Best in Beer 2025

Made annually from the pears picked off the tree out back, this recipe for a dry perry represents how I do it at home.

Newfoundland Cider shares this recipe for one of their small-batch perries, which undergoes a natural fermentation, ages on oak, and gets a final touch of Cascade and Centennial hops.

Perry is hard to find and hard to make, and neither the fruit nor the wildlife is likely to cooperate. Yet that challenge—along with perry’s distinctive character—is a big part of what makes it worth pursuing.

From our Love Handles files on our favorite spots to enjoy beer: In Honolulu, look for this alleyway refuge among the tourist bustle.

From our Love Handles files on our favorite places in the world to drink great beer: In lager-loving Bamberg, this atmospheric pub stays up late to pour some of the best from the city and the region.

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

From head brewer Éloi Deit and his team at Brasserie Dunham in Dunham, Quebec, this saison recipe features the catkins of the green alder—also known as dune pepper.

Bubbling up through Québécois gastronomy and into the brite tanks of craft brewers, this foraged spice is gaining wider fame and winning fans—and it grows freely across much of Canada and the northern United States.

From our Love Handles files on our favorite places in the world to drink great beer: In downtown Flagstaff, Arizona, this beer bar and package store has mountain-town spirit. Plus, hot dogs.

In the never-ending quest for quality, brewers turn to specialized instruments to build a better understanding of their raw materials, their processes, and their beer.

From Marcin Ostajewski, head brewer at Browar Grodzisk, here’s a recipe for the revived classic from the style’s own hometown.

All but extinct before Polish homebrewers revived it, grodziskie is now more than a decade into its second life. Here are the elements that come together to make this smoky yet delicate style so beguiling.

Beer lovers have long known that pairing food and beer can open minds and liven up a party in a way that wine can’t. Here’s some of the science on how and why—plus, tips for organizing an event that can win converts.

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.

A wave of intentionally uncarbonated beers and adjacent drinks is putting greater focus on how texture plays on our palates. Whether you’re going low- or no-fizz, here’s what fewer bubbles mean for the rest of your beverage.

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.

With conjecture based on archaeological findings, here’s a recipe for a mixed grog—in this case, an ale that includes herbs, honey, and fruit—of the sort that well-to-do, Bronze Age Danes might have enjoyed on special occasions and then (literally) taken to their graves.

There’s much we don’t know, but the archaeological finds of ancient Nordic beverages point to beer, mead, and wine—and to hybrids of all three—as the status beverages of the rich and powerful.

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.)

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.

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.

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.

From role-playing as a medieval abbey brewer to finding specialty craft malts online, here are a couple recent picks from our editors.

It was so much fun last year, let’s make it a new tradition: We asked five brewers from last year’s Best 20 to name their favorite new beer from the past year.

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.

The incisive mind behind dontdrinkbeer and the Malt Couture podcast shares his highlights of the past year.

The cofounder, editorial director, and podcast host shares his most memorable beers and experiences from a busy year of events, recordings, and travels.

The British beer writer and founder of Pellicle Magazine shares his joyful beers from the past year and hopeful thoughts for the next.

Hazy IPA edges out pilsner by a single vote for the No. 2 spot this year. Where do your other favorite styles to brew and drink fall on the list?

Our readers voted on the best cities in the United States and around the world for drinking beer—here are the results.

Our contributing editor and the NAGBW Writer of the Year shares some favorite tipples and a few thoughts to mark another four seasons on the books.

The prolific author and hop chronicler shares his top beers and moments from 2025.

Our executive editor shares his favorite beers and beery moments from the past year.