2022 is almost over. Throughout this year, there were a ridiculous number of beers launched from well over 9,000 breweries across the U.S. alone. Some were decent and a great number… weren’t very memorable at all. But a few of them were breathtakingly wonderful — the kind of beers you tell your friends about with eyes wide and hands gesticulating wildly. We’re talking delicious, nuanced, well-balanced brews.
Cream of the crop. Leaders of the pack. Hot shit.
For this list, we decided to really go for it. These are the saisons, barleywines, IPAs, sour beers, lagers, and stouts that we found to be truly memorable and transcendent in 2022. Out of all the beers we sipped this year, these stood out among the crowd due to their balanced, bold flavors, and effortless drinkability. To add to the overall excitement (if that’s even possible), we ranked them from 50 to one. Keep scrolling to see which beers made our final list as “the best beers of 2022.”
50) North Coast Pacific Magic
ABV: 6.8%
Release Date: May 2022
Price: $13.99 for a six-pack
The Beer:
Released last spring, North Coast Pacific Magic is the popular brewery’s take on the classic IPA. While it’s brewed on the West Coast, it’s more of a mix of a West Coast IPA and a refreshing, crisp pilsner. The result is a piney, floral IPA without all of the aggressiveness that comes with some of the other IPAs on the market.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is all resinous pine, floral hops, and light tropical fruit aromas. It invites you in to see what the palate has to offer. Drinking it reveals notes of peach, tangerine, grapefruit, and a crisp, refreshing, sweet finish. While it has floral, piney hops, it doesn’t have the bite you expect from a West Coast IPA.
Bottom Line:
We love this beer because it ticks boxes for multiple beer fans. It’s great for fans of crisp lagers or piney IPAs. It has one foot in each camp and it does it very well.
49) Timber Ales ForEverett
ABV: 12%
Release Date: July 2022
Price: $9.99 for a 16-ounce can
The Beer:
The folks at Timber Ales crafted this beer to pay homage to their beloved dog named (you guessed it) Everett. It’s an imperial stout that was conditioned on vanilla beans, coffee, and even roasted peanuts. The result is a nutty, chocolate, and coffee-filled stout you won’t forget.
Tasting Notes:
On the nose, you’ll find the aromas of salted peanuts, roasted malts, chocolate, and freshly brewed coffee. The palate continues this trend with more peanut butter flavor enveloped in dark chocolate, vanilla, caramel, and roasted coffee beans. It’s complex, bold, and totally warming.
Bottom Line:
This is like the beer form of a cup of coffee paired with a peanut butter cup. And while we don’t know if that combination works well on its own, we know it absolutely works in beer form.
48) Ommegang Oak Aged Tripel
ABV: 9%
Release Date: May 2022
Price: $16.99 for a four-pack
The Beer:
For those who aren’t familiar with Brewery Ommegang is like someone plucked a Belgian brewery and dropped it right into the rolling hills of Cooperstown, New York. While the brewery has myriad great beers, its 2022 release of Ommegang Oak Aged Tripel is really special. This fruity, complex Belgian-style ale was aged on oak chips.
Tasting Notes:
The nose begins with candied orange peels, cinnamon, oak, and dried fruits. It’s enticing and unique and leaves you ready for your first sip. This is when vanilla beans, dried fruits, honey, caramel malts, plum, and oak make an appearance.
Bottom Line:
This is a really complex, flavorful Belgian-style ale. Its fruity, caramel-sweet, oaky flavor should appeal to fans of Belgian-style ales and anyone looking for a unique, fruity beer.
47) BlackStack Loud Bits
ABV: 8%
Release Date: June 2022
Price: $23.99 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
The brewers at BlackStack Brewing collaborated with the folks at Weldwerks to craft a mash-up of Blackstack’s Loud Pack double IPA and Weldwerks’ well-known Juicy Bits IPA (hence the name Loud Bits). It gets its bright, floral, piney flavor from the addition of Mosaic, Citra, Galaxy, and El Dorado hops.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is tangerine, grapefruit, peach, and dank, piney hops. On the palate, you’ll find flavors like mango, caramelized pineapple, peach, grapefruit, and melon all with a sweet, slightly bitter, dank finish. It’s a great mix of tropical fruit sweetness and dank hops.
Bottom Line:
This is a great beer for drinkers who want to enjoy the slightly bitter dank flavor of a bold, hoppy IPA and the juicy, tropical fruit flavors of a hazy, New England-style IPA. It’s the best of both worlds.
46) Hop Butcher Double Snorkel Squad
ABV: 8%
Release Date: September 2022
Price: $7.99 for a 16-ounce can
The Beer:
Hop Butcher Double Snorkel Squad is a double IPA brewed with Citra hops. It’s a banger with notable citrus peel and resinous pine flavors. It was launched right at the end of the summer almost as a last IPA hurrah before the colder weather started.
Tasting Notes:
A fruity nose of tangerine, mango, peach, passion fruit, grapefruit, and pine greets you before your first sip. The taste follows suit with ripe orange, caramelized pineapple, grapefruit, guava, mango, and dank, resinous, lightly floral hops making an appearance. The finish is a crisp mix of sweetness and bitterness.
