The 101 Best Beers in America

Alabama: El Gordo Imperial Stout

Brewer: Good People Brewing Company

Style: Imperial Stout

Birmingham, Alabama’s Good People is all about great beer, and one of their most impressive yet is El Gordo. One of the brewery’s Bearded Reserves, or rare and experimental offerings, this big beer is a full-bodied, classic interpretation of the imperial stout: roasty with notes of vanilla, dark chocolate, and bourbon, and balanced with classic hops including Centennial, Columbus, Liberty, and Crystal. 

Alabama: Laika Russian Imperial Stout

Brewer: Straight To Ale

Style: Imperial Stout

If you haven’t tried this beer, then you can go Straight to Ale (sorry), where the Laika Russian Imperial Stout is available come October. Think rich, malty sweetness that’s kept in check by notes of coffee and booze, with a perceivable hop bitterness that strikes a balance between citrus, floral, and herbal. 

Alaska: A Deal With the Devil Barleywine

Brewer: Anchorage Brewing

Style: American Barleywine

Up in Alaska, brewer Gabe Fletcher is known for his barrel aging and Brettanomyces expertise, fully displayed in creations such as the Tide and Its Takers tripel and Whiteout Wit. There’s nothing wild about A Deal With the Devil — except that it’s made with a single malt and hop, Australia’s Galaxy, then aged for nearly a year in Cognac barrels. The result is a multifaceted bruiser (around 17-percent ABV) riddled with toffee, plums, raisins, and vanilla that, befitting its barrels, is best relished in a snifter. 

Alaska: Monk's Mistress

Brewer: Midnight Sun Brewing Co.

Style: Belgian Strong Dark Ale

As Anchorage’s oldest brewery and the second oldest in the state, Midnight Sun has been pleasing Alaskans for more than 25 years with big beers brewed to stand up to the Alaskan cold. Monk’s Mistress, one of the year-round offerings, has been known to ignite religious experiences in its drinkers. The name derives from the idea of a monk who gives into temptation, enjoying the pleasure of this liquid temptress. Oh boy, can we relate.

Arizona: Dragoon IPA

Brewer: Dragoon Brewing Co.

Style: IPA

Dragoon IPA is the Tuscon, Arizona’s most popular beer, and for good reason. While the Northeast is fighting to push every last bit of bitterness out of their aroma-only IPAs, Dragoon keeps it real with this West Coast-style classic. Deep gold and clear with dank hops (Summit, Columbus, Apollo, Magnum, and Nugget) and the malt bill to back them up (a combination of pale malt and two types of Crystal), this relatively boozy brew is poised to pair with food or please your palate solo. 

Arizona: Tower Station

Brewer: Mother Road Brewery

Style: American IPA

This unusual, unfiltered India pale ale is built like the hoppy equivalent of a cloudy German hefeweizen. Though Tower Station doesn’t pick up the banana and clove of that hazy wheat style, a pleasant yeasty, earthy undertone rounds out the big, bitter pine and grapefruit hops.  

Arkansas: BDCS Imperial Stout

Brewer: Ozark Beer Company

Style: Imperial Stout

There are lots of imperial stouts out there (quite a few on this list, even), but Ozark’s Bourbon Double Cream Stout — matured in barrels that once held Kentucky bourbon for nearly 15 years — is amongst the most true to its spirited roots. After seven months of aging, the beer takes on notes of charred oak, vanilla, and (oh, yes) bourbon in a harmonious symphony of flavors.

Arkansas: Core Oatmeal Stout

Brewer: Core Brewing

Style: Oatmeal Stout

Core’s Oatmeal Stout is a year-round offering that wonderfully highlights the silky, velvety joys of utilizing oatmeal as an adjunct. It’s not an instant knock-your-socks-off stout, but it makes up for what it lacks in grandeur by being a stellar example of the creamy, roasty, and dry style. And it only gets better with each sip.

California: Redeye November

Brewer: Bottle Logic Brewing Company

Style: Imperial Coffee Stout

Anaheim’s Bottle Logic strives for adventure, and with Red Eye November, that means making a beer than evokes the intensity of the caffeine-addict’s drink of choice (a coffee with a shot of espresso) and turning it into a pleasurable beer. This Russian imperial stout is brewed with coffee for buzz, molasses for bodacious sweetness and rye for a bit of spice, then aged in bourbon barrels to turbo-charge it all. 

