Beers of the Year (So Far)
A list without beer names, a pils in a basement, and an underrated brewery
After reading Jeff Alworth’s list of beer drinking experiences I linked to last week, I remembered that I had bounced around the idea of doing a tournament bracket of beers — not of the actual beers themselves, but of the experiences of drinking them. Like, “beer on a hot day after mowing the lawn” could face off against “beer while seated in a beach chair,” while “first beer after participating in Dry January” would meet “overpriced but satisfying beer at the airport bar.” I struggled to build an entire bracket, so I shelved this idea, but without telling you the beers I was drinking, I’m going to list out my top ten beers I’ve had so far this year:
10. First beer of the new year, in a can pulled from a friend’s hotel room sink-turned-makeshift cooler at 2 a.m.
9. First beer after an earthquake struck that rattled you to the core and led you to say, “I need a beer”
8. Beer shared with a complete stranger with a loose grasp of English but a firm grasp on beer appreciation
7. Beer shared with old friends on the opposite side of the world, inspired by a beer on this side of the world
6. Beer poured by an old friend from his brewery at a beer festival
5. Beer served with a plate of delicious tacos at a taqueria whose only seating is outside
4. Beer on a brewery patio overlooking rolling green hills on a perfect sunny day
3. Favorite beer from my favorite brewery in a foreign country, served in their taproom
2. Beer with an ingredient that questions everything you know about both that ingredient and beer itself
1. Fresh beer from a cask pulled by the brewer at a centuries-old brewery
Brewery Tracker
Total brewery count: 3,447
Total breweries visited in 2024: 163
Total breweries visited in Washington State: 163
Brewery Visit of the Week
Brewery #2271, Whistle Punk Brewing Co., Spokane, Washington (Visited 8-Jul-2021)
When I walked into Whistle Punk’s basement taproom this week three years ago, I thought I had walked into some sort of beer heaven. Five lagers on draft! A motherfucking Cream Ale! A Pub Mild on cask! A Czech-style Pils served from a Lukr tap and into a dimpled mug! Somebody pinch me!
Yes, they had a very competent West Coast IPA and Double Dry-Hopped NEIPA, too. But I was here for the lagers and the cask ale. And wow, they truly excel at this stuff. The Helles Lager was bready and floral, the German Pilsner had honey and earthy notes, the Pub Mild gave me visions of a quiet, carpeted pub where you can hear every pump of the cask. I long for more breweries like this that can expose beer drinkers to styles that many breweries don’t have the skill or patience to make. Whistle Punk doesn’t take any shortcuts on those lagers, and it shows.
More than two years later, I’d be at a taproom just outside of Vancouver, British Columbia, and I’d be reminded again of Whistle Punk when I stumbled upon a collaboration Rauchbier they made with Another Beer Co. There’s a familial connection between the two breweries, and you can see similarities between them in their approach to beer. When I said in 2021 that the world needed more breweries like Whistle Punk, the world answered with ABC, and I was happy.
The Doom and Gloom Tracker
At least 1 brewery I’ve visited closed or announced their closure this week:
Brewery #731, Big Rock Brewery - Vancouver, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (Visited 21-Jan-2017)
The Weekly Reader
Tech is coming to make your beer [Evan Rail, VinePair]
The July 4th holiday numbers for craft beer make its future look bleak [Keith Gribbins, Craft Brewing Business]
A profile of another charming pub I must visit [Katie Mather, Pellicle]
Good Beer Hunting is calling it quits [Michael Kiser, Good Beer Hunting]
One Last Thing
I sounded off on a piece about underrated East Coast breweries last week in Vinepair, shouting out one of my favorite breweries from last year, but it’s really nice to see that even folks from outside of New York are raving about New York breweries. It’s a refreshing change from 7 or 8 years ago, when nobody would put our state on the beer map despite having hundreds of breweries. Not all of them deserve everyone’s attention, but the ones that do have truly helped improve our state’s beer reputation.
Cheers,
Chris