I am a lucky man. I write about football and beer. I have the job of a lazily developed sitcom dad.
Today, on International Beer Day, I am taking the opportunity to reflect. A full year since my last IBD list has dropped 52 new Beverages of the Week into my portfolio. Some of these were hard liquors. Entirely too many were hard seltzers or canned cocktails. But this failed to keep me from my truest boozing love: beer.
The past 12 months have allowed me to expand my palate and my Untappd resume, bringing new breweries into the fold and allowing the chance to try fresh offerings from reliable standbys. Some of the beers I drank were for work. Others were because it was a college football Saturday or a pro wrestling pay-per-view Sunday. Almost all of them were good, and a select few were wonderful.
So here’s where I’m gonna look back at 365 days of drinking and pick my 10 favorites. In no particular order, these are the best beers I drank between 2022 and 2023.
Hubbleton Brewing's Huntsmans Breakfast
(I forgot to get a picture of this beer at the brewery. But I did get this picture of Hubbleton’s amazing brewery dog Murphy before he passed. Murphy was a big friendly oaf who stole your cornhole bags and arrived at your lap the moment you crinkled a food wrapper. He ruled.)
From August 2022:
This beer feels big. It pours dark with a little tan head, kinda like George Hamilton. That coffee comes through in the smell and right away upon the first taste. Roasted, dark coffee that ventures toward bitter before the chocolate shows up to balance things out and sweep it away. It’s a thick beer, so while the 8 percent ABV isn’t apparent it’s still very much a sipper.
Despite the chocolate presence and the gravity of the beer, it doesn’t venture into “syrup-y” like some many other complicated stouts (Wisconsin residents will recognize this from roughly half of Untitled Art’s way-too-involved beers). This isn’t light by any means, but there’s a creaminess to it that keeps it from getting stale.
I’m not usually a big stout drinker. But I love this beer. It’s versatile and complex and really well made.
The Shop Church Music Juicy IPA
Arizona proved to be filled with juicy, hazy IPAs that promised a lot of citrus thickness to balance out the sharp bitterness of typical hops. The Shop’s Church Music was the first stop and hooooo buddy, it did not disappoint.
It pours thick with a medium, creamy head. There’s a lot of orange involved here — like you’re pouring a pulpy glass of juice. There’s no actual pulp or anything like that in the beer of course, but that’s the gist. Lots of citrus floats off the top and it’s really juicy.
First sip bears this out. A little hops, a lot of orange and maybe some lemon, pineapple and peach in there? The bitterness hangs on toward the end, clinging to that raft of thick, almost chewy fruit. That creaminess persists even as the glass warms up, remaining tasty and drinkable throughout.
Firestone Walker Double DBA 2023 Edition
I haven’t formally reviewed this one on the site yet. Here’s my review:
You can tell this is a fancy beer for several reasons — the gold lettering on the font, the eight-word beer type and most of all the custom cardboard packaging for a single bottle like a bespoke hot sauce company run by a guy who’d be just hell to get stuck talking to at a party. It pours true to its barrel-aged roots, thick and with minimal carbonation. You can smell that extra boozy whiskey-influenced aging right off the top. It’s delightful.
The first sip is incredibly flavorful. The bitterness is muted against a backdrop of caramel and stone fruit and malt. It’s a 13.5 percent ABV beer and it drinks like something that clocks in around half that gravity. Nothing is overpowering; there’s a huge amount in each sip but it’s properly weighted as if to reduce drink fatigue. It’s … sumptuous, almost chewy in texture and flavor.
There’s a sweetness that runs to slight bitterness before ending dry. There’s a little alcohol burn involved, but it’s not enough to turn me away which is something considering this is effectively a small bottle of wine. All in all, the Double DBA is a great sipper and perfect special occasion beer.
Sweetwater Gone Trippin' West Coast style IPA
This pours beautifully, with about half an inch of long-lasting, lacy white bubbles atop a golden, honey-brown body. The smell off the top is piney hops with a little citrus. This promises all the bitterness of a California microbrew.
And it delivers, in an exceptionally smooth way. There’s no denying the hops here, but the citrus and creamy carbonation make this incredibly easy to drink. There’s a lot of flavor up front. Those Simcoe hops — I’m guessing, I’m not nearly good enough at this to pick out a hop type from a few sips — come on strong and floral but don’t overpower you
(Nope. Per SweetWater this is a mix of Cascade, Centennial, Crystal, Chinook and Citra hops. Not even close. But I bet I sounded smart for a few seconds!)
Then comes the citrus and a dry finish that snaps off each gulp.
The result is a refreshing pale ale that clocks in at seven percent ABV. That potency eventually shines through, making this a sipper, but one you’ll keep coming back to. The profile doesn’t change as it warms up, making it a solid choice through the whole can. It’s not an every day beer for me — it’s a heavier IPA after all — but it’s a pretty great occasion beer.
Firestone Walker 805 Cerveza
It pours a pale yellow with a small, quickly dissipating white head. This beer is effervescent; the bubbles don’t emanate from a single nucleus at the bottom of the glass but from multiple spots. Maybe that’s because I’m using a mug from 1979, but this thing is picturesque. Lots of tiny bubbles floating upward like reverse snowfall.
