All Grain

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.

This American-style extra pale ale is brewed with a nice layer of wheat and hopped exclusively with Citra. It’s super-smooth with a light body and dank notes of tangelo, nectarine, and kiwi.

This old ale is brewed with molasses, a robust malt bill, then oak-aged. The result is a rich malty delight that’s deceptively smooth and drinkable. Head Brewer Jeremy Kosmicki calls it a “nighttime sipper” and a respite from the hops-forward styles.

This blonde ale is more flavorful than your average “lawnmower” beer, so save it for after you mow. Once you dial in the recipe, this beer will get your non-beer-drinking friends started down the path to craft-beer obsession! And you’ll enjoy it, too.

A properly brewed weizenbock will have you experiencing intense malt and yeast flavors with enough alcohol to warm the body and soul.

Light American lager is the hardest “nothing of a beer” you will ever make. Here is a simplified version.

From Bearded Iris Brewing (Nashville, Tennessee), here’s a Pilsner-based IPA that uses Columbus hops extract, Mosaic and Simcoe Cryo, and Galaxy, Mosaic, and Motueka hops.

From Seventh Son Brewing Co. (Columbus, Ohio), here’s a homebrew-scaled recipe for a cocoa- and vanilla-infused imperial stout with a hefty dose of salt.

Belgian beers have a reputation for being somewhat hops-negligent. However, that reputation is absolutely unjustified. Please meet a beer that was once described to the author as the “King of the Belgian and French styles,” the Bière de Garde.

The Vienna lager lands in a place where it’s toastier than pale German lagers but nowhere near the caramel and melanoidin-heavy richness of “modern” Oktoberfest. The best examples of Vienna lager are like drinking a liquid version of dry toast.

Here’s a homebrew-scaled version of the hoppy Pilsner that Resident Culture Brewing Company brewed in collaboration with Casita Cerveceria.

Triple Crossing Beer’s flagship DIPA is overwhelmingly dry hopped with Mosaic and Simcoe. It’s soft, smooth, and hugely hops-forward with notes of tropical fruit, pineapple, passion fruit, and mango balanced with hints of resin and pine.

This soft and hazy IPA from Mikkeller San Diego was designed to mesh with the fruit flavors generated by the Hornindal kveik yeast strain.

This beer is an effervescent smoked beer with a potent herbal Saaz bouquet. The wheat malt and the bubbles allow for the full-body feeling in a 3 percent ABV beer, not to mention the meringue-like head.

A collaboration between Moonraker Brewing Co. and their friends at Highland Park Brewery, this NEIPA boasts huge hops flavors and aromas of gooseberry, diesel, orange zest, mango, and evergreen over a biscuit-like malt foundation.

This modified Weldwerks Juicy Bits recipe (which is in no way created by, endorsed by, or otherwise affiliated with the brewery) has your favorite juicy aromas and infuses THC for a pleasant focused body high.

Southside Blonde is a sessionable Belgian-style blonde ale that is light-bodied and dry with a hint of fruitiness from the yeast. Southside is a friendly pairing with a variety of foods and an approachable choice for all types of beer drinkers.

A New England–style double dry-hopped double IPA with Citra hops.

Pulpit Rock’s Little Buddy is a session pale ale coming at you with a one-two punch of Citra and Sabro hops. Soft bitterness and a plush mouthfeel from lactose lend themselves to the tropical fruit, tangerine, and coconut flavors and aromas of the hops.

American Brown Ale is a classic of the early craft and homebrewing world, and in a perfect world, you’d have a great version of it on tap at all times.