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The Top 10 Beers We Drank in September 2025
One of our favorite months.
Photography courtesy of Wrexham Lager Beer Company (on the left) and CLAG Brewing (on the right)
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This is our favorite time of year. When those hot, hazy dog days of summer turn over a new leaf, ushering in the crisp, blustery air of fall.
To us, autumn is about simple times. Just sharing a few beers with friends around the fire, picking apples at the orchards, and avoiding anything pumpkin flavored…except for maybe (maybe) pumpkin beer.
We wouldn’t do anything complicated in the fall, such as traveling to France, Austria, and Germany for two weeks, ending at Oktoberfest on its opening day.
Nah, we wouldn’t do any of that 😉 (more to come on those adventures next month!)
Instead, we kept things simple: We spent September enjoying some of our favorite Oktoberfests and Märzens.
We also re-visited some of our juiciest breweries from last year, including Forager Brewery in Minnesota, CLAG Brewing in Ohio, and Icarus Brewing in New Jersey.
So here’s to a month where we toasted to the tender times of turning the corner on another season. And that’s just the way we liked it.
Hop Culture’s Top 10 Beers We Drank in September 2025
Half a Million Brakepads – CLAG Brewing Company X Fidens Brewing Co.
Sandusky, OH x Albany, NY
Photography courtesy of CLAG
DNEIPA – “Cocky Little Asian Guy,” is the acronym for CLAG Brewing in Sandusky, OH. But CLAG Brewing Company Founder Kha Bui is anything but.
Instead, the Vietnamese brewery owner lets the beers speak for themselves. CLAG is one of the few breweries in the country where you can enjoy a bowl of pho alongside some of the best double IPAs in the country.
Without any true flagships or year-round offerings, CLAG frequently changes its beers, earning a reputation for hazies and barrel-aged beers.
“My one goal,” says CLAG Head Brewer Kevin Kowalski, “was to not be a one-trick pony.”
Beers like Half a Million Brakepads showcase CLAG’s prowess with hops. The double IPA features New Zealand Riwaka and Peacharine as well as Simcoe.
Of the former, which Kowalski fell deeply in love with, he says, “When we dry-hopped that beer, we cracked open those bags of Riwaka and they just smelled like melted Starburst in a bag.”
He adds, “It was jaw-dropping how dramatic those hops were right in the bag.”
The collab with Fidens earned a nearly unheard-of 4.49 rating on Untappd.
And while Kowalski won’t go as far as to say the Riwaka hops are the only thing that made that beer, “I definitely think they put it over the top for sure!”
Nillerzzzzz – Forager Brewery
Rochester, MN
Photography courtesy of Forager Brewery
Imperial Stout – Forager Brewery Co-Owner Annie Henderson never in a million years thought she’d own a brewery. She wasn’t a homebrewer with a garage full of carboys and pots, hoping to one day move her operation to a brick-and-mortar location. She wasn’t someone who got a Mr. Beer kit for her birthday one year and got hooked. Instead, her path to co-owning Forager Brewery began most unexpectedly—through a fundraiser. And she certainly never expected that little brewery to become one of the top-rated ones not only in Minnesota, but also in the entire country.
She didn’t even realize how far the brewery’s name had spread until they released a little (read: big) beer called Nillerzzzzz (“with five z’s,” she assures me).
Henderson considers Nillerzzzzz the beer that originally put Forager on the map.
“It’s one of our highest-rated beers,” she says, “and it wins best beer in Minnesota every year.”
Released in 2018, Nillerzzzz is a 14% ABV imperial stout aged in rye and bourbon barrels and aged on vanilla beans from five different growing regions.
The original release saw hundreds of people sleeping outside, camping, and engaging in bottle shares just to purchase one bottle of beer.
“I couldn’t believe people would do that,” says Henderson of the moment. “Why are people sleeping in our parking lot?”
With each subsequent bottle drop, Henderson said they’d put up a piece of paper where people could write where they traveled from. “It was twenty-plus states and ten countries,” says Henderson. “That’s when I realized our beer program is way bigger than us.”
If there is any beer that represents Forager, it’s Nillerzzzzz…with five, count ‘em five, zs!
Oaktoberfest – Firestone Walker Brewing Company
Paso Robles, CA
Photography courtesy of Firestone Walker Brewing Company
Märzen – With Oaktoberfest, Firestone Walker takes the threads of traditions and weaves in its own heritage. So, yes, you’ll find all that caramel goodness you love in Oktoberfests, made with Weyermann Pils, Vienna, Munich, Cara Hell, and Cara Red malts.
And yes, you’ll find a nice crisp bite from the Noble Tradition and Spalter Select hops.
But then, Firestone Walker injects its own DNA, partially lagering Oaktoberfest in neutral oak barrels. After all, Co-Founders Adam Firestone and David Walker started the twenty-nine-year-old brewery as an exclusively barrel-fermented business!
As a result, the finished beer has a soft caress of French oak, making this one of the most approachable and balanced Märzens on the market.
Münchin’ Pretzels – Bent Paddle Brewing Co.
Duluth, MN
Märzen – Every year, it seems like breweries release their Märzens and Festbiers just a little earlier. Hey, we’re not complaining. So when Hop Culture Senior Editor Grace Lee-Weitz went home to Northern Minnesota for a weekend in late July / early August, imagine her glee at finding Münchin’ Pretzels on tap.
Brewed with traditional German malts and hops, Münchin’ Pretzels is Bent Paddle’s version of a Märzenbier. Pouring a beautiful toasty amber, this German autumnal lager has a “delicious bready malt character with hints of caramel,” according to Bent Paddle.
Pair this perfectly malty, sweet amber lager with some actual soft pretzels and sausages, and you have Oktoberfest nailed.
