When it comes to beer, there are a ton of choices out there, with more being added everyday. Each month, we round up some of our fave new finds. Some of the brews we did full reviews on, while others are just special gems we found on tap while we were out and about that we think you should know about.
Check out our favorite beers from June here.
By no means a comprehensive list of everything new that came out in May (we can only drink so much!), here are some of our favorites that we’d recommend you grabbing a pint of while you’re out with friends, or picking up a few bottles of at your local bottle shop.
Discover something new this month that you absolutely love? Be sure to tell us about it in the comments!
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Black Project Peacemaker took home top honors this month in out side-by-side tasting of 143 of the best sour and wild ales. One of Denver’s most hyped up-and-coming young breweries, Black Project specializes in these heady and spontaneously fermented wild ales, and delivered a beer in Peacemaker that was unique from pretty much anything else in the entire tasting. It’s a sophisticated, complex beer that uses both complementary and contrasting notes to build layers of flavor.
Graham says Bicoastal is hazy, but doesn’t look like the cup of pulpy orange juice that some breweries are churning out in New England. It smells like a mix of pineapple and orange juice, and has the soft, creamy mouthfeel associated with NE-style IPAs. It’s a little thinner than I’d like, but the creaminess is there. It’s juicy too, but not overly sweet, brought back to the center by a significantly hoppy, bitter edge and a dry finish.
Modern Times Fruitlands (Passionfruit & Guava)
The passion fruit and guava gives it a tropical flavor that pairs nicely with the base beer, making the brew taste something more akin to a nice fruity punch than a beer, although certainly not as sweet. Passionfruit is definitely the star with this one, but you get a little bit of guava as well, especially on the nose.
Sweetwater and Telluride Brewing Torikumi
Sweetwater partnered with Telluride Brewing Company for this side project beer, which falls into the decidedly weird Dank Tank series. And Torikumi is definitely weird. It pours slightly orange and pretty hazy—call it the color of Trump’s skin after a day on the golf course—and smells fruity as hell.
It’s sour, but not lip-puckeringly so. The finish is nice and clean, and while if you’re like me you’ll be waiting for that next sip, it was easy enough for me to make the switch from this to a few other sours without feeling like I was overdoing it. It’s light, refreshing, and a truly wonderful sour that’s definitely worth your attention.
Deschutes Cultivateur Provisional Saison
Complex and refreshing, with rustic notes typical to the style, but with woodiness from the barrel and a sourness that doesn’t overwhelm. The orangey cloud of liquid in the glass testifies that it’s unfiltered, with apricot and grass on the nose, as well as a hint of hay. The mouthfeel is a bit thicker than expected, with a sparkling effervescence grounded by the oakiness from the barrel. The first sip delivers the expected tartness, but also a bit of spice and overripe fruit that lingers with a farmhouse funk. A lot going on, for sure. But in a measured and well-executed manner—rather than letting the ingredients scream, they all sing in measured, mellow harmony.
I didn’t get as much peach from it as I would have liked, but the fruit was faintly there and would pop up unexpectedly while I sipped. It definitely falls more into the generic sour bucket than it does a “peach beer,” but you do get a little bit of the fruit, and a bit of salt, with each sip.
This month we took a look at a few underrated classic beers. If you’re a seasoned Trappist ale drinker, you tend to have a fairly good idea of what you’re going to get when you order a quadrupel: a ruddy dark brown ale, lightly tanned head, an aroma and flavor of figs, dates, maybe a hint of chocolate if the malt bill is particularly rich and complex. This is a welcome constant along the same lines as death, taxes, and hatred of Roman Reigns.
Okay, so, you’ve had Chimay Blue, Rochefort 10, St. Bernardus Abt 12, Achel Extra, even Westvleteren 12. There’s no way you’re going to suffer any more poor American facsimiles of the quadrupel style, but you feel unfulfilled, incomplete. You need the harder stuff. Enter De Dolle, another pick from our underrated list this month.
The Veil Fried Fried Chicken Chicken
Fried chicken in beer? It’s an idea so crazy it just might work. The Veil Brewing announced this month that it’s putting out a new brew called Fried Fried Chicken Chicken, a DIPA with chicken tenders in the mash.