My Top Beers in January 2025

January was a month filled with incredible beers—I can’t think of a time where I have curated this monthly blog and had more beers in my top list ever before. I shared beers with friends several times and attended the Rare and Vintage Beer Tasting in Durham which was filled with superb beers. In total I tried 117 different beers in January, and here are the best:

Đất Phúc from CLAG Brewing Company in Sandusky, OH

This is a Pastry Stout with Wild Thai banana, toasted coconut, and Bissell Farms maple syrup. These are three of my favorite adjuncts in general, so it is no surprise that this was a banger for me. I had this beer on tap at the brewery in December and via a crowler with friends in January and was blown away both times. CLAG is quietly putting out some incredible beers!

Eunoia Batch 18: Coconut from Phase Three Brewing in Lake Zurich, IL

This was my top pour at Rare and Vintage—which is saying a lot. Eunoia Batch 18 is a blend of base stout aged from 19 to 37 months aged in heaven hill, wild turkey, and willett bourbon barrels and aged it on over 800 pounds of raw and toasted coconut. The coconut exudes out of this beer in the most delightful way. Eunoia is always a stellar beer, but this just might be my favorite yet!

Imprint collaboration brew from Root + Branch Brewing in Copiague, NY and TEST Brewery in Brooklyn, NY

Imprint is a multi-oat/wheat Triple IPA brewed and dry hopped with Freestyle Nelson hops. A superb Hazy brewed from two incredible breweries in New York!

The 12 - A Reworking from Lesser-Known Beer Company in Winston-Salem, NC

The 12 is a Czech Pale Lager that is exactly what you’re looking for in a Lager. Way too easy to drink, refreshing, flavorful, and overall perfection. No surprise coming from the Lesser-Known team!

Something To Ponder Anytime You Are Anywhere Always from Burial Beer in Asheville, NC

Burial brewed another killer Quadruple IPA with Candy sugar, Cryo and Incognito. Triple dry-hopped with Citra, Nelson and Motueka, and finished with Citra Cryo. Their ability to continuously put out insane beers never ceases to amaze me!

Yodel: Nelson from Freak Folk Bier in Waterbury, VT

Yodel: Nelson is a Double Dry Hopped Double IPA with 100% Nelson hops. Freak Folk’s IPAs continue to be some of the best in the country. This is a new single hop series from them and I can’t to see what else comes out.

Barrel Aged Rocky Road (2024) from Angry Chair Brewing in Tampa, FL

Barrel Aged Rocky Road is an Imperial Sweet Stout with toasted walnuts, cacao nibs, marshmallows and lactose that is aged 18 months in Wild Turkey bourbon barrels. This is a fluffy marshmallow joyful experience from start to finish.

7 Deadly Stouts from Monday Night Brewing in Atlanta, GA

Seven Deadly Stouts is a blend of imperial stout aged in 7 different spirit barrels for over 2 years. Apple Brandy, Bourbon, Scotch, Maple Bourbon, Tequila, Rum, and Cognac barrels were all blended together and aged upon massive amounts of toasted coconut, hazelnuts, coffee, cinnamon, chocolate, and vanilla beans. This is a very barrel-forward beer that surprised me how well all of these things worked well together.

Something We Could No Longer Contain from Fidens Brewing in Albany, NY

Something We Could No Longer Contain is Triple IPA with Simcoe, Citra and Idaho 7 hops. If Fidens brews a Triple you can guarantee it’s going to slap.

The Same Eternity from Blindhouse Beer in Roanoke, VA

The Same Eternity is a blend of aged Mixed Culture beer and fresh, hoppy Saison. Blindhouse’s unique beers are always a delight!

Baba Yaga’s Forest from Brujos Brewing in Portland, OR

Baba Yaga’s Forest is a Double Dry Hopped Imperial Hazy IPA with Manilita, Bliss Processed Nelson, Columbus CGX, Citra & Citra Cryo. It has been a minute since I had any Brujos and this was a good reminder of just how good their beers are.

Less Than Alone (2024) from Triple Crossing in Richmond, VA

Less Than Alone is a blend of three Bourbon barrels aged and then the blend was moved to stainless for further conditioning on Mexican vanilla beans. This is an extremely well-balanced brew that draws out both the barrel and vanilla notes.

Vigneronne from Brasserie Cantillon in Brussels, Belgium

Vigneronne is a blend of Lambics with Viogner grapes. This was an incredibly smooth Lambic that was still bursting with flavor. An absolute delight.

Dino Snacks (2024) collaboration brew from Pinthouse Brewing in Austin, TX and Green Cheek Beer in Orange, CA

Dino Snacks is a Triple IPA with Freestyle Farms selected Motueka and Nelson Sauvin CGX from Hop Revolution NZ. Honestly this one surprised me with how good it was. Pinthouse is not a brewery whose beers I have previously sought out after having a couple of flights during Austin visits where my conclusions were basically “solid, but nothing crazy”. After trying this beer I will have to reconsider that notion and put some more stock into what they are putting out.

Coconut Bliss Sleeping Forever from The Veil Brewing Company in Richmond, VA

Coconut Bliss Sleeping Forever is an Imperial Stout aged in maple and Willett bourbon barrels for 30 months then conditioned on fresh and toasted coconut. You might be starting to notice a coconut Stout trend this month—this was another incredible one!

