Best in Beer 2021 (December-January 2022)

This seasonal ale is a bright enough red to match your Santa hat, and it goes well with just about anything on your holiday table.

From Kros Strain Brewing in La Vista, Nebraska, here’s a recipe based on the mixed-culture saison that thrilled our blind review panel and went on to become on of our Best 20 Beers in 2021.

With thanks to Urban South head brewer Alex Flores in New Orleans, here is a sample recipe for their strong, gently tart beer that combines the pleasures of fruit and coffee.

Coffee and fruit flavors complement each other beautifully, yet we rarely see them unite in beer. One brewery leaning into that marriage is Urban South in New Orleans. Here, head brewer Alex Flores explains the method behind their Drip au Lait series.

From our Love Handles files on beer bars we love: This longtime Beltway cornerstone serves exceptional beers and pizzas.

By taking a step back to think more deeply about why we love fruit—and why some fruit beers really shine—we can better plan a truly great one. Randy Mosher peels back the layers and gets to the core of it.

From our Love Handles files on beer bars we love: Original Gravity is an influential pioneer bolstering the Bay Area beer scene.

Here are two titles worth adding to your shelves—and well worth clearing some you-time to put up your feet, crack a beer, and crack a book.

Brewing a great eisbock requires restraint. Keep the recipe simple, and let the freezer do the work.

No grapes were harmed in the making of this experimental beer from the Deschutes pilot brewery. Instead, the beer’s wine-like character comes from grape-like hops and a winemakers’ acid blend.

Brewers who want to build an enjoyable level of acidity into a beer have a growing number of options. Gordon Schuck, who cofounded Funkwerks as well as Jessup Farm Barrel House in Colorado, digs into those techniques and explains the pros and cons.

Passion fruit, dragon fruit, and hibiscus come together with clean, quenching lactic acidity for this punchy, vibrant, tiki-inspired fruit beer from California’s Radiant Beer.

They’re easy to grow, easy to buy, easy to eat, and we know all their names and flavors by heart... if only brewing with fruits were so simple. Here, then, are bushels of practical advice for designing, choosing, processing, and making your own fruit beer.

From our Love Handles files on beer bars we love: The Common adds conviviality and flavor to a bustling food hall at The Forks of Winnipeg.

Before her @ratmagnet Instagram stories and the industry reckoning that followed, Brienne Allan was, and remains, very much a brewer. Her chosen six-pack—all lagers, all decocted—are all beers that have played pivotal roles in her professional journey.

It’s not easy to prioritize the planet and its people alongside the product, but even small steps taken by small breweries can have a big impact. Water use is one area where breweries can make an outsized difference.

Here’s the idea: Take advantage of a lactic acid–producing yeast and aseptic fruit puree to make the brewing of a tart, tasty fruit beer as simple as possible.

Long dismissed as gimmicky and relegated to a bit part, fruit beer has never gotten the respect it deserves. Yet the craft of brewing with fruit is poised to enter a golden age, with a bag full of tricks and seeds planted to grow much wider appeal.

Firestone Walker beers have twice won Best in Beer nods from our editors, and they always rank high among Readers’ Choice picks. We asked Sam Tierney, innovation brewer at the Propagator in Venice Beach, to ponder what it means to strive for “the best.”

This homebrew-scale recipe from Roaring Table cofounder Lane Fearing demonstrates their approach to smooth, juicy IPAs, including requisite attention to the water profile. (There’s a reason it went on to become one of our Best 20 Beers in 2021.)

Nailing styles as diverse as altbier, fruited sour IPA, and saison, Roaring Table is turning a suburban Illinois strip mall into a destination.

This recipe is inspired by one of our favorite pale lagers in Czechia: The Benedict Světlý Ležák 12° from Prague’s Břevnov Monastery Brewery.

So, you put the lime in the coconut—or, better yet, add them both to secondary. Then you drink it all up.

Extract brewing provides a more-than-capable canvas for getting creative with the unusual fruits that arrive this time of year. Annie Johnson breaks it down.

Inspired by Holstein: Chocolate Marzipan from BKS Artisan Ales in Kansas City, Missouri, here’s a recipe that uses marzipan (or almond paste) and cacao nibs for a decadent yet smooth and drinkable milk stout.

Ostensibly very European yet quietly very American in composition, this festive wintertime treat has comforting flavors that find compatibility in malt, roast, and chocolate.

This juicy double IPA collaboration between Vitamin Sea and Civil Society became one of our Best 20 Beers in 2021.

Thanks to head brewer Khris Johnson for this homebrew-scale recipe. “Postcard Pils is an American-style pilsner,” Johnson says, “defined by a refreshing and complex blend of clean lager fermentation, sweet grainy flavor, and a solid American hop profile.”

Green Bench’s Postcard Pils takes a unique approach, atypical of any singular pilsner tradition. We asked cofounder and head brewer Khris Johnson to explain the thought and schematics behind one of our Best 20 Beers in 2021.

Czech lager’s simplicity is deceptive; there is much more to it than Saaz hops, pils malt, and soft water. Here are five favorites that combine ample character with exquisite balance and supreme drinkability.

In Prague, Evan Rail visits the Břevnovský Klášterní Pivovar Sv. Vojtěcha—aka the Břevnov Monastery Brewery, home of Benedict—to learn the secrets of “pitelnost,” essential to a great Czech pale lager.

The world’s most influential beer style is also one of the most misunderstood outside its birth country. “Pilsner” took over the world, but the Czech source material is strikingly different and far more alluring.

Just how much farmland does it take to grow the hops in that case of hazy IPA? Here’s some quick math to see just how many acres it takes to produce our beloved beers.

The Boston-based writer and keen food-and-drink observer of New England and beyond shares his highlights from the past year.

The cofounder and editorial director of Craft Beer & Brewing shares his standout beers and trends noted from another challenging year.

After a long year, as opportunities to travel begin to blink back into existence, our managing editor shares his most memorable beers and experiences.

Our contributing editor is one of the most respected voices in beer journalism today. Here are highlights from her past year in beer.

The driving force behind DontDrinkBeer.com and the Malt Couture podcast shares his favorite beers of the year and unique views on current trends.

The man who wrote the books on hops, terroir, wheat, monks, and more shares some surprising highlights from the past year.

Amid the ups and downs and gradual, stutter-step return to social life, we experienced some transcendent beers—beers that shone, beers that enlightened, beers that made us stop and remember what it’s all about. Here are the pinnacles of the craft.

Since any general “top breweries” list will inevitably slant toward those that make IPAs, we asked about your favorite beers and brewers in these eight specific style categories.

You voted, we tallied. Here are your favorite breweries, broken into categories by volume produced.