Bottom Line:
It’s the kind of beer that appeals to classic IPA fans and fruity IPA fans alike. This is why it stands above the rest of the IPA class this year.
45) Stone 26th Anniversary Imperial IPA
ABV: 9.7%
Release Date: August 2022
Price: $20 for a six-pack
The Beer:
In the pantheon of IPAs, it’s tough to beat the universal appeal of the classic West Coast IPA made by Stone Brewing. That’s why we were so excited when the popular brewery released a dank, citrus-filled, Centennial hop-based imperial IPA this past August.
Tasting Notes:
Before your first sip, you’re greeted with a nose of lemongrass, caramel malts, mango, guava, ripe melon, grapefruit, and resinous pine needles. There’s more of the same on the palate with caramel, honeydew melon, grapefruit, tangerine, and earthy, herbal, piney hops. The finish is perfectly bitter and dank.
Bottom Line:
If you’re a West Coast IPA fan or a simply a fan of Stone’s beers, you’ll love the flavor explosion of this very special IPA.
44) Rogue Gumberoo
ABV: 6.8%
Release Date: January 2022
Price: $12.99 for a six-pack
The Beer:
Brewed with 2-row and Munich malts, as well as wheat and Pacman yeast and Mosaic, Simcoe, Belma, Idaho 7 hops, this West Coast IPA was made to pay tribute to a monstrous bear-like creature lovingly referred to as Gumberoo.
Tasting Notes:
Classic West Coast IPA aromas of caramel malts, grapefruit, tangerine, mango, and dank, floral pine greet you first. The palate continues this with more orange peel, guava, pineapple, ripe grapefruit, and floral, herbal earthy, resinous pine needles. The finish is dry, sweet, and just the right amount of hop bitterness.
Bottom Line:
Unlike the harsh bitterness of some West Coast IPAs, Gumberoo manages to have all the flavor IPA drinkers expect with a better balance of sweetness and bitterness at the finish. That alone makes it one of our favorites of the year.
43) Allagash My One & Only
ABV: 5.5%
Release Date: January 2022
Price: $16.50 for a 375ml bottle
The Beer:
Allagash is as well known for its popular year-long beers like Allagash White, River Trip, and North Sky as it is for its innovative, exciting specialty releases. A great example is its My One & Only release from January. This red ale was soured in an oak foeder before raspberries, plums, and “pluerrys” (plum and cherry hybrid) are added.
Tasting Notes:
Fruity, funk aromas of raspberries, dried cherries, and rich oak are prevalent on the nose. Sipping it reveals notes of tart cherries, raspberries, fruit esters, wine-like tannins, oak, and a nice kick of sour, tart flavor that runs throughout. It’s slightly acidic and sparkling.
Bottom Line:
We love this tart, slightly sweet brew for its explosion of fruit flavors. It’s the kind of beer you’ll need to drink more than once to find all the various notes.
42) Fremont 13th Anniversary Barrel-Aged Golden Barleywine
ABV: 13.6%
Release Date: August 2022
Price: $27.99 for a 22-ounce bottle
The Beer:
This barrel-aged golden ale was launched in August to celebrate Fremont’s thirteenth anniversary. This bold, 13.6% barleywine is a blend of aged barleywine that got its memorable vanilla, honey, oak, and dried fruit flavor from being matured in barrels that formerly held Heaven Hill bourbon.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a ton of whiskey on this beer’s nose. There are also aromas of caramel, raisins, vanilla beans, and oaky wood. Drinking it reveals a nutty sweetness with rich oak, prunes, fruit esters, honey, toffee, and warming whiskey. Overall, it’s a pleasantly warming, fruity, slightly spicy barley wine perfect for a special occasion.
Bottom Line:
This beer was brewed to celebrate an anniversary and it’s exactly the type of beer to cellar and then bring out for a special occasion with friends and family. It will only get better with age.
41) Untitled Art Rocky Road Stout
ABV: 11%
Release Date: March 2022
Price: $21.99 for a four-pack
The Beer:
Untitled Art goes above and beyond. This is exactly what the Wisconsin-based brewery did when it launched its Rocky Road Stout in collaboration with Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream. The beer itself is brewed with cocoa nibs, toasted marshmallows, vanilla beans, almonds, and milk sugar.
Tasting Notes:
Cracking this beer open and you’ll be surprised you’re not smelling the aroma of rocky road ice cream itself. There’s a ton of chocolate, marshmallows, and toasted almonds on the nose. The palate is dark chocolate, toasted marshmallows, toffee, dried fruits, and vanilla. The finish is decadent and sweet.
Bottom Line:
This is a beer for not only drinkers who enjoy indulgent dessert-like beers, but those who’d enjoy a beer that literally tastes like a dessert. It’s one of the best dessert beers of the year.
40) Zero Gravity Such A Night
ABV: 8.3%
Release Date: January 2022
Price: $13.99 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
This 8.3% ABV double IPA is brewed with Talus, Simcoe, and Citra hops. It also features Rahr Premium Pilsner malts, Weyermann Vienna malts, and Rahr white wheat. It’s known for its hazy appearance and mix of caramel malts and citrus and floral hops.
