Josh Weikert

Whether it’s hazy or clear, intentional bitterness and a dry finish are the keys to an IPA of great drinkability. Getting there takes some attention to details—including perception, ingredients, and process.

• IPA
• Drinkability
• Dry IPA

For brewers who want to get into tart, mixed-culture beers but don’t yet have a lot of confidence or experience, this is a great place to start. But it's also a style where advanced brewers can have a lot of fun dialing it in to their personal tastes.

• Make Your Best
• Oud Bruin
• Flemish Oak-Aged Ale

Ready to brew a great American lawnmower beer?

• Cream Ale
• Blonde Ale
• Lawnmower Beer

There are so many versions, varieties, and approaches here that it would be arrogant to claim this will be your best American IPA—but it’s a very, very good one that’s held up well to the test of time.

• Make Your Best
• All Grain Recipe
• Beer Recipe

The style parameters here are actually pretty simple: high bitterness, intense hop aroma and flavor, and just enough malt character to provide some background.

• Make Your Best
• Double IPA
• American IPA

Give this one some time. After about three months, you’ll find that the malt and hops are so perfectly integrated that you’ll want to just sit and smell this beer for a while.

• Beer Recipe
• American-Style Lager
• American-Style Pilsner

With this relatively obscure historical style, you can think of it as a fresher, drier, slightly lighter version of a clean bière de garde—or you can go for a more lambic-inspired version, bringing in some mixed cultures to have a say.

• Beer Recipe
• Farmhouse Ale
• Bière de Mars

Mild wasn’t always dark, smooth, and low in strength, but that modern incarnation is one well worth brewing and appreciating. Rich in flavor yet drinkable in quantity, mild is a tradition waiting for its next evolution.

• Mild
• British Ales
• Dark Mild

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.

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• Saison

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

Crisp, dry, herbal-bitter, and clean, this is a lager you’ll want to have on tap all year long—but especially as the weather starts to warm.

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• Pilsner
• German Pilsner

Kentucky common is a smooth, drinkable, light-amber hybrid that’s closer to Kölsch, cream ale, and California common than it is to Jack Daniels.

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• Kentucky Common
• Common