It smells like a pale light beer — that corn shines through. There’s maybe a little lime involved but it doesn’t suss through after the pour.
The first sip reveals a very smooth, drinkable beer. It’s not as malty as a traditional lager and the light touch of lime keeps that corn from overpowering things. The balance is notable; the result is an eminently drinkable beer. There’s some citrus, some malt, but mostly it’s an easy beer you can drink three or four of without giving it a second thought (4.5 percent ABV).
This tastes great even as it warms up, making it both crushable and a worthy sipper. The lime is prevalent but not overwhelming or markedly artificial flavor-y. The malt of the lager shows up but never takes over. Mexican lagers aren’t always my thing but this is an easy win. There’s a ton of great flavors involved in a very pleasant surprise.
Or maybe it’s not a huge surprise since it’s Firestone Walker. Either way; this beer is wonderful.
Henhouse The Greatest Generator Barrel-Aged Doppelbock
OK, I love everything about this from the label-out. It looks great, sure, but I also love doppelbocks and barrel-aged beers. So this is absolutely a bottle I’d pick out before even trying or looking up reviews. We’re off to a hot start.
It pours copper and rich with the limited head you’d expect from something that’s spent the last 13 months aging in a (Templeton) rye barrel. That takes over the scent, giving off whiskey vibes with a malty undercurrent. It clocks in at 8.5 percent ABV and you can tell off the top that it’s gonna be a boozy ride.
You definitely understand it’s a strong beer from the first sip, but it’s more complex than that. The rye stands out but doesn’t burn. Instead it melds with the bready goodness of the bock and creates a dense, flavorful brew. There’s a lot going on, but unlike other beers where it comes in layers this piles it all on up front and lets you sort through it.
It’s malty, sweet and rye braided through each other in a beer that tastes thicker than it pours. It gets better as it warms a little in the glass, opening up to softer flavors. It’s like drinking a painting; a swirl of colors and styles inside a single canvas. It’s definitely a sipper, but it’s a great special occasion beer I’m at least a little bummed I don’t have access to out here in Wisconsin.
Parlor Butterscotch Root Beer
This variant pours with more carbonation, leaving a half-inch head that quickly dissipates as bubbles emerge in steady streams from nucleation points further down the glass. The butterscotch is apparent right off the top; it’s hard candies at first, with the root beer flavor floating in somewhere in the back.
It tastes … oh man, it tastes awesome. The extra carbonation is a welcome addition and the butterscotch, as overpowering as it might have seemed from the smell, plays into the creaminess of the original root beer to make a rich drink that, again, takes advantage of that full sugar base. It still smells a little funky when you bring it up to your lips, but that funk works in its favor once it’s on your tongue.
Drinking from the bottle mutes some of that strong scotch-y smell but doesn’t mess with the equilibrium of “grandpa’s candy” and the original beer covered above. I’ve never had a soda like this — I’d never *heard* of a soda like this — and I’m happy to announce it rules.
Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse Dunkel
A bit of a cheat, since I’d had it before 2022, but I featured it in last year’s International Beer Day rundown and it’s good enough to merit a second mention. From August 2022:
A blend of two of the styles the Germans do best; a wheaty hefeweizen crossed with a malty dunkel. This dark lager is damn near perfect; roasty and smooth and a little bit sweet. It’s easy to drink and tough to get sick of, which is all I ask of a beer. Otherwise, you can’t go wrong with any brand that has its own tent at Munich’s Oktoberfest — Lowenbrau, Spaten, Paulaner, Augustiner, Hacker-Pschorr, or Hofbrau.
Tyranena's Paradise By The Dashboard Light Doubly Blessed Cherry Porter
Firestone Walker Oaktoberfest
This beer pours gorgeous; a hazel brown with a fluffy, but not excessive, white head. It smells malty and whatever oak barrel influences are inside don’t show up outside the glass. This is a straight-up inviting beer; like a warm fireplace on a winter night.
The first taste is, well, just about perfect by my estimation. The malt of the marzen is up front and lasts through the entire sip. The oak aging rolls in toward the end to lighten the load and finish things off with a dry, complex finish. It’s not especially sweet but not as hoppy as other American Oktoberfests either — drinking this after a Sam Adams Oktoberfest, for example, is a wild ride. This is bready and smooth and crisp and hot damn I want to go back in for more.
I’ve only had an oak-barreled Oktoberfest once before — Surly’s offering from Minneapolis. I liked it just fine, but it wasn’t enough to usurp any of the Munich tent staples in my September lineup. Maybe that set a low bar for this and I’m blown away by what’s just an above average beer. But man, I really, really like this beer.
Every sip is toasty caramel without feeling overly sweet or bitter. It’s perfectly drinkable, which is exactly what you want for a beer served in liters rather than pints. I could get through a proper German boot of this for an 11am Vanderbilt kickoff. Once I find this at Woodman’s, I just may.
Damn near perfect. Great beer.
