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Hop Culture’s Most-Read Articles of 2024
Grab a beer and catch up on what you missed!
Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie | Hop Culture
The Juiciest of the 2024!
With 2024 all wrapped up like a holiday present under the tree, let’s look back at the most-read articles of the last twelve months.
Hop Culture’s most-read articles this year featured electronic football games on dusty Salvation Army shelves, a hot, new beer style emerging in the States, and a David vs. Goliath story from a brewery under the train tracks in London, to name a few.
These are the year’s eleven most-read articles that caught your attention from coast to coast and beyond. We’re starting with the eleventh-highest-read and working our way up to number one! Revisit your favorites, read some new ones, and just make sure, before you start your 2025, you don’t miss any of our top-read stories of last year.
The Most-Read Hop Culture Articles of 2024
11. Extra Extra Read All About It: Why Is XPA Australia’s Hottest Beer Style?
Photography courtesy of Balter Brewing
We absolutely loved this deep dive from Hop Culture Senior Content Editor Grace Lee-Weitz into a style popularized in Australia that we’re now seeing up and down the West Coast at breweries from Burgeon to Cloudburst.
It’s not quite an IPA and definitely not an American pale ale. It’s somewhere in between.
It’s an XPA. Here’s why we think it’s the new superhero of craft beer.
10. What Exactly Is a Saison?
Photography courtesy of John A. Paradiso
Things got pretty funky when we talked to Forest + Main, The Referend, and Scratch Brewing about the history of the saison, what defines one, and our twenty-five favorite ones to try right now.
9. The 7 Things You Didn’t Know About Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA
Photography courtesy of Dogfish Head
We sat down with Dogfish Co-Founder Sam Calagione to discover how he made one of America’s most iconic beers. Hint: a dusty Salvation Army shelf, an electronic football game, and soup.
8. The Cult of PBR
Graphic courtesy of Derek Campos, Next Glass
Yes, this was our first choice of fizzy, yellow light lager to drink in college. How many have we slammed down our gullet in our lifetime? Who the hell knows! Just like we had no clue about the absolutely fascinating history behind the ubiquitous cans we consumed in college. For example, ever wondered why there is a blue ribbon on Pabst Blue Ribbon, aka PBR? Hop Culture Content Writer Giovanni Albanese Jr. went deep into the cult following of this historic American light lager.
7. The 29 Most Iconic Beers to Drink in Summer 2024
Graphic courtesy of Derek Campos, Senior Graphic Designer, Next Glass
School was out for summer. To match that iconic song, we made a list of the most iconic beers to drink during the summer. Honestly, we felt it was a boss move to drink some Pliny the Elder, Timbo Pils, PBR, Ayinger, and more by the pool.
6. 61 Queer-Led and Queer-Supporting Breweries to Champion Right Now (And Forever)
Photography courtesy of @ladyjusticebrewing
We’re Queer; we’re here; we love beer.
To see this piece climb into our most-read articles list for the second year in a row feels empowering. And just a friendly reminder…you can drink and support these breweries any time of the year. Not just in June!
5. The London Black Nitro Beer Giving Guinness a Run for Its Money
Photography courtesy of Grace Lee-Weitz | Hop Culture
Quite possibly our favorite David vs. Goliath story of the year. Actually, probably just our favorite story of the year. After a trip to the U.K. in April, Lee-Weitz stumbled upon a brewery doing the unthinkable in the most humble way possible. You can’t miss this one about a tiny brewery in London trying to make a beer more popular than Guinness.
4. Beers With the Most 5-Star Check-Ins on Untappd in 2024
Photography courtesy of @3floydsbrewing
Falling three spots from number one last year, this piece still captured a ton of eyeballs (and maybe check-ins, too). What did people rate the highest on the world’s largest social networking app for beer? Can you guess a few of them?
3. The 9 Craft Beer Trends to Watch in 2024
Photography courtesy of KCBC
It wasn’t all doom and gloom. Mostly RTD booms and evolutions of taprooms.
Editor’s Tip: Our 2025 Craft Beer Trends to Watch piece drops this Monday, 1/13. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to make sure you don’t miss out!
2. The 12 Best Beer Festivals You Can’t Miss This Year
Photography courtesy of Green Bench Brewing Company
We made it to a couple of these. How many did you check off?
Editor’s Tip: Our 2025 list of the best beer festivals to visit drops Monday, 1/20. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to make sure you don’t miss out!
1. The 13 Best Breweries to Watch in 2023
Photography courtesy of Brewery Ardennes
From a Belgian-inspired brewery in upstate New York to Kansas’ first Black-owned brewery, we showed you which breweries we wanted to keep an eye on for the year. Don’t miss out on this year’s edition. Let’s make this the most-read article of 2025, too!
