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The Top 11 Beers We Drank in July 2024
Summer standouts.
Photography courtesy of Brewstills (on the left) and Narrows Brewing (on the right)
Hop Culture's Top Stories
We’re deep into the throes of summer now. So, if you’re like us, you’re taking some summer snapshots of moments to keep in your brain when the cold weather blows through in six months. Memories like…
Drinking an American light lager on the front porch as the fireworks popped off on the horizon.
Crushing a smoothie sour while you watch wannabe legends stuff hot dogs down their gobs for the coveted Nathan’s mustard-yellow belt.
Playing a round of pickleball after watching the Wimbledon men’s final and celebrating your motor skills with a top-rated imperial hazy.
Putting on your dancing (and drinking) shoes for an outdoor wedding at a brewery.
We certainly filled up our scrapbook this month. Here are all the best beers we drank in July.
Top 11 Beers We Drank in July 2024
DDH Ghost in the Machine – Parish Brewing Co.
Broussard, LA
Photography courtesy of Parish Brewing Co.
Double Hazy – Parish has been dropping diamonds all year, riffing off its revered Ghost in the Machine with a host of collabs to celebrate the beer’s ten-year anniversary. The year-long party has included beers like the MC^Ghost (w. Equilibrium), Ripe in the Machine (w. Great Notion), Baby Ghost, and more.
But we’ll admit, we’re a sucker for a vintage. DDH Ghost in the Machine is scary good. In the kind of way a scary movie like Scream has become a cult classic. You can’t help but watch it over and over again.
In all fairness, we tasted this sweet Citra elixir back in April when it made its legendary return, but we’ve been sidetracked by trips to the U.K. and Czech Republic, so we’re just getting back to our regularly scheduled programming now.
Based on the OG Ghost in the Machine recipe, DDH Ghost in the Machine doubles the hops used, equaling a dry-hop rate of over eight pounds of Citra per barrel.
At 8% ABV and with that massive mound of hops, DDH Ghost in the Machine “will dominate your senses,” according to Parish.
Certainly blew our minds (and taste buds).
Hydra of the Depths – HOMES Brewery
Ann Arbor, MI
Photography courtesy of HOMES Brewery
Smoothie/Pastry Sour – Ranked fifth on the list of Untappd’s All-Time Top-Rated American Smoothie/Pastry Sours, HOMES x Mortalis’ HYDRA OF THE DEPTHS is kind of like a firework itself, popping you in the mouth with burst after of burst of colorful fruit.
The 4.58-rated smoothie sour gets a heavy dose of blackberry, raspberry, and Meyer lemon. Combined uniquely with coconut and maple syrup, HYDRA OF THE DEPTHS gives off tropical, brunch-like vibes.
This pastry sour makes you want to wear a button-up Hawaiian shirt and flip-flops to the beach. SPF 35 is recommended.
Coffee Lager – Steel Hands Brewing
Cayce, SC
Photography courtesy of Steel Hands Brewing
American Light Lager – Perhaps a little unconventional, but classified as an American light lager all the same, Coffee Lager from Steel Hands Brewing in South Carolina adds a dose of Loveland Coffee beans.
If you think coffee in your easy-drinking lager sounds funky, well, you might be in the minority. Just take a look at how many people on Untappd love this beer: Almost 6,000 ratings, with an average 3.96 rating that kicks this beer up to second on the list of Untappd’s All-Time Top-Rated American Light Lagers.
Not too shabby.
Light and crisp, Coffee Lager excites because you basically have an excuse to drink this beer any time of the day: morning or night.
Rain – Pure Project Brewing
San Diego, CA
Photography courtesy of Brewstills
German Pilsner – When Pure Project Marketing Project Manager Brooke Sliger told us that Pure Project brought back its fan-favorite pilsner, Rain, as a year-round core, we knew we had to try it.
Crisp yet floral—dare we say like a forest after a thunderstorm—Rain struck a chord with all of us.
Notes of crusty crackers, barely burnt bread, and dusty dough wash away into puddles of clean, refreshing herbaceousness. To us, Rain had all the markings of a great German pilsner.
Consider this our new go-to grab for those warm and waning summer weekends.
Chill – Bent Water Brewing Company
Lynn, MA
Photography courtesy of Bent Water Brewing Company
American Light Lager – We love when the weather turns warm. Not only do we get to trade in our jeans for beach shirts and long sleeves for neon tank tops, but also because breweries send us their best craft lagers, pilsners, helles, kolsch, hazies, and saisons. Winter may be the season of merriment, but summer is the time of temperate tipples.
