My Top Beers in April 2022

April was a crazy month of travel and beers—so crazy in fact that I didn’t write a March top beers round up because I was on the road at the end of March and first couple of weeks of April, sorry friends! This past month I visited Wilmington NC, Charleston SC, Savannah GA, Miami FL and Seabrook Island SC. I also attended two beer festivals in April—Cape Fear Craft & Cuisine in Wilmington and Wakefest from J. Wakefield Brewing in Miami. That all adds up to a lot of beers, so the ones that made the cut here are truly the best of the best!

In no particular order, here were my top beers in April 2022:

MawMaw’s Humbleberry Pie collaboration brew from Two Tides Brewing in Savannah, GA and Inner Voice Brewing in Decatur, GA

MawMaw’s Humbleberry Pie is a Fruited Sour with raspberry, blueberry, strawberry, vanilla, cinnamon and graham cracker. It is packed with flavor and extremely easy to drink, but still comes in at 7% ABV.

Apple Brandy Barrel Aged Stepping on Toes collaboration brew from Westbrook Brewing in Charleston, SC, The Eighth State Brewing Company in Greenville, SC, Evil Twin Brewing in New York, NY and Edmund’s Oast Brewing in Charleston, SC

This is an Imperial Stout aged in Laird’s applejack apple brandy barrels for over two years then infused with toasted coconut, banana, macadamia nuts and vanilla beans. This beer is basically everything I love infused into one brew—apple brandy barrel aged, coconut, banana, and vanilla! This was an exceptional brew. I had the original Stepping on Toes last year and this one completely blows the other out of the water. Highly recommend if you can get your hands on it!

Simple Thoughts from Tripping Animals Brewing in Doral, FL

Simple Thoughts is an Imperial Stout aged for 15 months in bourbon maple barrels and conditioned with wild Thai banana, coconut, cacao nibs, peanut butter and Madagascar vanilla beans. Peanut butter Stouts can be a miss for me, but I was thoroughly impressed with this brew at Tripping Animals. Everything I had there was fantastic!

Around The Sun 2 from Edge City Brewery in Charlotte, NC

Around The Sun 2 is a Sour IPA hopped with Citra and conditioned on mangos, tangerines, kiwis and Cloister honey. Edge City released this beer for their 2nd Anniversary in April, and the first version of Around The Sun was released last year for their 1st Anniversary. This beer is the perfect balance of tartness, fruitiness, and smoothness. I had this beer 3 times in 24 hours, so I can definitely say I fully endorse it.

Citra Cutting Tiles from Trillium Brewing in Boston, MA

Cutting Tiles is Trillium’s single hop Double IPA series with raw wildflower honey. This Citra version of Cutting Tiles was fantastic! Anything Citra is usually going to go over well, but the addition of the honey sweetened things up a bit and smoothed out the beer. Another win from the folks at Trillium!

Napping Under the Echo Tree from Lua Brewing in Des Moines, IA

Napping Under the Echo Tree is a Fruited Sour with dragon fruit, passionfruit, mango and guava. This was my first time trying anything from Lua and I absolutely loved it! I will definitely be hunting for them on my Midwest road trip this summer!

The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism Chapters 1, 2 & 3 from Root and Branch Brewing in Copiague, NY

I did a side by side of all three chapters of The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism and thoroughly enjoyed each one! Chapter 1: Ignorance is Strength is a Double IPA, Chapter 2: Freedom Is Slavery is a Triple IPA and Chapter 3: War Is Peace is a Double IPA. Each Chapter was pretty similar, but overall Chapter II was my favorite!

CHECK BACK NEXT MONTH TO SEE MY TOP BEERS OF MAY 2022!
CHEERS—ALEXIS

My Top Beers in January 2022

January brought a plethora of fantastic beers—from bottle shares, to a Charleston trip, to a Southern California trip visiting some of the top breweries in the country, there was no shortage of delicious brews. In no particular order, here are the best beers I had in January 2022:

Everything at Monkish Brewing in Torrance and Anaheim, CA

Is this cheating? Yes. Too bad. Everything Monkish brews is incredibly delicious and I was so thrilled to have the opportunity to visit both of their taprooms on my SoCal trip! I had the following beers and I would recommend them all:

• Conscience Be Free: Double Dry Hopped Double IPA with Galaxy, Nelson Sauvin, and Simcoe

• Foggier Window: Double Dry Hopped Double IPA with Citra, Nelson Sauvin, and Galaxy

• Sticky Traffic: Double Dry Hopped Double IPA with Nelson Sauvin, Citra, Mosaic, and Galaxy

