July & August 2022

July and August were a wild ride! I went on a 5 week solo road trip and visited 93 breweries across 10 states, so needless to say there were a TON of great beers drank. In no particular order, here were the best beers I had over July and August:

Eternal Vigilance from Ever Grain Brewing in Camp Hill, PA

Eternal Vigilance is an Imperial IPA with Motueka, Citra and Riwaka hops. This was a delicious juice bomb that I thoroughly enjoyed. Ever Grain was a great stop in Pennsylvania en route to Washington D.C. The food and beers were delicious and I’d highly recommend checking it out if you’re ever in the area!

Vast Air from Other Half Brewing in Bloomfield, NY

Vast Air 2021 Blend is a Wild Ale spontaneously fermented in a coolship. Other Half’s Finger Lakes taproom specializes in Wild and Farmhouse Ales and they are absolutely crushing it. This was a delicious and refreshing brew on their gorgeous farm setting.

Very Special Lord Whangdoodle from The Veil Brewing in Richmond, VA

Very Special Lord Whangdoodle is an Imperial Chocolate Milk Stout aged in a blend of Bourbon, Cognac, Maple, and Apple Brandy Barrels conditioned on double hazelnuts, double truffle, double vanilla, and double coconut. This was an insanely delicious beer. The Veil’s Stouts are always impressive, but this was one of my favorite beers I have had in a long time.

Double Citra Chroma Daydream from Other Half Brewing in New York, NY

This is a Triple Dry Hopped Oat Cream Imperial IPA with Citra hops, Citra Cryo, and Citra Incognito all hand-selected and paired with a ton of oats and a hint of milk sugar. This was a creamy, juicy brew that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Broccoli’s Axe collaboration brew from Other Half Brewing in New York, NY and Fidens Brewing in Colonie, NY

Broccoli’s Axe is an Imperial IPA with Mosaic, Simcoe, Hallertau Blanc, Cascade, Citra and Galaxy. This is a collaboration based on Other Half’s Broccoli and Fidens’ Eugene’s Axe, arguably their flagship beers. It is no surprise that these two created something so fantastic!

Adieu Adieu from Monkish Brewing in Torrance, CA

Adieu Adieu is a Double Dry Hopped Triple IPA with Citra hops. Monkish is consistently great with their IPAs, but Adieu Adieu takes it to another level. This is a top beer of 2022 for me so far!

Eunoia Batch 10 from Phase Three Brewing in Lake Zurich, IL

Eunoia Batch 10 is a Barrel-Aged Neapolitan Imperial Stout with strawberry, cocoa nibs and vanilla. Eunoia is one of my favorite series of Stouts out there and I was thrilled to finally get to try it at the source! Normally I don’t love a fruity Stout but this one was a great balance.

Spotted Cow from New Glarus Brewing in New Glarus, WI

Spotted Cow is a Cask Conditioned Farmhouse Ale and the flagship beer of New Glarus (and perhaps the entire state of Wisconsin!). Spotted Cow is a classic brew but having it on tap at their taproom was even better! This is a very unique beer that is perfect for the summertime.

Conducting Business collaboration brew from BlackStack Brewing in St. Paul, MN and Orchestrated Minds Brewing in Fort Lauderdale, FL

Conducting Business is a Double Dry Hopped Imperial IPA with Amarillo, El Dorado, El Dorado Cryo, Citra and Citra Cryo hops. BlackStack and Orchestrated Minds are both superb breweries so it is no surprise that this beer was top-notch!

Check back next month to see my top beers of September! Cheers —Alexis

May 2022

May was a month of bottle shares and an 11 day Northern California road trip, so there was a ton of good beer consumed and new breweries visited. Check out my top beers of the past month, in no particular order:

The Maison from de Garde Brewing in Tillamook, OR at The Monk’s Kettle in San Francisco, CA

The Maison is a Spontaneous Wild Ale aged in oak barrels and blended for 3+ years. de Garde is definitely one of my favorite breweries in the country so finding them on tap in San Francisco was a treat! The Monk’s Kettle was a fantastic beer bar with great food, I highly recommend checking them out in the Mission District.

