October and November 2024

October and November were a wild ride. Things started off with a 12 day stomach bug for me before visiting Knoxville, The Tennessee side of the Smoky Mountains, Dayton, Grand Rapids, Southwest Michigan, and Hawaii (check out my Hawaii recommendations here). I watched the end of the regular season of college football, kicked off college basketball season, and arguably watched more NFL in the past month than I have in my entire life combined. I attended the inaugural Hops and Horsepower festival at the Charlotte Auto Show, shared beers with friends, celebrated Thanksgiving for the first time since college, and soaked up the remaining warms days in CLT. Over the course of the last two months I tried 186 different beers.

In no particular order, here were the best beers I had in October and November 2024:

Scorching Pledges of An Irreversible Nature; And In This, My Final Flame; For Memories We Made Together in Asheville; from Burial Beer Co. in Asheville, NC

Scorching Pledges of an Irreversible Nature is a Bourbon Barrel-Aged Barleywine with Congolese Vanilla Beans brewed in collaboration with Anchorage Brewing Company from Anchorage, Alaska. This is a blend of 12 to 24 month Barleywine aged in Buffalo Trace Rye and Wild Turkey Bourbon barrels with a small addition of Vanilla from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Barleywine is not always my favorite, but if Anchorage has their hands in it you know it’s going to slap. This is a phenomenal beer that blew me away.

And In This, My Final Flame is a Cuvée of Bourbon Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout and Bourbon Barrel Aged Barleywine Ale. This beer was originally meant to be a Burnpile 2024-VIP Exclusive offering, but with the cancellation of the festival due to the hurricane, it was released to the general public. This is a blend of Barleywine aged for 12 months in Willett Bourbon Barrels and 16 month Imperial Stout aged in Heaven Hill Bourbon Barrels. Superb!

For Memories We Made in Asheville is a blend of Barrel-Aged Imperial Stouts from Burial, Other Half, Creature Comforts, Edmunds Oast, Halfway Crooks and Pinthouse. Each collaboration brewery sent a barrel to Burial while they could not brew after the hurricane to help. On top of this being an incredibly unique beer with world-class collaborators created after a tragedy, this is also the first in a series from Burial to help the Asheville brewing community recover from Hurricane Helene. From Burial, “We started Manifest Eternity, a fundraising program aimed to raise money for the hurting AVL brewing world, with the help of visiting brewers who have fell in love with our little town.”

Another Sip of Fear collaboration from North Park Beer Company in San Diego CA, Troon Brewing in Hopewell NJ, Brujos Brewing in Portland OR, and Fidens Brewing in Albany, NY

Another Sip of Fear is a Triple IPA Triple Dry Hopped with Citra, Eclipse and Manilita. With these heavy-hitter breweries involved is it any surprise that this is an absolute banger?

The Lovely Pumpkin from Percent Tap House in Harrisburg, NC

The Lovely Pumpkin is #13 in Percent’s Thrift Shop Series. It is an Imperial Berliner base heavily fruited with double pumpkin, triple marshmallow, vanilla soft serve, graham cracker, and pumpkin spices. It tastes exactly like pumpkin pie in a glass and is a true delight for this season. We also learned recently that they are opening a second location in Concord—can’t wait!

Bourbon Barrel Aged Ego Death Cashew Cluster and Bourbon Barrel Aged Ego Death Compost Cookie from Resident Culture Brewing in Charlotte, NC

The release of Bourbon Barrel Aged Ego Death is always an exciting time in Charlotte, and this year brought one new exciting variant and the return of a favorite:

The Cashew Cluster edition of Bourbon Barrel Aged Ego Death is a new version this year and delicious. It is a blend of Imperial Stouts aged in Willett Sour Mash Bourbon, Willett Sour Mash Rye, and Yellowstone Kentucky Bourbon barrels for a period of 18-27 months then conditioned on toasted hazelnuts and cacao nibs, then further conditioned on salted cashews and toffee.

The Compost Cookie edition is always a favorite. This is a blend of Imperial Stouts aged in Willett Sour Mash Bourbon, Willett Sour Mash Rye, and Yellowstone Kentucky Bourbon barrels for a period of 18-27 months then conditioned on toasted hazelnuts and cacao nibs, then further conditioned on butterscotch chips, dark chocolate chips, potato chips, pretzels, and graham crackers.