And we are here for it.
Located in New England, Bent Water has been experiencing its fair share of eighty-plus-degree days this season. With summer in full swing, the brewery wanted to create a beer that would pair with all their favorite summer activities without slowing them down, especially in the heat.
Say hello to Chill.
Calling this beer the “quintessential American light lager,” Bent Water told us this beer would be “the perfect companion wherever your journeys take you.”
We took this one to our July 4th picnic, on a hike with the dogs, and
Team-tested, we agree.
“Everything about Chill radiates the perfect companion for the summer,” says Drew Yeager, the Head Brewer and COO of Bent Water. “From its low 4.2% ABV, crisp, refreshing taste, compact 12oz format, and vibrant blue can, I can’t think of any better beverage to ‘chill’ with under the sun.”
Chill embodies all those pale malt adjectives you love: bready, crackery, biscuity, and doughy.
Like that friend from high school you still talk to, Chill will be there for you when you need it.
Pilota Italian Pilsner – Narrows Brewing
Tacoma, WA
Photography courtesy of Narrows Brewing
Italian Pilsner – We love it when breweries new to us reach out and want us to get to know them a little better through their beer. Although new to us, Narrows Brewing has actually been around for a decade, celebrating its significant ten-year milestone with a new rebrand this year.
Accordingly, Narrows sent us a slew of beers, including a gose, a West Coast IPA, and an Italian pilsner. We immediately fought over the latter called Pilota
“It’s very fitting that was the one that stood out,” Jake Wagner from Narrows wrote us when we told him we wanted to feature this beer. “Pilota has been our best seller the last two months!”
Celebrating one of the brewery’s all-time favorite styles, this Italian pilsner ensures a “rich, yet Damn Drinkable experience,” the brewery writes in the beer’s Untappd description.
Capturing a light crispness with a balanced floralness thanks to the pilsner malt and a duo of Hallertau Mittelfruh and Saphir hops, Pilota is “Oh so good,” we wrote in our notes.
Super crisp and clear, like one of those mornings you walk outside after it rained, and the colors of the leaves and flowers look crisper. Pilota tastes like you’re drinking the cleanest, crispest spring water.
We enjoyed little pops of lemon and lime in the background, keeping this beer quaffable throughout.
We’ll definitely be keeping our eyes out for more Narrows beers in the future.
Ghost Signatures: Alora – Marlowe Artisanal Ales
Mamaroneck, NY
Photography courtesy of Marlowe Artisanal Ales
Hazy IPA – We’ve praised Marlowe Artisanal Ales before for its incredible pub beers and highly drinkable ales (think brown ales, English milds, etc.). So when brewer and owner Zac Ross shipped us some IPAs recently, we dug in eagerly.
Our favorite we tasted came from the brewery’s newest flagship series: Ghost Signatures.
“A single IPA base that is always the same, but dry-hopped differently each time,” Ross explained in an email. “The grain bill is essentially a larger version of our pale ale flagship: Eager to Share. So far, we’ve done Citra, Pink, Nextaron, Motueka, and Alora.”
He continues, “A ghost signature is a person’s signature written in slow-drying ink and then folded onto itself to create a personalized inkblot unique to that person’s signature. So we take the name of the hop used in the dry-hop and create its own “ghost signature” as the label art on each of these cans, so not only is the label color different, but the “art” is also slightly different. But if you know, you can tell what the single hop is in the beer by turning it sideways and blocking the bottom half of the ghost signature art.”
We tried the Alora and the Motueka versions, and while we enjoyed each, the Alora really stuck out.
Pouring like a milky sunburst, Ghost Signatures: Alora had this textural creaminess that reminded us of a slightly melty peach or nectarine ice cream dribbling down the cone.
Succulent and juicy, this hazy hit all the right summer notes, leaving a lingering impression on our minds.
Automotive Sentience – Smoldered Society Beer Co.
Buffalo, NY
Photography courtesy of @smolderedsociety
West Coast IPA – Another brewery new to us, Smoldered Society, also introduced itself through a series of beers sent to the team. An offshoot under Community Beer Works, Smoldered Society, run by Thin Man’s Cameron Frank and Ryan Zacarchuk, likes to get a little wild.
Pulling the lineup of beers out of the box they sent us took us back to one of those underground raves we went to in Chicago in our early twenties, where people stood around drinking PBR, dancing, and watching folks skate on a homemade ramp set up in some empty warehouse.
