The Best Beer Content

Hop Culture is home to expertly crafted content about beer and the craft beer community.

What Is a Gruit?

A beer without hops! We promise it's not blasphemous.
A beer without hops? It might sound blasphemous, but there was a time when brewers didn’t use hops to bring flavor, aroma, bitterness, and preservation ...
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Hop Culture’s Guide to Barrel-Aging Stout, Barleywine, and More

Lock, stock, and...barrel.
Almost thirty years ago in 1992 Chicago-based Goose Island became the first U.S. craft brewery to mass-produce and market their bourbon whiskey barrel-aged beer, Bourbon ...
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The 25 Best Beer Labels of 2021

The best art inside and outside the can.
Pops of vibrant color. Witty names. Hints at pop culture. Incredible geometric shapes. Whimsical characters. These are just a few of the elements that we’ve ...
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Hop Culture’s 7 Best Candy-Inspired Beers for Halloween

Trick or treating for adults.
Fall means the return of many things. We break out Oktoberfests, Märzens, and festbiers to celebrate the harvest. And of course for a few weeks ...
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The Top 10 Beers We Drank in October 2021

Frighteningly good beer.
Do you know one of the best perks of being the Managing Editor at a beer magazine? You receive plenty of free beer. In fact, ...
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Winemakers Blend Firestone Walker’s 25th Anniversary Beer

Blending Firestone Walker's 25th Anniversary Ale
In front of me sat pipettes, beakers, and pitchers of five of Firestone Walker’s best barrel-aged beers of 2021. And beside me sat three of ...
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What Is a Smoked Beer?

Beer up in smoke.
History and the craft beer industry are cyclical. Crazes and trends come and go. Then come back again, go once more, and on and on. ...
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What Is a Vienna Lager?

A fairly rare find.
The Vienna lager isn’t your perennial tap list darling. In fact, this copper-hued and malt-forward brew is a fairly rare find. Partly because it’s a ...
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We Have the Official Answer on the Difference between a Porter and a Stout. Or Do We?

The age old question answered.
When a chill enters the air and the calendar flips to fall people often start shelving their IPAs and busting out their dark beers. Hops, ...
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The 20 Best Beers to Drink in Fall 2021

Our favorite festive fall finds.
Disclaimer: I f***king love fall. In fact, as I’m writing this, I’m watching the Minnesota Vikings beat the Seattle Seahawks. I just poured a Copper ...
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How to Increase Yield without Compromising Quality

Beer centrifuges lead to higher yields and higher quality beer.
Since stories about the latest beer releases often dominate the media and Instagram feeds, it’s easy to forget that brewing techniques themselves are constantly advancing. ...
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The Top 5 Hard Seltzers We’re Drinking Right Now

We're keeping summer alive with bubbles!
As we recently finished up Labor Day Weekend, we know that the fall months are ahead of us. The leaves may start to turn darker ...
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Hop Culture’s Guide to Spontaneous Fermentation

Spontaneous fermentation is one of the most romantic processes in the beer brewing world. But also, arguably one of the most confusing. Historically, some believe ...
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What Exactly Is a Golden Ale?

The golden years of a golden beer.
When the summer heat cranks up to what these days feels like 110 degrees and the humidity makes it feel like you’re walking through an ...
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9 Brewers Share Their Favorite Beach Beers

Sand, surf, and suds.
As craft beer lovers and writers, we’re constantly keeping our ears to the ground (and our mouths to the glasses) to find what’s new and ...
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What Is a Sour IPA?

It's a sour. But, it's also a hazy IPA.
“Some things just go better together and probably always will,” warbles Luke Combs on “Better Together,” one of the singles off his 2020 record What ...
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