Even More Hydra: ETNYC Edition collaboration from Evil Twin Brewing Company in New York, NY and Mortalis Brewing in Avon, NY

Evil Twin NYC and Mortalis teamed up to create this Fruited Sour with blackberry, raspberry, blueberry, and cacao nibs. Chocolate in Sours is not usually my favorite but this was a surprise winner. The flavors balanced well and created a delicious result! I got this can via Tavour, straight to my doorstep.

Mitten Life; Old And Wise; Dunkelweizen from Seedz Brewery in Union Pier, MI

When visiting Seedz it’s impossible to have just one favorite beer. Their slow pours are magical and during my most recent trip to Southwest Michigan I had three particularly superb beers: Mitten Life is an American Lager, Old and Wise is an Einkorn Saison, and of course the Dunkelweizen is a classic Dunkelweizen. If you have not added this gem of a spot to your must-visit list, what are you waiting for?

Sweet Appalachia from Phase Three Brewing in Lake Zurich, IL

Sweet Appalachia is a Double Dry Hopped Hazy Double IPA brewed to support Western North Carolina after the devastation of Hurricane Helene, with a portion of proceeds going to BeLoved Asheville. This is a stellar brew, and the fact that it is for such a good cause just makes it even better. Also a shout out to Arabesque (2024) and Minutiae (2020) from Phase Three that I had tasters of at Salud’s Phase Three tap takeover—these were both fantastic!

Check back next month for my top beers of december! Cheers—Alexis

October 2023

October! Fall is here and it’s my favorite time of year to sit in the backyard and watch football with some delicious beers. October was a very busy month mostly in Charlotte but with mountain trips to Bryson City, NC and Boone, NC. I tried 134 different beers this past month and in no particular order, here were the best ones:

Magos del Subterráneo collaboration brew from Brujos Brewing in Portland, OR and Troon Brewing in Hopewell, NJ

This is a Hoppy Ale with raw Oregon honey and double dry hopped with Nelson CGX, Nelson, Motueka CGX, Motueka & Citra. This is the second time I have been lucky enough to have this brew and it is absolutely superb.

Cellar Creeper collaboration brew from Side Project Brewing in Maplewood, MO and Tired Hands Brewing in Ardmore, PA

Cellar Creeper is a Barrel Fermented Wild Ale aged with mangoes. Side Project always crushes the Wild Ale game and this was a delight. Mango is not usually my favorite fruit to be added to a beer but it worked really well here.

Shibui from Cellarest Beer Project in Asheville, NC

This slow pour of Shibui was both beautiful and tasty. It is made from a base of Chesapeake pilsner and chit malt and hopped with Styrian Celeia and then rested cold in oak puncheons. Crushable!

Bourbon Barrel Aged Ego Death with Vanilla from Resident Culture Brewing Company in Charlotte, NC

Ego Death is Resident Culture’s annual anniversary release and the vanilla version is always a winner. The 2023 vintage base is a blend of Imperial Stouts aged in Willett Bourbon, Willett Rye, Heaven Hill Wheated Bourbon, Weller Bourbon, and Buffalo Trace Bourbon barrels for 18-42 months, then conditioned on Toasted Hazelnuts, Cacao nibs and Comoros Vanilla Beans.

Behold The Affixation Of Magnificence To Very Unglorious Things from Burial Beer in Asheville, NC

This is a Triple IPA with wheat, barley, and candi sugar with Motueka, Amarillo, and Citra hops. It was one of Burial’s Burnpile festival releases and an absolute banger.

Axle from Monkish Brewing in Torrance, CA

Axle is a Triple Dry Hopped Quadruple IPA with Citra, Galaxy, and Motueka hops. Monkish can do no wrong, even with a bold move like a Quadruple IPA!

Beyond Forever from Private Press Brewing in Santa Cruz, CA

Beyond Forever Batch 2 showcases all rye barrels and an average aging time of 17 months and then the blend was conditioned on the signature Private Press vanilla blend of Ugandan, Tahitian, and Ecuadorian vanilla beans. This was a rich brew packed with flavor yet incredibly easy to drink.

