My Top Beers in 2020

2020 was one hell of a year filled with an abundance of beers at home. I don’t know about you, but I am hoping for more beers on tap and less crowlers in 2021!

In no particular order, here are the best beers I had in 2020:

I Learned It By Watching You collaboration brew from Burial Beer Co. in Asheville, North Carolina and Other Half Brewing in New York City. Double IPA with Citra, Riwaka, Motueka, and Citra Cryo hops.

Blueberry Cobbler from WeldWerks Brewing in Greeley, Colorado. Berliner Sour Wheat Ale with vanilla, milk sugar, graham cracker, and blueberry purée.

Sleeping On The Blacktop collaboration brew from Resident Culture Brewing in Charlotte, North Carolina and Other Half Brewing in New York City. Triple IPA with Citra, Simcoe and HBC 692 hops.

LAX 2 JFK in the Clouds collaboration brew from Other Half Brewing in New York City and Monkish Brewing in Torrance, California. Triple Imperial Oat Cream IPA with Simcoe, Motueka and Citra hops along with oats and milk sugar.

Balloonhead from Newgrass Brewing in Shelby, North Carolina. Berliner Weisse brewed with black currant, boysenberry, and raspberry.

Flora Pear from Hill Farmstead Brewery in Greensboro Bend, Vermont. Farmhouse Ale that is the wine barrel-aged version of Florence, a Farmstead Wheat Ale, aged atop organic pears.

Portal Beyond Nonexistence from Burial Beer Co. in Asheville, North Carolina. Imperial Stout aged on French Broad Chocolate cocoa nibs, Tahitian vanilla beans, Vietnamese cinnamon, and Maplewood Smoked Sea Salt.

Alpha Abstraction Vol. 11 from Wild Leap Brewing in LaGrange, Georgia. Double Dry Hopped Double IPA with Experimental Hop HBC 472.

Twice The Daily Serving from Trillium Brewing in Boston, Massachusetts. Berliner Weisse with blackberry and pomegranate.

Perception is Spoonfed collaboration brew from Divine Barrel Brewing in Charlotte, North Carolina and Vitamin Sea Brewing in Weymouth, Massachusetts. Dessert-style Berliner Weisse with key lime, coconut, lactose, vanilla, marshmallow, and graham cracker.

Double Dry Hopped Ghost in the Machine from Parish Brewing in Broussard, Louisiana. Double IPA with Citra hops.

Poppin’ Pastels from Transient Artisan Ales in Bridgman, Michigan. Fruited Sour Ale with blackberry, raspberry, lemon, vanilla, and lactose.

Scoring Discrepancies collaboration brew from Listermann Brewing in Cincinnati, Ohio and Bottle Logic Brewing in Anaheim, California. Imperial Pastry Stout with raspberries, peanut butter, and marshmallows.

Eclectic Potion Triple IPA from Cerebral Brewing in Denver, Colorado. TIPA with Citra, Idaho 7, and Nelson hops with added Gewürztraminer grape juice.

Quadrupole Mother of Berries Joose from The Answer in Richmond, Virginia. Fruited Sour with Boysenberries, Loganberries, Blackberries, and Raspberries.

Insert Hip Hop Reference There collaboration brew from Trillium Brewing in Boston, Massachusetts and Monkish Brewing in Torrance, California. Triple IPA with Citra hops.

What were your favorite beers of 2020? Let me know in the comments!

My Top 5 Beers in November 2020

I’ve found that posting my beers on Instagram doesn’t give me the ability to be reflective and really dig into which are truly exceptional, so welcome to my first roundup of favorites! Each month I will do a blog post on which beers were above and beyond the best. Most of the time I will pick 5, sometimes it might be less, sometimes more.

In no particular order, here were my favorite beers I drank in November 2020:

From Downtown by J. Wakefield Brewing in Miami, FL.

This is a Double Dry Hopped Double New England Style IPA with Motueka, Nelson Sauvin, Pacific Sunrise and Riwaka hops. We were lucky enough to get a four pack of this banger and thoroughly enjoyed each one! I visited J. Wakefield a couple of years ago and loved i! As I’ve tried more of their brews over time I continue to be more and more impressed.

Switchblade No. 21 at Workshop Brewing in Traverse City, MI.

This Hazy Double IPA is made with Kveik yeast and is dry hopped with experimental hop variety HBC-472. This was a truly delightful brew, the Kveik yeast made it not your typical Hazy IPA. I highly recommend a visit to Workshop if you are in Northern Michigan! Check out my Traverse City guide here!

Blueberry Cobbler Berliner from WeldWerks Brewing Co. at Forestry Camp in Asheville, NC.

This is a Sour Wheat Ale brewed with vanilla, milk sugar, graham cracker and nearly 1500lbs of blueberry puree. WeldWerks is based in Greely, Colorado and is most known for their IPAs, but this Sour was truly impeccable! Forestry Camp is from the team at Burial Beer Co. and is one of my favorite places ever, truly.

The Only Trail From Nowhere at Burial Beer Co. in Asheville, NC.

This Imperial Stout is made with pecan, peanut, cashew, hazelnut, banana, and coconut. Burial does no wrong, and this Stout is no exception. I had 8 different Burial beers this month so it was hard to choose a favorite but this one was just packed with flavor! I always love getting to visit Burial, check out my full guide to Asheville here!

Anna by Hill Farmstead Brewery in Greensboro Bend, VT.

This is a Farmhouse Ale brewed with Vermont wildflower honey. This was my third time having a bottle of Anna and every time I do I love it a little more! Hill Farmstead always puts out incredible Farmhouse Ales and Saisons, this one is a little extra special with the honey addition.

Tune in next month to see what my favorites of December 2020 will be!

Project Watt-Ahh-Melon from Hardywood Park Brewery and Sheetz

A gas station beer you say? That’s right! Sheetz is releasing a brand new limited edition craft beer!

Project Watt-Ahh-Melon is a Watermelon Wheat Ale brewed in partnership with Hardywood Park Craft Brewery in Richmond, Virginia. This beer is only available for a limited time in Sheetz stores across Virginia and North Carolina. Check out the link here to find a store near you! 4-packs of 16oz beers are just $7.99!

Project Watt-Ahh-Melon is brewed with over 100 pounds of Sheetz watermelon gummy rings and comes in at 5.3% ABV. It is the perfect end of of summer beer! The watermelon rings were added during the whirlpool to ensure they melted and smoothly combined with the other ingredients. Project Watt-Ahh-Melon is light and refreshing but still packs a tart punch.

Hardywood Park Craft Brewing based in Richmond, Virginia. Hardywood opened in 2011 and now have two locations in downtown Richmond and West Creek. Hardywood’s motto is “brew with purpose” which they embody by using local ingredients and operating on 100% renewable energy.

Sheetz first beer release was named Project Coffee Hopz, a limited edition coffee bean IPA. They partnered with Rusty Rail Brewing in Mifflinburg, Pennsylvania. This one released in May 2019 and was available in Sheetz stores across Pennsylvania.

Their second beer release was Project Brewberry Muffinz, a limited edition Blonde Ale with Sheetz blueberry muffins. This collaboration was brewed with Evil Genius Beer Company based in Philadelphia and it was released in August 2019.

Sheetz released Project Hop Dog in May 2020, a collaboration with Nashaminy Creek Brewing Co. out of Pennsylvania. Project Hop Dog was a Dry Hopped IPA brewed with Sheetz hot dogs. What a wild idea!

What ingredient should Sheetz add to their next special release beer?! Let us know in the comments!