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The 5 Best Beers We Had This Week: 8/17/20
Our favorite beers of the week.
Every week we round up the five best beers we tried that week. Have a recommendation? A beer we absolutely need to try? Email us at [email protected] with your pick.
In case you missed it, Beers With(out) Beards is back! Unfortunately, we aren’t able to throw our annual celebration of women in craft beer in-person so we’re moving the party digital. The virtual Beers With(out) Beards festival empowered by Bumble will feature a series of digital panels, conversations, and workshops as well as a curated box of beer that can be shipped to attendees in eight states and D.C.! Click here for more info and to reserve your tickets!
We’re so excited to drink amazing beer brewed by awesome women at Beers With(out) Beards 2020 but, in the meantime, we’re drinking some solid beer right here at Hop Culture HQ. Below you’ll find the best beer we drank from August 10th to the 17th.
Many of the breweries below are shipping beer–both locally and nationally. Check TapRm or Drizly to see if they’re providing local delivery and check out one of our favorite delivery services – Tavour – to see if their beer is available nationally.
Josie’s Wit
Common Space Brewery — Hawthorne, CA
Witbier — This beer is a work of art. Not the showy, pretentious kind. It’s the inviting, friendly kind that opens the conversation. Josie’s Wit is simple and beautiful. It delivers refreshment alongside a genuinely quality beverage. It’s a summer-worthy Witbier with citrus and coriander flavors.
Bandido
Tripping Animals Brewing Co. — Doral, FL
New England Pale Ale — This past weekend we co-hosted FML Fest 2020 with Oozlefinch Beers + Blending and Bandido from Tripping Animals was one of the featured beers. Leading up to the festival, we teamed up with Jägermeister to pair several beers from the festival with a Mini Meister. Bandido may have been our favorite pairing. This relatively easy-drinking hazy Pale Ale delivered a great blast of dank tropical flavors.
Double Barreled Before Dying
North Park Beer Co. — San Diego, CA
Imperial Stout — Don’t tell the rest of the Hop Culture team but I actually opened up this bottle and secret. And let me tell you. It was fantastic. A deep, robust, non-adjuncted stout with beautiful chocolate, toffee, and vanilla flavors. A huge boozy aroma gave way to a relatively smooth, comfortable drinking experience. It was a stunningly well-executed beer with a depth of flavor that, given the reliance on adjuncts in modern stouts.
Just Ripe: Mixed Berries
Untold Brewing — Scituate, MA
Fruited Kettle Sour — Just Ripe is a mixed berry kettle sour from Scituate, MA’s Untold Brewing. This beer had a balanced acidity, touch of fruit sweetness, and fizzy carbonation. Plus, the gloriously vibrant color looked like pure berry juice. It was a great all-around summer beer.
Sluice Juice
Bent Water Brewing Co. — Lynn, MA
New England IPA — We talked to the team at Bent Water Brewing earlier this week about the importance of consistency in brewing. A quality beer is good from batch to batch. Not all breweries achieve this level of consistency, but we’re always impressed in the balance and replicability achieved by Bent Water. Sluice Juice has bright, vibrant citrus flavors and aromatics and a smooth, full finish. A solid beer that never dips in quality.
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About The Author
John A. Paradiso
Currently Drinking:
Saison Dupont
John A. Paradiso is the former managing editor at Hop Culture Magazine and current managing editor at Cool Material. His interests include listening to the tunes of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizzard and watching Wes Anderson films. His Wednesdays are spent picking up comics at the local comic book shop and his weekends are spent watching Premier League soccer. He's probably down to get a beer later.
