Ale

From Formula Brewing in Issaquah, Washington, here’s a recipe for the contemporary American wheat beer that won gold at the 2025 Great American Beer Festival.

Malt-forward yet light and highly drinkable, this Scottish-style session ale is also straightforward to brew.

The Scottish heavy—also known as the 70-shilling ale—isn’t so heavy at all. Typically below 4 percent ABV, it punches well above its weight in flavor.

From Dan Wye, head of the Origins project at Fyne Ales in Cairndow, Scotland, here’s a recipe from one of his mixed-culture wine chimeras—containing no grapes, but with flavors inspired by sauvignon blanc wine from France’s Loire Valley.

In Scotland, Dan Wye of Fyne Ales is creating mixed-culture beers designed to mimic the flavor and texture of wine. By using foraged fruit, flowers, and herbs in his blends, he’s attempting to define a new style.

Want to try your hand at brewing an uncarbonated ale with enough acidity to refresh and complexity to intrigue? Here’s a recipe from Austin’s Jester King for a lambic-inspired beer that’s ready to drink in just a few months.

As a way to illustrate the methods that go into one of the world’s oldest surviving brewing traditions—including wind-dried malt, foraged hops, and a boiled mash—here’s a recipe for aludi, the farmhouse ale from Georgia’s highlands.

In the mountains of eastern Georgia, a rare type of farmhouse beer represents a centuries-old tradition that survives.

The helles that won gold at the 2025 World Beer Cup was a collaboration between Cinder Block of Kansas City, Missouri, and Blind Tiger of Topeka, Kansas. The objective? To craft a high-quality helles without a traditional decoction mash.

Here, five gold medal–winning breweries share their top tips on shaping the perfect Bavarian-style helles.

This recipe takes inspiration from the lighter, easier-drinking blonde ales that the Belgian Trappist monks brew largely for themselves—but you can have some, too.

Much of the attention often goes to bigger beers—such as the famed dubbels and tripels from Belgium’s monastery breweries—but don’t let that keep you from appreciating the smaller ales in life.

Fogbelt Brewing in Santa Rosa, California, recently revived this craft classic long brewed by Mendocino in nearby Hopland. Often cited as the first American red ale, pioneering microbrewers Don Barkley and Jack McAuliffe first brewed Red Tail Ale in 1983.

Funky Fauna Artisan Ales in Bend, Oregon, ferments their light, quenching house saison with their own locally captured mixed culture.

Inspired by Wallonian farmhouse brewing but rooted in Oregon terroir, Funky Fauna in Bend makes its Wild Saison beers from local ingredients, fermenting them in oak barrels with their wild-caught house culture. Here, cofounder and brewer Michael Frith shares tips on leaning local, developing your own mixed culture, package-conditioning, and more.

A classic style in the American craft pantheon, this amber ale is Annie Johnson’s house beer—the one she’s brewed again and again to dial in her process and ingredients. (She also drinks it.)

From Odell Brewing in Fort Collins, Colorado, this recipe is a celebration of Strata hops and the people who pick them.

Every brewer should have a house beer they use to get better—the one you could brew in your sleep to fine-tune your process, get to know your ingredients intimately, and dial in flavor and quality. For Annie Johnson, that beer is her throwback American amber ale.

The flagship beer from Wiseacre in Memphis, Tennessee, Tiny Bomb is a svelte, session-strength American lager with the full flavor of a German pilsner.

A classic style in the modern American pantheon, this hop-and-malt-forward strong ale serves as a great starting point for experimentation—for example, by subbing in your favorite hop varieties.