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The 9 Best New Breweries of 2025
Freshies for the win!
Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie, Social Media Manager, Hop Culture and Untappd (on the left) and Phantom Farms (on the right)
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Welcome to The Juiciest, our annual round up of our favorite breweries, beers, new breweries, places we traveled, and more from the last 365 days. Curious to check out some of these spots and beers? Well you might be in luck. Did you know that we can ship beer right to your front door from our Hop Culture Shop*? That’s over 250+ beers from the highest-rated stouts to the juiciest hazies and everything in between.
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New year, new beers, new breweries, new places to travel and drink! We can’t possibly visit every taproom that opens its doors, but our team does a pretty good job of traveling locally and internationally, doing our best to visit more than a few.
Honestly, we consider these adventures among the best parts of our jobs, seeking out new taprooms, nascent beer gardens, and pop-up beer producers that keep our industry fresh.
So below, you’ll find a list of the top new breweries our team discovered and drank at in 2025. For the most part, these places opened a taproom for the first time or started a new brand in the past twelve months (but like we tend to do, you’ll find a couple here from 2024).
To get a representative list, we called on folks across the Next Glass team from different backgrounds and geographies and asked them to share their favorites!
To that end, we’ve presented the best newly opened craft breweries in no particular order.
Of course, any “best” list is open to interpretation, so take these picks with a grain of salt. (And if you have a suggestion, slide into our DMs @hopculturemag.)
Here are our picks for the best new breweries of 2025.
The Best New Breweries of 2025
Suncatcher Brewing
Chicago, IL
Submitted by: Aaron Keefner, Brewery Solutions Consultant, Next Glass
Photography courtesy of Suncatcher Brewing
While they technically opened in mid-November of 2024, Suncatcher celebrated its first year in full operation in 2025, and it’s been making quite a mark on a city already known for beer.
Many folks will recognize one of the owners, Matt Gallagher, co-founder and head brewer at Half Acre Brewing.
At Suncatcher, the team is focused on mid- to low-ABV beers, many of which fall into English-style categories, harkening back to a time before “American craft.” As the craft brewer makes an impressive surge here in 2025 and beyond, and drinkers settle back to classic styles from the hazies, overfruited sours, and heavy adjunct stouts, Suncatcher provides beers and an atmosphere with their taproom, where one can easily lose themselves for a few hours, drinking the entire time, and walking home instead of stumbling.
Sojourn Fermentory
Suffolk, VA
Submitted by: Grace Lee-Weitz, Senior Content Editor, Hop Culture
Photography courtesy of Sojourn Fermentory
Sojourn Fermentory in Suffolk, Virginia, only opened last August. Based on what we tasted, they’re off to a powerful start.
A hefeweizen had emblematic notes of baking banana bread, popping bubble gum, and toasting clove, leaning towards the sweeter estery side without being too cloying.
Likewise, a Munich dunkel elegantly balanced chocolatey crusts with leftover cake bits in the pan.
But our favorite?
Norbert, a Czech amber lager that poured a gorgeous garnet red with notes of cinnamon raisin bagel, strawberry candy, and baked pretzel.
With a slightly dry finish, we immediately wanted to take another sip.
We’re excited to see what else Sojourn Fermentory brews next year.
Kicks Brewing
Marrickville, Australia
Submitted by: Magic Muncie, Social Media Manager, Hop Culture and Untappd
Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie, Social Media Manager, Hop Culture and Untappd
Celebrating its second anniversary this year, Kicks Brewing has established a strong reputation in Australia in a short time—also earning a spot on Untappd as the ninth-highest-rated brewery in Australia. (So sure, we cheated a little here, but for Kicks Brewing, we promise it’s worth it.)
At Kicks Brewing, everything is done by hand. From milling to packaging, all the beers here are handmade with care and attention to detail. Co-founders Brendan and Jess Ibbett manage most of the operations themselves, alongside their sole employees, Cam Shea and Joab Gilroy.
Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie, Social Media Manager, Hop Culture and Untappd
Brendan oversees the production, while Jess, with her background in graphic and interior design, takes charge of various operational aspects. She not only creates their eye-catching can art but also manages Kick’s social media and marketing and even designed the inviting taproom space.
Kicks has made quite a name for itself in the area, especially when it comes to its prodigious IPAs. Whether it’s hazy or West Coast styles, Brendan lights up with enthusiasm as he shares his passion for hoppy brews. After tasting the goods, I can confidently say they craft some truly exceptional IPAs.
For instance, Rain or Shine, a 5.3% ABV hazy pale ale hopped with Citra, Motueka, and Rakau. A wonderful fruit basket of passion fruit, stone fruit, and pineapple danced on my palate.
If you want to visit Kicks, their cozy taproom is open Friday through Sunday and boasts a chill vibe and good music, with a mix of locals and beer nerds. You can usually find several lagers (three were on when I visited), a few traditional styles, and several hopped-up brews pouring from the ten draught lines on site.
Honestly, I can’t help but feel a touch of envy for those fortunate folks who enjoy this fantastic Marrickville brewery right in their backyard.
Phantom Farms Brewing
Cumberland, RI
Submitted by: Grace Lee-Weitz, Senior Content Editor, Hop Culture
Photography courtesy of Phantom Farms Brewing
We learned about Phantom Farms after they reached out, introduced themselves, and sent us a little care package of beer. We’re sure glad they did.
