America’s 40 Most Delicious Beers

Fruity, intense, malty, and bittersweet this English-style barley wine (meaning a hearty, potent beer — this one’s 9.6% ABV — with a wine-like intensity of flavor) available seasonally in the winter months, has won numerous beer festival awards.

A bourbon-barrel-aged imperial stout with plenty of punch (at 16% ABV) and a dose of coffee, this beer was formerly labeled as Meph Addict and also Coffeestopholes.

The Brooklyn-born brew is pale and lithe, in the Belgian saison style, but also full of flavor, with a bracing, slightly bitter finish.

Described by its makers as the “boldest, most daring, hoppiest beer we could possibly dream up,” this New England IPA is full of tropical fruit and citrus flavors.

This beer justifies borrowing the term “terroir” from wine-tasting jargon (it means the combined environmental factors that give wine grapes their distinctive character) by sourcing its malts, hops, and yeasts in its native state. Low in alcohol (3.7% ABV), it has a lightly fruity character, with some peppery spice.

Very dark and chocolatey, with suggestions of licorice and vanilla and a subtle flavor of sweet whiskey, courtesy of its year-long aging in bourbon barrels.

A dense, heavy Russian imperial stout, weighing in at 13.1% ABV, Fyodor floods the palate with flavors of chocolate, coffee, caramel, and vanilla.

A wintertime stout brewed with molasses and licorice and aged in oak. Smokey and complex.

Cloudy and frothy, but fresh and juicy, with citrusy hops character, plenty of fruit on the palate, and an attractively bitter finish.

A chocolately, high-strength, jet black imperial stout from a one-time independent craft brewery now owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev, of Budweiser fame. Aged, in its most recent incarnation, is a combination of Wild Turkey, Buffalo Trace, and Heaven Hill bourbon barrels, which add a pronounced whiskey note.

Hopped generously (six different varietals are used), but softened with a touch of honey; intensely fragrant and reasonably potent at 10% ABV.

A light, accessible, refreshing coriander-spiced Belgian-style session ale — meaning a low-strength, well-balanced beer brewed for drinkability (this one’s 4.8% ABV).

A fruity, vinous farmhouse ale, produced by aging the brewery’s similarly named Anna ale (brewed with 20% Vermont wildflower honey) in French oak wine barrels.

The most popular of AleSmith’s Speedway stouts, a vividly flavored 12% ABV offering brewed with four varieties of Vietnamese coffee. (There is also a bourbon-barrel-aged version.)

Creamy, malty, and aromatic, this imperial stout is complex and intense, with a noticeable bourbon-barrel character, but remains easily drinkable.

A hazy, bittersweet IPA, generously hopped but with plenty of malt coming through, a floral character, and notes of citrus and tropical fruit.

A wild or sour ale (made with wild yeast and/or various bacteria), flowery and fruity, brewed with Missouri white peaches and fermented and aged in chardonnay barrels.

Brewed with locally sourced Ryan Bros. coffee and roasted barley and aged for up to a year in bourbon barrels; chocolate, vanilla, and coffee in the mouth, with a hint of bourbon flavor.

A pale ale — formerly marketed as Cenotaph — strongly flavored with Yakima Valley Citra hops; resinous in the nose; fruity and yeasty.

Talk about beer for breakfast: This assertive (12%ABV) porter, is bourbon-barrel-aged and flavored with coffee, bacon, and maple syrup.

This high-octane (14% ABV) imperial stout offers flavors of dark chocolate, tobacco, malt, and bourbon-barrel oak; from a Central Coast wine country brewery now owned by the major Belgian brewery Duvel Moortgat.

A rich, malty, and earthy imperial stout brewed with what Founders calls “a massive amount of coffee and chocolates;” according to one Beer Advocate reviewer, “The look is epic — black like Texas crude.”

Very dark in color, with plenty of malt in the nose; rich and chewy, with a flavor that evokes chocolate, raisins, dates, and caramel.

A classic double IPA (one given extra heft by additional hops and malt), reminiscent of the same brewery’s Sip of Sunshine (No. 25), but maltier, as might be expected, with a subtle but agreeable fruity character.

A Golden State interpretation of the classic Belgian style called gueuze (hence the punning name). Gueuze is a type of lambic — beer fermented with wild yeasts and bacteria — made by blending. young and older barrel-aged beers. This one is lively and redolent of stone fruits, with some tartness and sweetness.

The coffee-dosed elaboration of Goose Island’s regular Bourbon County Stout (No. 31), malty and dark, with hints of bourbon and an aromatic infusion of high-quality coffee beans (the sources vary year to year).

A heady imperial stout (14.3% ABV), blended with Madagascar vanilla beans and aged in bourbon barrels; rich and dark, but with fairly subtle oak and whiskey flavors.

At 14% ABV, an intense, complex imperial stout, syrupy and raisiny, with notes of chocolate and marshmallow.

A dry, fresh, clean double IPA, fruity and spicy, with a resiny flavor and lightly bitter finish.

Malty and slightly bitter, an imperial double IPA with an earthy, grassy hop character in the nose and plenty of malt and citrus on the palate.

Imperial stout, rich and well-balanced, brewed with coffee and maple syrup, medium-rich and sweet at 12.8% ABV.

Named for the Two Hearted River in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, a well-rounded IPA, fresh and smooth, with plenty of malt supporting forthright hop aromas and a piney hops flavor.

A double New England IPA — a beefier sibling to Tree House’s popular Julias IPA — with plenty of hops and a profusion of tropical fruit flavors.

Very dark and viscous — a spicy seasonal imperial stout brewed with cinnamon sticks, ancho chiles, cacao nibs, and vanilla beans and aged for a year in Rittenhouse Rye barrels.

Dark, smooth, sweet, and oaky; brewed with what its makers call “a blend of coffees and imported chocolates” and aged in bourbon barrels that had previously held Michigan maple syrup.

A rich, thick, black stout, aged in rum and apple brandy barrels with cacao nibs, ancho and pasilla chiles, cinnamon, and Madagascar vanilla beans, adding up to a heady (11% ABV) dessert in a glass.

Pliny the Elder (see No. 11) is a double IPA. This piney, floral offering, with a touch of smoothing sweetness, is a triple — made with three times the usual ration of hops.

Sweet, strong (15% ABV), and so thick that it’s almost chewy, with an aroma that’s part vintage Port, part molasses. There are a number of Dark Lord variations, in vintages ranging from 2007 through 2019, sold only at the brewery on one day each year. Bad news: It was June 30 this year — but check darklordday.com for next year’s date.

The seminal New England double IPA , sold in cans — bitter but well-balanced and full of floral, citrusy, and piney flavors. Considered, as one Beer Advocate reviewer put it, “the granddaddy that today’s IPAs were born from.”

Ranked No. 1 on the most recent Beer Advocate listing of America’s top 250 beers, with an almost perfect score, this imperial stout is thick, dark, sweet, complex, smooth, and memorable, combining flavors of chocolate, coffee, maple syrup, bourbon, figs, toffee, and vanilla to what its many fans consider transcendent effect.