You’ll find that sort of f**k-the-man attitude captured in this brand from the labels to the beers. For instance, Mass Delusion, the brewery’s first rotational hazy that’s been turning heads, and Neck Breaker, a “Headbanger” pilsner brewed in collaboration with Thin Man and Metal Injection.
But we actually jammed with Automotive Sentience, a West Coast-style IPA that we feel (dis)embodies the new wave of this style. Instead of the early 1990s/early 2000s caramel-malt-focused bitter-to-the-beyond WCIPAs, Automotive Sentience gets dosed with Amarillo, El Dorado, and Ekuanot hops and dry hopped with Nectaron, Mosaic Cryo, and Simcoe Cryo. Smelling like fresh forest pine needles, Automotive Sentience drinks like a candy jar full of pink Starburst, Twizzlers, Nite Crawlers, and Dots.
Rev your engines. If you haven’t heard about Smoldered Society, you’re about to, because this brand is taking us places.
For Unbecoming – Burial Beer Co.
Asheville, NC
Photography courtesy of Burial Beer Co.
Triple IPA – “For the lost art of anticipatory joy. Those who adore the unraveling. The mystic who hears no sound. The breeze who dances atop the drive. Someone who knows no encouragement. A composition for Anno XI. Made with Galaxy, Nectarine, Eclipse, and Idaho Gem,” writes Burial on the can of its tenth-anniversary triple IPA For Unbecoming.
We’ll let you interpret that as you want.
For us, we took this to mean something along the lines of the antonym of instant gratification. Look, you can’t take a 10% ABV TIPA and chug it. You just can’t, physically or spiritually. I mean, you probably could, but what would be the point? You’d miss everything that makes one covet a triple IPA: aroma, flavor, and, yes, the slow brain melt as your cranium tries to comprehend the intense alcohol volume you just introduced into your system.
You want a beer like this to unravel slowly throughout your body instead of shocking it.
Hazy AF, For Unbecoming reminded us of the opposite of a consommé, not some thin, brothy soup, but a thick, condensed chowder.
Orange creamsicle reached our nose first, followed by a whiff of weed, which impeccably carried through to the flavor.
After a couple of sips, that hazy, heady glow spread from our tongues through our hearts, entering our nervous system and creeping from our heads down to our toes. We were pleasantly happy after just enjoying a taste of this one.
Fonio Pale Ale – Brooklyn Brewery
Brooklyn, NY
Photography courtesy of Grace Lee-Weitz | Hop Culture
Pale Ale – It all began with a chance meeting at Questlove’s house.
“That’s a line you can’t make up,” thirty-year Brooklyn Brewmaster Garrett Oliver tells me with a laugh while we’re chatting over Zoom. About five years ago, while on the Brooklyn’s Museum of Food and Drink board, Oliver participated in a fundraiser at Questlove’s place.
While there, he met Pierre Thiam, chef, and founder of Yolélé, a company focused on one particular centuries-old African grain.
One that requires no fertilizer, no pesticide, no irrigation, and no chemical inputs. A grain wholly reliable and resistant to climate change of which farmers could grow two crops annually at the edge of a desert where it only rained three times a year.
A grain called fonio.
Afterward, Oliver says he asked himself, “I wonder what beer this grain would make?”
Brooklyn Brewery’s Fonio Pale Ale is part of a larger project called Brewing for Impact. Bringing together a coalition of brewing partners from around the world—Maison Kalao from Senegal, Thornbridge in the U.K., Omnipollo in Sweden, Carlsberg in Denmark, Russian River in California, Jing-A in China, Guinness in Ireland, and, of course, Brooklyn Brewery in New York—Brewing for Impact aims to tell the story of this versatile, climate-resistant, centuries-old West African grain through beer.
Oliver doesn’t quite know how to put it, but he says with Brewing for Impact, “I’m connecting all the pieces of me together in this project as a brewer [and] as an African American.”
According to Oliver, it was essential for him to engage in a project that showed the common misconceptions about the history of beer.
“Of course, as Westerners, we largely brew in Western styles and with Western ingredients. There’s nothing wrong with that, and I obviously love traditional European beers,” he says. “But we are missing out on other flavors and, in the case of fonio, excellent brewing grains that can be used to bring bright new flavors and deeper sustainability to our beer culture.”
He continues, “I think that fonio is the best one I’ve ever seen.”
