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.
Over the last few days, we had shared plans to announce a Hop Culture x Oozlefinch virtual beer festival.
Both of our organizations think it’s more important to take a pause from our event promotion and place our focus elsewhere.
So this week, we won’t be running our regular IG LIVE. If you’d planned on watching, please take this time to better educate yourself on what’s happening around the country, support organizations fighting to make a difference, or even call a friend to ask how you can support justice.
We’ll be doing the same.
In the meantime, here are five organizations worth following and supporting:
Black Lives Matter (@blklivesmatter)
Black Visions Collective (@blackvisionscollective)
Reclaim the Block (@reclaimtheblock)
The Bail Project (@bailproject)
The American Civil Liberties Union (aclu_nationwide)
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.
Biere de Coupage
Odd Breed Wild Ales — Pompano Beach, FL
Wild Ale — This was stunningly special. Odd Breed Wild Ales blended barrel-aged saison for a complex, funky, refreshing treat of a beer. The Pompano Beach brewery is quietly brewing some of the best beer in the south and they’re not even brewing hazy IPAs. This beer feels festive and worth holding onto but at the same time simple enough to just enjoy casually. It’s a marvelous beer.
Endovelicus
Superstition Meadery — Prescott, AZ
Raspberry Mead — Every time we crack open a Superstition product, we know we’re in for a treat. We actually sampled two Superstition beverages this week and, while both were beautifully delicious, Endovelicus rose to the top as one of the best things we’ve enjoyed this year. A raspberry mead aged in port barrels, Endovelicus is deep and mature. The color is robust and murky but the fruit flavors are bright and fresh. There are plenty of sweet flavors but there’s also some savory structure anchoring it down. This is a stunning mead.
Inhabited Form
Cerebral Brewing — Denver, CO
Foeder-Fermented Lager — Lagers usually aren’t all that complex. In most cases, drinkers reach for a lager when they’re looking for a crushable, thoughtless beer. And Inhabited Form achieves that. But, as we find with quality lager brewers who utilize oak barrels, this goes beyond the typical lager game. Inhabited Form is brewed with pilsner and oat malts and hopped with Galaxy, Citra, and Mosaic. The result is a beer with great citrus flavors that washed over us in foamy waves.
Felisa
Twin Elephant Brewing Co. — Chatham, NJ
Mixed-Culture Saison — Speaking of breweries quietly brewing fantastic beers, Twin Elephant makes some of New Jersey’s best hoppy beers. While Kane and Carton might be the headline acts selling out arenas, Twin Elephant is the unsung hero local band playing intimate shows. And though we initially fell in love with Twin Elephants low-ABV IPAs, their recent attempts at barrel-aged sours have delivered in spades. Felisa is a blend of two saisons with a mix of different wild and native cultures. It’s deviously complex with moments of sparkling crystals, earthiness, and tropical breeze. It’s truly a trip.
Liquid Minutes
Fifth Frame Brewing Co. + Froth Brewing Co. — Rochester, NY + Buffalo, NY
Imperial Gose — Liquid Minutes is a kettle sour–billed as an imperial gose–brewed with pomegranate, blueberry, lemon, and sea salt. It tasted like a refreshing soda on a warm summer’s day. And beyond that, we loved the mesmerizing Pendleton Ward-esque can art. Seriously, it looks like it belongs in Adventure Time or Midnight Gospel. And tasted cartoonishly good.
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