Ale

This celebration of malt and American hops is one that should evolve nicely as the weeks pass, the bitterness rounds, and malt comes into the fore.

This modern take on a Kentucky common comes from a collaboration between Bluejacket and DC Beer, a website that’s been covering the Washington, D.C., beer scene for more than a decade.

From Cloudburst founder-brewer Steve Luke, here’s a homebrew recipe for the West Coast double red that won gold at the 2025 World Beer Cup.

In 2025, Seattle’s Cloudburst won World Beer Cup gold in the Strong Red Ale category for its throwback West Coast double red, Peaked in High School. Here, founder-brewer Steve Luke opens his yearbook to share the details.

On his two-vessel brewhouse in Duluth, Georgia, Good Word owner-brewer Todd DiMatteo hand-lugs buckets full of mash to make his decoction happen for their house helles—a process that he says is worth the effort.

There are many interpretations of modern saison. This one, from Oxbow in Newcastle, Maine, features local grains and multiple strains of yeast and bacteria—gently tart and funky, and highly drinkable.

Inspired by Wallonian farmhouse brewing yet distinct from classic saison, today’s modern, funky, mixed-culture creations—whatever you call them—enjoy a refined niche.

Based on discussions with Rochefort brewmaster Gumer Santos, here’s a homebrew-scale recipe inspired by the Trappist abbey’s strongest dark ale—with notes on how to adjust the recipe to approximate the 6 or 8.

In Belgium’s Namur province, at the Notre-Dame de Saint-Rémy abbey, head brewer Gumer Santos shares some of the methods that go into the Brasserie des Trappistes Rochefort’s highly regarded dark ales—as well as its newer blonde triple.

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.

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.

From Chicago’s Burning Bush Brewery, this amber ale includes two types of basil grown right there on their patio next to the Chicago River.

Scratch in Ava, Illinois, has won a national reputation for its combination of foraging and flavor finesse. Here’s how the brewery’s duo ended up putting 131 different botanical ingredients into one (very tasty) beer.

Call it black IPA, Cascadian dark, or anything else—whatever you call it, this American black ale goes all-in on flavor with dark malts and robust hopping.

This rich amber ale, featuring layers of roasted orange spice mingling with hops, is a vamp on the English winter warmers that are stronger, darker, and toastier than pale ales or bitters.

From Offset Bier in Park City, Utah, this session-strength IPA—which features the new public hop, Vera—is fresh off a gold-medal win at the Great American Beer Festival.

From Dundulis in Panevežys, Lithuania, this recipe is based on their interpretation of traditional keptinis beer brewed from an oven-­baked mash.

When beer gets high enough in alcohol content, it can pose a threat to can lining and affect how we perceive carbonation. In this clip from their video course, River North founder Matt Hess explains how and why they bottle in glass and adjust for carbonation.

There are many kinds of dark beer around the world, but there’s one that stands out as profoundly different from the others—and it features a deep, caramelized flavor that can only come from a nice, hot oven.

This extra pale ale is a crowd favorite at Craft Coast Beer & Tacos in San Diego’s North County. It’s also found success at the highest levels of competition, winning two straight World Beer Cup medals—bronze in 2024, then silver in 2025.