Northcoaster Light – Canal Park Brewing Company
Duluth, MN
American Light Lager – Nestled right on the shores of Lake Superior in Duluth, MN, Canal Park Brewing Company brings the North Shore into your glass. Known for its excellent canoeing, hiking, kayaking, and general outdoor activities, the North Shore in America’s thirty-second state is a beautiful stretch of coastline that spans 154 miles, extending all the way up to the Canadian border.
It’s the cabin life, lake life, simple life.
Much like Northcoaster Light, a simple beer that pairs best with whatever adventures you have planned. Even if that’s just sitting in Canal Park Brewing Company’s beer garden and admiring the beautiful expanse of Lake Superior while drinking a light, crisp, clean American lager.
Yeah, you can’t really beat that.
Tomm’s – Falling Knife Brewing Company
Minneapolis, MN
American Lager – “The kind of beer you pound while building a brewery.” That’s how Falling Knife Brewing Company in Minneapolis, MN, describes its take on an American lager.
We crushed one during dinner at perhaps one of the best restaurants on Minnesota’s North Shore, The New Scenic Café. In fact, we shouldn’t even be telling you about this place; it’s that good. Just trust us, it’s a must-stop if you’re in Northern Minnesota.
But we’re here only to talk about the beer. With a bit of a fuller, maltier body, Tomm’s stands up well to almost anything you might order on the New Scenic’s menu.
Here’s the thing about Falling Knife. The name comes from the idea “a falling knife has no handle.” When a sharp object falls, it’s best to step back and let it drop. At Falling Knife, the brewery, they believe the opposite; it’s worth taking risks to make something incredible, “even if it means we take a few cuts along the way.”
While Tomm’s isn’t exactly groundbreaking, it’s kind of like your chef’s knife, an old trusty thing that you can count on when you need it.
Brooklyn Brown Ale – Brooklyn Brewery
Brooklyn, NY
Brown Ale – Like an old faithful, Brooklyn Brown Ale is always there when you need it, even when you forget that it’s there. We forgot how much we truly love this beer until Brooklyn Brewery dropped us a little care package.
Dipping into this American brown ale, with its warm gingerbread caramel and smooth snickerdoodle cookies fresh out of the oven, just makes us want to curl up in a Snuggie and never leave the couch.
Nit Wit® White Ale – BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse
Huntington Beach, CA
Witbier – Chances are, if you live in California, you know BJ’s. It’s like if a Friday’s or an Applebee’s had a baby with a brewery. And we mean that in the best way possible. This brewpub makes legit beer, food, and good times.
One of the brewery’s flagships, the Nit Wit®, is a Belgian-style witbier brewed with spices.
Pouring a semi-cloudy gold, this European wheat beer drinks like an orange cream pie, if that were a thing. Think creamy, citrusy, and slightly funky.
It’s a good last-gasp-summer-here-comes-fall kind of beer.
Warp And Weft – Phantom Farms Brewing x Con es Puma
Cumberland, RI
Photography courtesy of Phantom Farms Brewing
Black IPA – It’s not often that we run into a Black IPA anymore. And it’s certainly not often that we run into a Black IPA that we like. We gotta say that Phantom Farms, a one-and-a-half-year-old brewery from Cumberland, RI, might be changing our minds. Dare we go over to the dark side?
Here’s the thing: We usually find Black IPAs deceiving, like getting raisins in a cookie instead of chocolate chips. The beer pours black, yet delivers intense dankness or hoppiness. Not to say that’s a bad thing, but we want balance, we want some roastiness to pair with the bitterness.
Warp And Weft is beguiling with its layers of roast coffee and fresh pine, like the dewy woods of Seattle evergreen. The roast character remains pronounced, almost like a woody quality that complements the piney and dank notes.
Phantom Farms General Manager Jay Neveu describes the beers as “Layered with citrus, pine, white grapes, dank resin, and roasted coffee bean notes.”
Named after a textile production technique, Warp And Weft ties back to the original purpose of Phantom Farms taproom, a historic mill from 1872 that marks the birth of the Industrial Revolution in America.
Brewed with ConEsPuma, which educates and promotes breweries and beer professionals across many regions from South America to the U.K. to the U.S., Warp And Weft, according to Neveu is “a collaboration between two hemispheres, drawing on shared knowledge and passion.”
Wrexham Lager – Wrexham Lager Beer Company Ltd
Wrexham, Wales
Photography courtesy of Wrexham Lager Beer Company
Pale Lager – Three years ago, much like the rest of the world, we fell in love with a little Welsh soccer (football to most everyone else) team from Wrexham. Welcome to Wrexham, the documentary from celebrities Ryan Reynolds and that other guy whose name also starts with an R, Rob McElhenney, blew up.
And with it, this Welsh team has risen through the ranks of England’s lower football tiers, rising from the National League (fifth tier) to the Championship (second tier) in just four years. That span included three back-to-back-to-back promotions—something that has never been done before in English football.
Beyond the pitch, the fame and cash injected into Wrexham’s success have filtered down into the town as well. The old coal and iron town has transformed into a tourist hub, attracting twenty percent more visitors since the football team started winning.
We’ll fully admit that we’ve watched Welcome to Wrexham since the beginning, so when Wrexham Lager Beer Company reached out to us wanting to share a couple of cans of Wrexham Lager, we almost fainted.
This is the PERFECT football-drinking beer, snappy, crispy, and only 4% ABV. We’re absolutely not ashamed to tell you that we drank one while watching Wrexham in a five-goal thriller vs Preston North End in the second round of the Carabao Cup.
And we also may have had one while watching Wrexham vs. Derby County…at 4:30AM in the morning. Hello football breakfast beer.