The award-winning brewery took home a silver medal at last spring’s World Beer Cup in the specialty saison category for a saison infused with Patagonian pepper, a spice from the sacred canelo tree in Chilean Patagonia.
Here, you can see the chops of award-winning husband-and-wife brewing duo Oscar Garrido and Andrea Riera, who hail from Chile.
Ingredients are paramount at Phantom Farms, named after its sister farm three miles down the road. For instance, you might find local dandelions in a saison in the brewery’s “Into the Valley” series.
And this Rhode Island-based brewery doesn’t just excel at beers from the land, showcasing a strong West Coast IPA and lager program, too.
We enjoyed many of the beers they sent us, but actually, the Black IPA, Warp & Weft, wowed us the most, ending up as one of our favorite beers we drank in September.
Phantom Farms Brewing opened its beautiful Cumberland taproom in the spring of 2024, but we feel they deserve a place on this year’s rankings of the Best New Breweries of 2025.
Full Frame Beer
Denver, CO
Submitted by: Dustin Jeffers, Vice President, Brewery Product & Experience, Next Glass
Full Frame may be a new name in Denver’s beer scene, but its team is anything but inexperienced. Opening in the former Jagged Mountain Brewery space, Full Frame is helmed by Alyssa, Jagged Mountain’s former head brewer (also known to many as @SouthernBeerGirl on Instagram), alongside Jacob Kemple, formerly of Our Mutual Friend, one of my favorite Denver breweries. It’s no secret that starting a brewery is one of the toughest challenges in craft beer, but when your founding team already has years of award-winning experience and local credibility, it’s a recipe for success.
Slow Body Beer
Tucson, AZ
Submitted by: Team Pick!
Photography courtesy of Slow Body Beer
Photography courtesy of Slow Body Beer
Photography courtesy of Slow Body Beer
Opened in June 2024, Slow Body Beer in Tucson, AZ, didn’t take long to build up a fervent fanbase. Any brewery that has a heavy focus on lagers automatically makes us go gaga like a googly-eyed teenager with a crush.
But Slow Body goes beyond bottom-fermentation, with a focus on what they call “session beer” as well.
Meaning, in their gorgeous taproom (where they encourage you to “settle in”), you’ll find beers like Pal, which took home a silver in the “American-Style Lager” category at this year’s Great American Beer Festival (GABF), alongside a classic, West Coast, and Nelson pale ales.
Lagerwise, last time we checked, we also saw a rice lager, Italian-style pilsner, and helles, to name a few, on tap.
Just something about this honest, approachable brewery that encourages you to slow down with slow beer. And we love everything about that.
Geisthaus Brewing Company
Sacramento, CA
Submitted by: Grace Lee-Weitz, Senior Content Editor, Hop Culture
Photography courtesy of Geisthaus Brewing Company
All lager, all the time. That’s the concept behind Geisthaus, opened by Ben Allgood and Brady Jones in February of this year. Located about halfway between Sacramento and Rancho Cordova, the Northern California brewery moved into a spot that had been vacant for nine years.
But it didn’t take long for Geisthaus to fill the space with incredible bottom-fermented beer. The fledgling brewery just brought home a gold from GABF in the Kellerbier or Zwickelbier category for its beer Palingenesis and recently received a nomination for Craft Beer & Brewing’s Readers’ Choice Favorite Breweries of the Year, landing in the eighth spot among breweries producing less than 5,000 bbls per year.
Our friends at Beer Crunchers put together an incredible interview with Allgood, which we highly recommend you read to learn more about the history, inspiration, and belief in all things lager.
For our part, we’re just excited to see beer like landbier, Munich-style helles, dunkel, and schwarzbier, and even export lager getting as much love as those OG West Coast IPAs, hazy pale ales, and Pacific Northwest-style IPAs.
Terranaut Beer
Bend, OR
Submitted by: Team Pick!
Photography courtesy of Katie Dunbar | Terranaut Beer
Winner of the 2025 Oregon Beer Awards Small Brewery of the Year award, Terranaut Beer opened in late 2024, quickly scooping up a fair few awards.
In addition to those above, the Bend, OR-based brewery took home a silver medal at last year’s GABF for Bucky, a brown ale cold-conditioned on coffee from local Backport Coffee Roasters and Madagascar vanilla.
Helmed by 10 Barrel alum Bryon Pyka, Terranaut blends terra (earth) with naut (sailor or voyager). Pyka’s beers reflect his love of mixed-fermentation sours, Pacific Northwest IPAs, English ales, and lagers.
Housed in the former Monkless space, Terranaut seems like the kind of place you’ll plan to just stop by and walk out a few hours later, wondering where the time went in the best way.
Keepsake Brewery
Gastonia, NC
Submitted by: Team Pick!
Photography courtesy of Keepsake Brewery
Named to USATODAY’s 2025 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards for best new breweries, Keepsake Brewery from Gastonia, NC, focuses on what they call “low-intervention beers.”
Helmed by Bobby and Katherine Myers, the small, family-run brewery focuses on naturally carbonated, unpasteurized, unfiltered beers with no clarifying agents.
Pure to a P, Keepsake’s core lineup consists of a helles, hefeweizen, pale ale, black lager, and radler. You’ll also see an occasional seasonal like the autumnal rauchbier. But for the most part, this tiny but mighty brewery keeps things tight, hoping only to give you a little treasure to take home with you after spending some time with them…a keepsake, if you will.