Einfluss collaboration brew from Fox Farm Brewery in Salem, CT and Schilling Beer Co. in Littleton, NH

Einfluss is a “Landbier that draws inspiration from the lagers of Franconia but is made with 100% Connecticut and New Hampshire malt including a hearty dose of Triticale, a wheat/rye hybrid grain.” This is a very unique beer and extremely delicious—crushable and enjoyable.

ChecK Back next month for my top beers of November! Cheers —Alexis

January 2023

Some people do dry January. This year I did what I would refer to as an underwater January. There were a lot of beers consumed between my birthday, Mosaic’s Puppy Pawty, bottle shares and more. This was the first month that I did not take a trip since the depths of Covid, so there was less brewery hopping but more high quality beers consumed.

This was also my first ever month of using Untappd so I now have super accurate data around my top beers which is really nice. I checked in 131 beers in January (!) and you can follow me on Untappd here.

Here were my top beers in January, in no particular order:

Kyle’s Axe collaboration brew from Fidens Brewing in Colonie, NY and Horus Aged Ales in Oceanside, CA

Kyle’s Axe is an Imperial IPA with Citra, Nelson and Peacharine hops. It comes in at 8% and is absolutely superb. This is potentially the best IPA I have ever had in my life. I had this brew twice and loved it both times.

The Bones of the Things Around Us collaboration brew from Fidens Brewing in Colonie, NY and Troon Brewing in Hopewell, NJ + Triple Jasper + Triple Jasper with Nelson from Fidens Brewing

3 juice bombs from the fine folks at Fidens! The Bones of the Things Around Us is a Double IPA with with Citra, Mosaic, Simcoe and Amarillo hops. Triple Jasper is a Triple IPA with Citra hops. Triple Jasper with Nelson is a Triple IPA with Citra and Nelson Sauvin hops. These were all insanely delicious beers that I was lucky enough to try a couple of times and loved! Fidens has been absolutely crushing the game lately.

Beer: Barrel: Time (Rye 2022) from Side Project Brewing in Maplewood, MO

BBT Baby! I’ve had BBT once before but the rye version was new to me and exciting to get to try. This is one of the most hyped Stouts in the world so it is always a real treat to get to taste! From Side Project: “We finalized a blend which consisted of 2 different recipes, brewed 3 different times and then finished in 3 different barrels for 18 to 42 months. The younger portion represents threads which were brewed right around the 2020 release in plan to become part of this 2022 blend. The much older threads consist of the exact same brew/barrels from the 2020 release, barrels which we held back and allowed an extended aging. The result of this layering focuses this blend more in line with how we blend our BBT releases, with a showcase of our production over time, layering in age and youth in a way that can only come from time spent in a barrel. Derivation Blend #3 recipe aged in Willett 5 year Rye Barrels since 7/23/18; Vibes recipe aged in Willett 4 year Rye Barrels since 7/2/20; Vibes recipe aged in StilL630 Rye Barrels since 7/28/20.”

Double Dry Hopped Ghost, Holy Ghost and Infinite Ghost from Parish Brewing in Broussard, LA

Double Dry Hopped Ghost in the Machine is an Imperial IPA with Citra hops. Holy Ghost is a Triple IPA dry hopped with Nelson Sauvin, Galaxy and Citra Cryo. Infinite Ghost is an Imperial IPA with hand-selected Yakima Valley Citra hops and Citra Terpenes. The Anniversary Ghost releases are always superb! This year I had each can individually and then also did a blind side by side with my second can of each. My ranking blind was Infinite-Holy-DDH.

100 Triple Dry Hopped with Citra from Burley Oak Brewing in Berlin, MD

This is an all Citra Triple Dry Hopped Imperial IPA. The 100 series from Burley Oak focuses on a single hop at a time and this brew was fantastic. Citra is always a favorite but this was dangerously easy to drink.

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

The 12° is a Czech inspired Pale Lager from the fine folks at Lesser-Known. Their Lagers are fantastic and I highly recommend a visit if you have not checked them out yet. Check out my Winston-Salem beer guide here.

‘22 Three Year Blend from Fonta Flora Brewery in Morganton, NC

This is an Appalachian Gueuze-inspired three year blend of spontaneously fermented ales from the winters of 2018, 2019 and 2020. This is my favorite beer I have ever had from Fonta Flora. There are still some bottles floating around out there so be sure to snag one while you can!

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