2022 Beers of the Year

Very few of these are "new," but rather they're new to me. And of course there's a few old favorites:

Zero Gravity Green State--we were in VT for a week and this was pretty much all I drank.
Blackrocks Starman Pale Ale--so simple, crisp, refreshing. What I want beer to taste like.
Schell's Oktoberfest--had this super fresh and was floored. Maybe my favorite Oktoberfest beer ever.
Bell's BA Expedition and BA Expedition with Chocolate--the addition of chocolate added to what is already a great execution of the style.
Bell's Larry's Last Oatmeal Stout--glad I bought a case of this. At 10%, it's going to be fun drinking this over the next few years. Big beer that's somehow not heavy.
Founders BA Black Biscuit--totally unique. Thankful I got to try this on tap.
 
steimie said:
Very few of these are "new," but rather they're new to me. And of course there's a few old favorites:

Zero Gravity Green State--we were in VT for a week and this was pretty much all I drank.
Blackrocks Starman Pale Ale--so simple, crisp, refreshing. What I want beer to taste like.
Schell's Oktoberfest--had this super fresh and was floored. Maybe my favorite Oktoberfest beer ever.
Bell's BA Expedition and BA Expedition with Chocolate--the addition of chocolate added to what is already a great execution of the style.
Bell's Larry's Last Oatmeal Stout--glad I bought a case of this. At 10%, it's going to be fun drinking this over the next few years. Big beer that's somehow not heavy.
Founders BA Black Biscuit--totally unique. Thankful I got to try this on tap.
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I didn't need to put another Bell's beer on my list, but Larry's Last would have been it.
 
Hill Farmstead Double Nelson… not new but hadn’t had it forever and never disappoints

Local drops of Heady and Focal every 6 months comes to mind… I just never get sick of Heady Topper

As others have said… Celebration is great this year as usual

Rothaus pils sitting on the shelf at the local grocery was a good find

I gotta find some of that Willetized this year!
 
Matterhorn said:
I don't think there was one of these last year but I enjoyed the 2020 Thread. I don't do much social media and don't follow much of anything in the beer world besides this forum so I like to see what else is out there. I'm not even sure if I ticked five new beers this year so just write down whatever you feel like.

New to you.
New this year.
Ticked it a millions times and it's still the best.

It's your list, do it however you like.
  1. Fox Farm Pebble. Little table beer that I could drink with every meal. In cans this year which was a game changer.
  2. Tree House Quaint. The haze factory continues to put out some nice lagers, including this Kellerbier.
  3. Zero Gravity Oktoberfest. Solid and reasonably priced. Probably my most ticked of the year.
  4. Brewery at Four Star Farms. Little local place in Western Massachusetts. Lots of breweries in the area are using their hops but they brew some pretty decent things of their own. I think this was our first post-pandemic brewery visit and it was just a perfect night to sit outside alongside their hop rows and drink some beers. No clue what we drank but just being back out in the world was nice.
  5. Celebration. Still delivers.
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Awesome idea. I need something to get me back in the beer game, and having a somewhat working knowledge of whats out now.

This list is more of a statement as to how clueless I am abt whats new out there, or how much I dont like anything new I've had:

1) Oxbow - Surfcasting, and any of their other farmhouse ales ive had. Probably my fave new discovery.

2) Chouffe - whatever the ipa is. Im not even sure how much i liked the beer, so much as I loved finally drinking the beer with the gnome dudes on the label.

3) Schilling - Alexandr and Palmovka

4) Heady Topper - this has been forgotten long enough that we can once again mention it, right? Its now much more available in the NYC area, so Ive been drinking more of it than in the past. Ive been hating just about every IPA thats come out in the last 5 or so years, so its nice to have one i actually remember loving.

Kasher said:
I've had probably 12 different beers this year.

Willettized.
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Really wish I could find some of this, havent had it in years...bc i havent seen it in years, but remember really loving it
 
shadowane said:
I had a really good barrel aged barleywine from New Image and enjoyed all the beers I've gotten from Cerebral including a different barrel aged barleywine from them that was also really good.
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Shit. New Image had another BA BW for sale yesterday that I was considering and it’s now sold out. I was being cheap/procrastinating about adding another $30 bottle to an already expensive box of beer headed my way. 😭
 
My best beer of the year is bourbon - I credit Barrell Seagrass for sparking this interest.