Coeur de Cuvée (Blend #8) from Side Project Brewing in Maplewood, MO

Coeur de Cuvée is a series of blends of wine barrel fermented and aged Saisons from Side Project. This eighth release contains select barrels of a Chablis-inspired Saison which was then refermented on Michigan pears before being blended in a Bière de Coupage style and conditioned for an extended period of time in bottle. This was another fantastic beer from Side Project, who never seems to disappoint.

10,000 Steps (Batch 2) from Private Press Brewing in Santa Cruz, CA at Holy Water in San Francisco, CA

10,000 Steps Batch 2 is a blend of barrel aged Imperial Stout and Barleywine brewed with maple syrup and conditioned on cacao nibs and vanilla beans. Private Press is a sought after brewery with no taproom and limited releases in the Bay Area. Seeing them on tap at Holy Water was a delight! Holy Water is a chill beer bar in the Bernal Heights neighborhood with fantastic beers.

Supplication at Russian River Brewing in Santa Rosa, CA

Supplication is a Brown Ale aged in Pinot Noir wine barrels for one year with sour cherries, brettanomyces yeast and lactobacillus and pedioccus bacteria. Visiting Russian River was definitely a huge goal of mine so I was pumped to make it out to Santa Rosa. I tried 8 beers at Russian River and was truly surprised to find that Supplication was my favorite.

Everything at Sante Adairius Rustic Ales in Capitola and Santa Cruz, CA

I visited both Sante Adairius locations while in Northern California—the OG taproom in Capitola and The Portal in Santa Cruz. I was insanely impressed with every single beer that I had:

Queen of the Season Foudre aged Saison; Wisdom is Learned Barrel Aged Saison with peaches; The Gift of Comfort Barrel aged Blonde ale with rose hips and Meyer Lemon; Landscapes #3 Oak aged Saison dry hopped with Kohia Nelson; Anais House Saison; Cellarman Oak aged Saison in collaboration with Triple Rock; Tomorrow, Today IPA with Citra, Simcoe and Mosaic

Everything at Moksa Brewing in Rocklin, CA

Visiting Moksa was also extremely exciting for me, so it was tough not to drink the entire menu as I loved everything. My two favorites at Moksa were Smells Like C.R.E.A.M. Spirit, an Imperial Stout with port barrel aged maple syrup, vanilla beans and coffee in collaboration with @mikerphonebrewing and One Million Blueberries Imperial Sour Ale with blueberries and vanilla.

Hypnotized Minds Volume 2 Collaboration beer from Xul Beer Co. in Knoxville, TN, BlackStack Brewing in St. Paul, MN and Orchestrated Minds Brewing in Fort Lauderdale, FL at Resident Culture Brewing Company in Charlotte, NC

Hypnotized Minds is a Double Dry Hopped Triple IPA with Azacca, Citra & Simcoe hops. In celebration of CLT Beer Week Resident Culture hosted a tap takeover with a few guest taps, one of which was this fantastic Xul, BlackStack, Orchestrated Minds juice bomb!

Home Sour Home 2022 at The Rare Barrel in Berkeley, CA

Home Sour Home 2022 is a Golden Sour aged in oak barrels with peach, cinnamon and vanilla bean. Everything at The Rare Barrel was superb, but Home Sour Home was particularly delicious! This beer has a great balance of tartness and sweetness, making it easy drinking and phenomenal.

Schmoojee Hydra collaboration brew from Imprint Beer Co. in Hartfield, PA and Mortalis Brewing in Avon, NY

Schmoojee Hydra is a heavily fruited sour with mango, pineapple, passionfruit, banana, coconut and marshmallow. Mortalis and Imprint are two of the best in the game for Fruited Sours so it is no surprise that this was delicious. It was light and refreshing while also being thiccc and fruity at the same time.

Check back next month for my top beers of June 2022!
Cheers —ALexis