July was a busy month! I tried 215 beers in July which is potentially the most I’ve ever had because of a beer fest, bottle share and lots of beer flights while traveling.
July started off with Free The Whales beer fest on which was full of delicious brews and was hosted at HopFly Brewing with Resident Culture Brewing. After that Mosaic and I headed to the Blue Ridge Mountains in north Georgia for the fourth of July week. We came home to a bottle share with friends and then left again for a 13 day road trip to the Outer Banks, Norfolk/Virginia Beach, Maryland, Delaware, and Shenandoah National Park. All of that resulted in some high quality beers and it was quite difficult to narrow down this list.
In no particular order, here were my top beers in July:
Raspberry Marmalade from Dewey Beer Company in Dewey Beach, DE
Raspberry marmalade is a Fruited Sour with raspberries. I had this at Dewey’s original taproom at the beach and absolutely loved it. It truly tastes like raspberry marmalade in the best way possible.
Hang My Boots from Monkish Brewing in Torrance, CA
Hang My Boots is a Triple IPA with Nelson Sauvin hops. I cracked this the night before departing for my road trip and it certainly kicked the journey off on the right note. A truly fantastic brew.
Blu Jamz from Seedz Brewery in Union Pier, MI
Blu Jamz is a blended Saison refermented with Michigan grown blueberries. I am absolutely stoked to finally be visiting Seedz in a couple of weeks after they’ve been on my list for years. Everything I’ve ever had from them has been great and Blu Jamz was another superb brew.
More Jasper Than All Jasper collaboration brew from Other Half Brewing in Brooklyn, NY and Fidens Brewing in Albany, NY
This is a Triple IPA with Citra hops. It is a blend of Other Half’s More Than series and Fiden’s Jasper. This is far too easy to drink for a Triple and full of juicy notes.
PB&J Mixtape from Xul Brewing in Knoxville, TN
PB&J Mixtape is a peanut butter and jelly Sour. A lot of breweries make pb&j beers but this was easily the best I have ever had. It tastes exactly like you’re eating the sandwich and is ridiculously great.
Double Dry Hopped King Sue from Toppling Goliath Brewing in Decorah, IA
DDH King Sue is an Imperial IPA with Citra hops. I was lucky enough to have this beer twice recently because Toppling Goliath is now distributing to North Carolina! So excited for this and for all of their fantastic beers to make there way over here.
Monolith collaboration brew from Lua Brewing in Des Moines, IA and Little Cottage Brewing in Atlanta, GA
Monolith is an Imperial Stout with coconut, hazelnuts, marshmallow, and cacao nibs. At 15.2% ABV this is a heavy beer, but it is absolutely delicious. This was easily the best beer at the Free The Whales festival and everyone was talking about how great it was. Lua continues to impress!
Darkness at Noon from Root + Branch Brewing in Copiague, NY
This was the May 2023, Batch 4 version of Darkness at Noon and absolutely superb. It is a multi-oat/wheat Triple IPA and we had this in a growler, so it was delightful to have a fresh Root and Branch not out of a can.