Double Barrel-Aged Periodic Motion from Fonta Flora Brewery in Morganton, NC

This is a double bourbon barrel-aged English-style Barleywine. Fonta Flora’s Barleywines are typically some of the best, and this timed release at Rare and Vintage lived up to the hype.

Forest Brothers collaboration brew from Human Robot in Philadelphia, PA and Põhjala in Tallinn, Estonia

Forest Brothers is a Pilsner with Motueka and Callista hops. Human Robot always crushes it, but this is the first light beer I have had from Põhjala. This was a superb beer at the Rare and Vintage Beer Tasting.

CHeck Back next month for my top beers of February!

Cheers —Alexis

July 2023

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.

Check back next month for my top beers in August! Cheers —Alexis

October 2021

October is arguably the best month of the year—college football is in full swing, leaves are changing, and the month is full of beer fests! For us October meant two bottle shares, a massive fall beer side by side tasting, Barrel Culture Brewing & Blending’s Invitational in Durham, glamping in Lenoir, and an epic Michigan State football victory over Michigan. All of these obviously also meant delicious beers, so this month’s top beers list is a little longer—check out all of the best beers I had in October 2021 below, in no particular order:

Childish Games from Monkish Brewing in Torrance, CA

Childish Games is a Double Dry Hopped Double IPA with Enigma and Nelson Sauvin hops. Monkish has absolutely nailed the juicy IPA game and this brew is no exception—smooth, flavorful, and fantastic.

2020 Barrel Aged Cuppa Peanut Butter Coconut from Maplewood Brewing in Chicago, IL

This is an Imperial Stout blended from Cuppa aged in Buffalo Trace, Heaven Hill and Weller barrels for 12-18 months and conditioned on cacao nibs, vanilla, coffee, toasted coconut and peanut butter. I enjoyed this one at the Barrel Culture Invitational and it reaffirmed my belief in just how good Maplewood is!

Holding This Moment (Blue) collab brew from Fidens Brewing in Colonie, NY And Horus Aged Ales in OCeanside, CA

Holding This Moment is a Double IPA brewed with Motueka and Citra hops. Fidens is hot right now in the craft beer scene and Horus is always something to be chased after as well, so it’s no surprise this collaboration was incredibly delicious!

Dairelynerweisse: Raspberry, Blackberry, Pomegranate from Salud Cerveceria in Charlotte, NC

Dairelynerweisse is Salud’s Berliner Weisse series and this variant was made with blackberry, raspberry and pomegranate. You can always expect this series to be thicc, fruity, and packed full of flavor. My favorite is still the Mixed Berry version, but this one is excellent too!

Insert Hip Hop Reference Anywhere collab brew from Trillium Brewing in Boston, MA and Monkish Brewing in Torrance, CA

Insert Hip Hop Reference is a single-hop collaboration series from Trillium and this version features Mosaic hops in collaboration with the IPA powerhouse, Monkish Brewing. It is a 10% Triple IPA but is extremely easy to drink.

Watermelon Incipient from Speciation Artisan Ales in Grand Rapids, MI

Watermelon Incipient is a Foeder Aged Solera Sour with watermelon. Speciation always brings the funk! This one is tart, fruity, and light-bodied. I always recommend anything from Speciation that you can get your hands on!

Double Dry Hopped Ghost in the Machine from Parish Brewing in Broussard, LA

Yes I have talked about this beer before, and no I will not be stopping anytime soon. DDH Ghost is an Imperial IPA with Citra hops. I first had this beer when it initially released in 2020 and every time I have it I am continually blown away by how delicious it is. Luckily Parish brought this one to the Barrel Culture Invitational and it was the first keg to kick if that tells you anything about how fantastic it is!

Everything is Connected Collab Brew from The Eighth State Brewing Company in Greenville, SC and Tripping Animals Brewing Co. in Doral, FL

Everything is Connected is a Barleywine with roasted pecans, Cook's Island vanilla, Ugandan vanilla, Ecuadorian cocoa nibs, and graham crackers. Eighth State crushes the Imperial Stout and Barleywine game so it is no surprise that this brew was exceptional! Thicc, heavy on the vanilla, and boozy—everything I wanted out of it.

Get Puft from Liquid Roots Brewing Project in Lenoir, NC

Get Puft is a mango and marshmallow Sour Ale. This was super flavorful! It’s the first in the new sour series at Liquid Roots so I look forward to seeing what other flavors they develop. In the meantime I’ll take 64oz of this fruit bomb!

Flat Dayz collab brew from Other Half Brewing in New York, NY and Commonwealth Brewing in Virginia Beach, VA

Flat Dayz is a Double IPA with Citra in the whirlpool and dry hopped with Motueka, Waimea, Riwaka and Kohatu hops. Juicy, fruit-forward, and smooth. Another banger from Other Half with the help of Commonwealth.

Eunoia Batch 6 from Phase Three Brewing Company in Zurich, IL

Eunoia Batch 6 is a Barrel-aged Imperial Stout with Tugboat coffee, maple syrup and Ghana cocoa nibs. Phase Three is a Chicagoland powerhouse and Eunoia is arguably their best series. The coffee comes through strong but not in an overpowering fashion while the maple and chocolate even everything out. Highly recommend this brew!