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From recipe design and ingredient choices to barrel-aging, blending, and packaging, River North founder Matt Hess and head brewer Matt Malloy share the methods and philosophy behind their unusually robust and flavorful award-winning beers.

Technically, this cold-fermented showcase of expressive Czech aroma hops—brewed by the folks at Sacred Profane in Biddeford, Maine—is a lager. But it drinks like an IPA, so that’s what they call it.

Here’s a recipe based on advice from a few of the best in the industry at brewing great, juicy IPAs with haze that sticks around.

From Upright Brewing in Portland, Oregon, here’s a recipe for their light, easy-drinking saison that features a citrus-tropical fruit character balanced by yeast-driven earth and spice.

Over the years, this recipe has gotten a bit darker and a bit lighter in body, but the goal is the same: to shape an IPA that is distinct from stylistic “neighbors” such as American brown ale.

John Laffler, cofounder of Chicago’s Off Color Brewing, shares this recipe for their chicha-inspired ale brewed with purple corn and Schinus molle berries, aka pink peppercorns.

From owner and head brewer Rich Nuñez at Radicle Effect Brewerks in Rock Island, Illinois, here’s a homebrew-scale recipe for the local cult favorite they release only twice per year—four kegs, and it’s done.

Using information provided by brewers Stefanie and Helmut Bayer, we’ve pieced together a homebrew-scale recipe for the Franconian country lager at Brauerei-Gasthof Bayer in Theinheim.

From Accra’s Heritage Brewing, Ghana’s first modern brewpub, comes this recipe for their flagship lager—technically an ale, but cleanly fermented—featuring local maize and cassava as the bulk of its fermentables.

Brewing a helles is a worthy challenge. If your process is consistent and your ingredients fresh, you can make this beer sing on command.

Shaun Kalis, cofounder and brewer at Ruse Brewing in Portland, Oregon, shares this recipe for a fresh-hopped version of their bright, West Coast–style, Mosaic-heavy IPA.

With a gluten-free grist of 100 percent rice malt, this homebrew recipe comes from Jim Eckert, the rice-malting pioneer who founded Eckert Malting & Brewing in Chico, California.

From BreWskey in Montreal, this hazy double IPA leans into lushly fruit-forward Rakau and Riwaka hops, with a varied grist meant to promote haze with the lightest possible color.

Based on a description from Norway in the late 18th century, this recipe represents the practicality of local farmers at the time—and the grist is 100 percent oats, which would’ve been malted in a smoky kiln.

This award-winning Northwest IPA is a flagship for Von Ebert in Portland, Oregon, with a berry-forward hop flavor driven by lots of Mosaic, plus Simcoe and Strata in the dry hop.

Kevin Templin, cofounder and head brewer at Templin Family Brewing in Salt Lake City, lays out his medal-winning approach to producing flavorful lower-strength beers with high standards of quality.

From Barrique Brewing & Blending in Nashville, Tennessee, head brewer Spencer Longhurst shares this recipe from an Anchor Steam–inspired collab brewed with their friends at Von Trapp in Stowe, Vermont.

From Brewlihan in Oakland Park, Florida, here’s a recipe for one of their most popular session-strength meads—packed with fresh cucumber and lime juice, and nearly always found on draft in their taproom.

Mike Lukacina, founder and brewer at Magnanimous in Tampa, shares this iteration of the ever-evolving stout they brew especially for aging in whiskey barrels.

From award-winning homebrewer Annie Johnson, this partial-mash recipe for a lightweight porter—at 3.5 percent ABV—demonstrates how you can pack plenty of malt flavor into a low-strength beer.

Kevin Ely, brewer and cofounder of the Wooly Pig Farm Brewery in Fresno, Ohio, shares this recipe for his unfiltered German-style pilsner—light, fresh, floral, and subtly malty, with a moderate bitterness. Plus: See the notes for why he prefers an unusually thin mash for this beer.

One of the most industrialized parts of Germany has a surprising farmhouse brewing tradition, but information about it is scarce. Based on interviews with surviving farmhouse brewers, conducted in the 1950s by the Folklore Commission of Westphalia, here’s our attempt at a recipe. We also include some variations in the notes below.

From Josh Brengle and his team at Cervecera Hércules in Querétaro, Mexico, here’s a recipe for the export stout that won gold at the 2024 World Beer Cup—plus, a method for adding fresh wort at packaging for a beer that lives longer in the bottle, cask, or keg.

From the team at Silver Reef in St. George, Utah, here’s a homebrew-scale recipe for the smoked lager that won gold at the 2024 World Beer Cup.