California: Duck Duck Gooze

Brewer: The Lost Abbey

Style: Gueuze

Lost Abbey lives and brews by the Latin phrase “In Illa Brettanomyces Nos Fides,” which roughly translates to “In the wild yeast, we believe.” This is evident in the eight-foot sign over their barrel room, as well as in their beers, like Duck Duck Gooze, an homage to Belgium’s gueuze, known for its funky, sour qualities resulting from using naturally occurring yeast during the brewing process. As per tradition, this method gueuze blends young and old barrel-aged beers, yielding acidity and tartness complemented by hints of oak and barnyard funk. Released every three years in limited quantities, Duck Duck Gooze has become one of Lost Abbey’s most sought-after creations. 

California Runners-Up

Firestone Walker Brewing Company, Parabola, Imperial Stout

Russian River Brewing, Supplication, Sour Ale

The Bruery, Sour in the Rye, Sour Ale

Modern Times Beer, Blazing World, Amber Ale

Colorado: Le Terroir

Brewer: New Belgium Brewing

Style: Sour Ale

Many craft beer drinkers (particularly on the East Coast) have only recently become privy to New Belgium’s robust sour program, a portfolio of exquisite foudre-aged ales the Colorado brewery have been churning out for decades. This dry-hopped sour ale is a blend of New Belgium’s base sour Felix, plus Amarillo and Crystal dry-hopping. It’s fruity and acidic like wine, with enough hop presence to please the hop-heads. 

Colorado: Ten Fidy Imperial Stout

Brewer: Oskar Blues

Style: Imperial Stout

This big, bad stout is not messing around. Black as motor oil and just as viscous, Ten Fidy (10.5% ABV, get it?) is a chocolate malt bomb with caramel and coffee notes with just enough bitterness to keep you thirsty for more. 

Colorado Runners-Up

Great Divide Brewing Company, Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti, Imperial Stout

Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project, Barrel-Aged Nightmare on Brett, Sour Ale

Denver Beer Company, Incredible Pedal IPA

Oskar Blues Brewing, G’Night Imperial Red Ale

Connecticut: Coriolis

Brewer: New England Brewing Co.

Style: Double IPA

From a small brewery in Woodbridge, Connecticut, comes Coriolis, an appropriately boozed- and hopped-up imperial IPA that’s as resiny as it is fruity, thanks to being hopped entirely with Nelson Sauvin hops, known for their sauvignon blanc–like qualities. 

Connecticut: Ol’ Factory Pils

Brewer: Two Roads Brewing Company

Style: Pilsner

This Stratford-based brewery chose the road less traveled, and many followed: Not only does the brewery make its own impressive lineup of beers, it also brews other crowd favorites from the likes of Lawson’s Finest Liquids, Evil Twin, and Stillwater. The award-winning Ol’ Factory Pils (it took a GIBF Silver Medal for Continental Pilsner in 2015) is one of Two Roads’ own delicious OGs, both an homage to the past (the brewery is built in a century-old factory building) and a modernized concoction, combining German and American hops and malts. 

Delaware: Iron Hill Russian Imperial Stout

Brewer: Iron Hill Brewery and Restaurant

Style: Imperial Stout

We’re usually leery of the beer coming out of brewpub chains, which typically range from the merely uninspired to the downright boring. We’re happy to report that Iron Hill Brewery and Restaurant, which operates 11 brewpubs across Delaware (the home state), Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, is an exception to the rule. Head straight for the rich, roasty imperial stout that has been raking in awards at the Great American Beer Festival and World Beer cup since 2003.

Delaware: Indian Brown Ale

Brewery: Dogfish Head Brewery

Style: Brown Ale

Dogfish has been changing the game for more than 20 years with their “off-centered” beers, and this year-round brew originally released in 1999 has stood the test of time. The dark IPA takes threads of Scotch ale, traditional IPA and American brown, offering a beautiful combination of mahogany color, salivation-inducing caramel notes, and dry-hopped bitterness a la 60 Minute and 90 Minute IPA. Give it a chance!

Florida: Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout

Brewery: Cigar City Brewing

Style: Imperial Stout

This beer is so good, it gets its own day, celebrated by brewers and beer enthusiasts across the country and world every year at the brewery Tampa. Chocolate, espresso, notes of vanilla and tobacco topped off with hop and spice, Hunahpu can do no wrong.

Florida: Miami Madness

Brewery: J. Wakefield Brewing

Style: Berliner Weisse

A perfect brew for South Florida, this wheat beer is bright yellow in color, tropical fruit-forward on the palate and nose, and one of the most sessionable beers on this list at just 3.5-percent ABV. Local fruits and flowers are some of J. Wakefield’s best resources, and in Miami Madness, the brewer blends mango, guava, and passion fruit for a sweet nectar that’s mouth-puckeringly sour yet refreshing, like lemonade.