In all seriousness, the beer I couldn't help throwing in the basket when I was there to buy something else, was Half Acre's Vim - BA Baltic porter.
I was happy to find a couple of 4-packs of BA Expo.
Other favorites from early last year (and I'm hoping come back soon) was the series of dark lagers that were out in January - Dovetail, P3, Goldfinger
I enjoyed the 2-year wheatwine releases from GI barrel house - specifically, the first one (regular) and apple brandy
One thing I was sad about was the departure of Keeping Together from Chicago.
 
Some of these may bleed into 2021 but whatever.

New Breweries: Away Days and Nebelous. Away Days is making some amazing traditional English style beers. Nebelous is more a blender than a brewer but they are making the best saisons in the area now. I'm very glad to be friends with the owners and getting to try some amazing beers from them. Honorable mentions to pFriem Estate Kriek and Botanical Saison I.

Best Beers: Shit, I don't know. I've been drinking a lot more Wanderjack from Breakside. It's not new but it is damn good. Beyond that, Did Wayfinder make it? I'm probably going to drink a lot of it. Time Spiral Dunkel and Cafe Crow Show Porter come to mind.

I'm so spoiled as far as beer goes. #blessed
 
Freak Folk- Signet
Nebuleus- Melon de bourgogne
Floodland- Captive Spirits
Reubans- Double Barrel
Mirage- Street Map of the Fucking Universe

I’m sure there’s plenty of others. But, those are some strong stand outs that come to mind. There’s a private press bottle too that I’d add but forgot the name.
 
uhh Goldfinger Chela Chido is my one and only most days, but one of those Rev draught only barrel treatments... was it extra vanilla? extra coconut? A bad sign if I don't even remember what the fuck beer it even was, but it was good as hell. I want to say it was the extra coconut deth. I know, gross if you don't like it, but like, so many pastry stouts are so fucking over the top. And so many coconut beers are weird. This one was perfect just as it was. And the 4 oz I had of it was a perfect amount. I really am spoiled over here.

Do I even have any opinions on mead I had this year? Tap the brakes on the weird shit. Everyone.

Oh Second City - Second Friday was probably my favorite new mead of the year. Honeyberry and Black Raspberry was coming straight for me anyway, though.

Still got a few treats to enjoy before the year is out though.
 
I typically am pretty quick to fire off a list of stuff that really perked my tits in the last year of beer drinking but this year I really cranked the dial down and didnt drink a whole lot of new stuff.

When I drank it was a 4-pack here and there of NewTrail fresh hops or a vintage pull from the cellar.

But amongst everything ive had in recent memory Voodoo Girat - a van winkle barrel aged impy stout definitely got me in all the right places. Its probably the thickest beer (shy of a deal with the devil) ive ever drank that doesnt have stupid adjunct shit added to it. It caught me off guard with how good it was before I even knew it had the van winkle barrel treatment.
 
Dieu du Ciel Péché Mortel Tamajulco- One of the best straight up coffee stouts I've had in some time. I was always more of an Aphrodite person but being able to have Péché Day beers on tap made me think the vanilla just held up better than the coffee did when I had the two in bottles.

Revolution Café Deth- I've never been as crazy about this as the rest of Revolution's great barrel program (or compared to classic BCBCS) but that changed this year. The base stout, coffee, and barrel were in close to ideal harmony for me this year.

Alesmith Jeanna's Brew Ha Ha- Best barleywine I've had this year. I have no idea how or why random Ohio bars get Order of the Anvil kegs but I fully support it.

Branch and Bone BA Vanilla and Hazelnut Feral Dawn- I'd love to give my favorite somewhat local brewery a spot for something besides a pastry-ish stout, and they've done loads of "regular" good stuff this year, but this was my favorite from them. This was a complete hazelnut bomb and it stands out from other breweries using nuts as an addition in stouts.

Fat Head's Hop Stalker- This obviously varies year to year but this may have been my favorite ever. It had all the best Simcoe notes.

HM to Celebration, as I think I surpassed my personal best case count on it this year and there are still lots of six-packs around in stores.
 
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