• Biggie Biggie Biggie: Triple IPA with Galaxy and El Dorado

• One Tree: Triple IPA with Strata and Idaho 7

• M 9.5: Saison aged in oak barrels for 18 months and conditioned on spent Blenheim apricots

Nelson!!! (It’s What We Like Here!) at Green Cheek Beer Co. in Costa Mesa, CA

Nelson!!! (It’s What We Like Here!) is a West Coast IPA with hand selected—you guessed it—Nelson Sauvin hops from Freestyle Farm in New Zealand. I generally always choose a Hazy IPA over a West Coast IPA but I decided to branch out while on the West Coast because that’s where they are done best. This was easily the best West Coast IPA I’ve ever had. Shout out to Green Cheek for truly crushing the game.

Luxurious Luxury Volume 10 Collab from The Veil Brewing in Richmond, VA and Evil Twin BRewing in New York, NY

Luxurious Luxury Volume 10 is a Pastry Sour with blackberry, pear, marshmallow and vanilla salt. This latest installment in The Veil and Evil Twin’s collaboration series was absolutely epic. The flavors were exploding and I thoroughly enjoyed every sip.

Double Lightning at Resident Culture Brewing Company in Charlotte, NC

Double Lightning is a Hazy Double IPA with Citra, Mosaic and Galaxy hops. This is the double version of their Flagship Beer, Lightning Drops. I was incredibly impressed with the quality of Double Lightning and look forward to hopefully seeing more of it released.

Study Break, Intrepid Orchid (2022), and Memory Systems at Bottle Logic Brewing in Anaheim, CA

Bottle Logic crushes the Stout game so I of course ordered each one they had on the menu when I visited and they were all delicious!

• Study Break: Imperial Stout with lactose, caramel malts, cacao nibs and peanuts

• Intrepid Orchid 2022: Bourbon Barrel-Aged English Style Vanilla Barleywine with Madagascar vanilla

• Memory Systems 2022: Bourbon Barrel Aged Cinnamon Bun Stout—Imperial Stout aged in a braid of Old Fitzgerald, Heaven Hill, and Elijah Craig barrels and conditioned with a four-day marshmallow steep and a recirculation through Madagascar vanilla beans, Vietnamese cinnamon, and cassia bark

Tomorrow Today from Sante Adairius Rustic Ales in Capitola, CA and La Ruche from Side Project Brewing in St. Louis, MO

Tomorrow Today is a West Coast IPA with Simcoe, Citra, and Mosaic hops. Sante Adairius has long been on my list of breweries I’d love to try so I was absolutely stoked to get to taste some of the draft beer while in SoCal.

La Ruche is a Saison fermented using a blend of local microflora and a traditional Saison yeast. Orange Blossom honey was added for refermentation in a Missouri Oak Foedre and then it was aged to maturity before being naturally conditioned in the bottle. Side Project is always a top-notch brewery and this beer was exceptional.

I enjoyed both of these at Windsor Homebrew Supply in Anaheim. They have a killer tap list and bottle/can selection alongside their homebrew supplies.

Eternal Forever at Pure Brewing in San Diego, CA

Eternal Forever is a blend of Single and Double Bourbon Barrel-Aged Stouts with Cacao & Wild Thai Banana. Pure released this in celebration of their 6th Anniversary and I luckily was in town for the release. I actually had this beer twice while I was in San Diego, at Pure Balboa Park and at Pure Carlsbad, because it was just so good. The banana flavor was epic.

Fros’e Sour Blackberry Puff at Kings Brewing Company in Rancho Cucamonga, CA

Pictured left, this is a Fros'e with blackberry, blueberry, cherry, grape, double vanilla & double marshmallow. Kings is best known for their thiccc Fruited Sours and this brew was the best of the three I had on tap. The fruit combination was fantastic!

Rosé de Gambrinus from Cantillon in Brussels, Belgium

This is a blend of Lambics and raspberries from the famed Cantillon in Belgium. Every brew they create is great and this was a light, fruity, and tart sipper.

Pliny The Elder from Russian River Brewing Company in Russian River, CA

Pliny the Elder is a Double West Coast IPA with Amarillo, Centennial, CTZ, and Simcoe hops. This is probably the best known West Coast IPA in the country and deemed a classic. I’ve had Pliny several times before but I couldn’t pass up the chance to have it on draft on the West Coast at Mostra Coffee’s 4s location. It is always delightful—clean, crisp, and delicious.

Check back next month to see what my top beers of February will be! CHeers —ALexis