involved and how they intermingle, and—from creativity to reality—plan and execute a more superlative fruit beer.

• Fruit
• Flavor Fever
• Fruit Beer

Maplewood founder Adam Cieslak and brewers Roger Cuzelis and Adam Smith get under the hood of stouts ranging from session-strength to big and barrel-aged, discussing the mechanics of layering in flavor while keeping them balanced and drinkable.

• Video
• Full Video

With thanks to Ben Howe and Karolina Lobrow, cofounders of Otherlands Beer in Bellingham, Washington, here’s a recipe for their take on a Polish pilsner—one of our Best 20 Beers in 2022.

• Beer Recipe
• Pilsner