From Grain to Class (Spring 2026)

Denver’s River North is winning international awards and a strong reputation for its deep, dark, malt-forward beers. Here, owner Matt Hess and head brewer Matt Malloy share the thinking and process behind them. As told to Ryan Pachmayer.

From our Love Handles files on the world’s best spots to enjoy a great beer: One of the finest airport bars in the country is pouring a wide range of Oregon craft from 90-plus taps.

Malt complexity leads the way in this amber ale—a gold medal–winner at the 2025 World Beer Cup—from Mountain Rambler in Bishop, California.

In Sonoma County, California, Fogbelt Brewing is refreshing and reviving an American classic—Mendocino’s Red Tail Ale—and finding a receptive audience.

From Far Field Beer in Lawndale, California, in L.A.’s South Bay area, here’s a recipe for the American amber that won gold at the 2024 World Beer Cup.

American amber ales aren’t fossils—they’re more like liquid signals sent through time and space from an earlier generation. And today’s brewers continue to refine and polish them to an appealing ruby hue, while the opportunities for flavor and quality are greater than ever.

This recipe represents most of what we know about the traditional farmhouse style of Latgale in southeastern Latvia. Note that the bitterness and strength of these beers can vary widely—feel free to adjust the hops or pack more malt into your mash tun.

This obscure farmhouse brewing tradition out of eastern Latvia is still alive today, and it’s one that fans of smoked beer may want to add to their bucket lists.

From South Africa’s Afro Caribbean and Soul Barrel breweries, this hefty barleywine of 17.5 percent ABV is based on a unique, experimental process involving a boil stretched out over six days.

A collaborative experiment between South African brewers led to a super-hefty barleywine of 17.5 percent ABV, via an unusual boiling process measured in days rather than hours.

From our Love Handles files on our favorite spots around the world to enjoy a great beer: This characterful bar off an alleyway in New Zealand’s capital city offers a friendly welcome, local craft, tasty pizza, and a galaxy of Star Wars bric-a-brac.

Inspired by Belgian grisette, Creature Comforts in Athens, Georgia, labels this a “country wheat beer,” describing it as dry, grassy, herbal, and slightly fruity.

A bit of wheat is hard to beat—and it shows up in a bunch of today’s most popular beers and styles, even if most drinkers have no idea it’s there. Well beyond wheat beers and weizens, the golden grain has become one of the most useful ingredients in the modern craft brewery.

It’s helpful to develop a common vocabulary to describe what we sense in our beer, but it’s even more helpful to understand the chemistry underlying those aromas and flavors. Here’s a primer.

From New York Beer Project in Victor, New York, head brewer John Hyman shares this recipe for the experimental New England–style IPA that won back-to-back golds at the Great American Beer Festival. Besides hops selected for their bright, fruit-forward flavors, Hazy Crush features a cold-side addition of dried fruit and hibiscus flowers.

Winner of back-to-back gold medals for experimental IPA at the Great American Beer Festival, NYBP head brewer John Hyman lays out the makings of their super-tropical Hazy Crush.

Mike Rybinski, brewmaster at ZwanzigZ Pizza in Columbus, Indiana, shares this recipe for the American imperial stout that won gold at the 2022 and 2025 World Beer Cups—plus, notes for the ghost pepper variation that also won gold at the Great American Beer Festival in 2017.

From ZwanzigZ Pizza & Brewing in Columbus, Indiana, the Fulcrum imperial stout twice won gold medals at the World Beer Cup, in 2022 and 2025. Here, brewmaster Mike Rybinski shares the beer’s inspirations and what makes it stand out from the modern crowd. As told to Ryan Pachmayer.

Cold showers are trendy, and cold plunges are so hot right now—but craft breweries were taking advantage of cold water before it was, well, cool. Here’s a closer look at one of the most undersung pieces of brewhouse equipment—the CLT—as well as other ways to knock out and chill.

You may not be able to ferment in a proper Burton Union—though we wouldn’t put it past some of you to build your own—but you can brew your own version of this beer that Thornbridge developed specifically for the country’s last working Union set.

In England’s East Midlands, the brewing trailblazer Thornbridge has rescued and is continuing to use a vital piece of British brewing heritage—an original Burton Union system. More than just a museum piece, the technology lends a suppleness to the ales that course through it.

A collaboration with Triptych of Savoy, Illinois, this amber lager from Chicago’s Goldfinger brings Midwestern flavor via Minnesota wild rice, Wisconsin hops, and a yeast strain resurrected from a 19th-century Wisconsin brewery.

This truly indigenous, widely available American grain offers nutty, earthy flavors that would seem to be compatible with malt-forward beer. Yet relatively few breweries have tried it.

Besides sanitation, success here depends on two things: slightly chloride-forward water to round out the malt, and great attenuation for a light, dry finish.

Patrick Bourque, head brewer at Kiitos in Salt Lake City, says they brewed this IPA to showcase fonio’s unique flavors—such as passion fruit, lychee, and white peach—and how those flavors meld nicely with the flavors and aromas of modern hop varieties.

Missouri’s first Black-owned brewery, Kansas City’s Vine Street, released this light, hoppy, fonio-focused riff on the Black Is Beautiful open-source collab in 2025.

Breweries big and small are discovering the huge, modern potential of this tiny, ancient grain.

From Mova Brewing in Dnipro, Ukraine, here’s a recipe for the Czech-style pilsner that won gold at the 2025 European Beer Star, beating out some of the best lager breweries from Czechia, Germany, the United States, and around the world.

In Dnipro, Ukraine, not far from the front lines of war with Russia, Mova Brewing sticks to a Czech script when brewing its Mova Pilsner, which won gold at the 2025 European Beer Star.

In St. Petersburg, Florida, Green Bench produces a wide range of styles, but the beers that have most influenced cofounder and brewer Khristopher Johnson are those that showcase a particular blend of localized expression, integrated process, and disciplined focus. As told to Jamie Bogner.

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.

Based more on an ingredient than an existing tradition, American wheat is arguably the United States’ first truly native modern beer style. Refreshing and easygoing, attractive and flavorful, it arrived just in time to help American craft beer grow.

From beer-barreled whiskey to brewery hikes and your new favorite player in the transfer portal, here are a few things we’re stoked on, now.