Tasting Notes:
Grapefruit, orange peel, ripe melon, tropical fruits, caramel malts, and pine needles are found on the nose. The palate is loaded with grapefruit, tangerine, pineapple, melon, lemongrass, bready malts, slight spices, and earthy, herbal piney hops. The finish is a mix of sweetness and very little bitterness.
Bottom Line:
If you’re a double IPA fan, but you prefer sweetness over bitterness, this is the beer for you. It’s well-balanced and still manages to tick all the IPA boxes well. You’d have a hard time finding a better example this year.
39) Idle Hands Weinlager
ABV: 6%
Release Date: January 2022
Price: $17.99 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
We have to be honest, when we first heard about this beer we weren’t so sure we’d enjoy it. It starts off as a German-style lager. We can definitely get behind that. Here’s where it gets a little strange. The lager is then aged on chardonnay juice making it a wine-flavored lager.
Tasting Notes:
Grape juice, fruit esters, cereal grains, citrus zest, and lightly floral hops are prevalent on the nose. Drinking it brings us flavors of cracker-like malts, mango, pineapple, fruit esters, grape juice, and a light floral finish. It’s dry, sweet, and surprisingly crushable.
Bottom Line:
This is a beer both for lager drinkers and fans of sweet wine. It’s literally the best of both worlds and a beer you need to try if you can still find it.
38) Great Notion Trèance
ABV: 8.6%
Release Date: May 2022
Price: $11.99 for a 16-ounce can
The Beer:
We know all about seances, but have you ever heard of a “treance?” We can only assume it’s a séance but in beer form. Great Notion collaborated with The Belmont Fermentorium and Ruse Brewing to craft this hazy double IPA featuring oats and Strata hop hash in the whirlpool. To add to that, it’s dry-hopped with Strata, Citra, Vic Secret hops, and Phantasm powder (hence the spooky name and label).
Tasting Notes:
Before sipping, you’re greeted with a nose of caramel malts, sweet oats, tangerine, grapefruit, and earthy, bright, piney hops. The palate is loaded with tropical fruits, citrus zest, creamy oats, resinous pine, and sweet caramel malts. It’s a juicy, sweet, slightly bitter beer worthy of acclaim.
Bottom Line:
It’s tough to propel a New England-style IPA above the crowd these days and this one absolutely does it with its balance and complexity.
37) Finback Rakau Drip
ABV: 9%
Release Date: July 2022
Price: $7.99 for a 16-ounce can
The Beer:
This double IPA from the masterful brewers at Brooklyn’s Finback gets its name from being dry-hopped with Cryo Pop and Rakau hops. The latter is a New Zealand-based hop known for its apricot, pine, lime, and tropical fruit flavors.
Tasting Notes:
On the nose, you’ll find ripe peach, tangerine, grapefruit, grape-like aromas, lemon zest, and pine needles. The palate is tremendously sweet and juicy and is filled with flavors like mango, guava, passion fruit, lemongrass, caramel malts, and floral, herbal, barely bitter hops at the finish.
Bottom Line:
This is a beer for the true hazy IPA fans. It’s borderline juice in the best way possible. It might be the juiciest beer of the year.
36) Central Waters Brewer’s Reserve Vanilla Rye Stout
ABV: 13.1%
Release Date: January 2022
Price: Limited Availability
The Beer:
Not surprisingly, many barrel-aged stouts are aged in bourbon barrels. The corn-based whiskey imparts vanilla, chocolate, caramel, and other flavors to the beer. While that is all well and good, some brewers opt for a different flavor profile. This includes the brewers at Central Waters. Their Brewers Reserve Rye Barrel Stout is aged for a full year in ex-rye barrels. The addition of vanilla gives the beer a sweet, slightly spicy flavor profile.
Tasting Notes:
Complex aromas of oaky wood, peppery rye, milk chocolate, caramel, and vanilla beans are prevalent on the nose. The palate is more of the same with cocoa, rye, oak, and toffee being outpaced by toasted vanilla beans. It’s sweet, warming, and surprisingly balanced.
Bottom Line:
Central Waters Brewer’s Reserve Vanilla Rye Stout is a great imperial stout. Where it stands above the rest is with its wintry spices.
35) Alesmith Party Tricks
ABV: 6.8%
Release Date: January 2022
Price: $16 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
Alesmith is a big name in the West Coast IPA game. That’s why we were so excited when we heard they released a new IPA in January. We weren’t disappointed by this Strata, El Dorado, and Citra-heaped IPA.
Tasting Notes:
Complex aromas of tangerine, lemon zest, wet grass, ripe berries, peach, grapefruit, and pine needles. The palate is all grapefruit, orange peel, honeydew melon, mango, lime, wet grass, and herbal dank pine. The finish is dry, resinous, and has a nice bitter kick.
Bottom Line:
If you’re looking for balance in your West Coast IPA. Look no further than Alesmith Party Tricks. All of the ingredients work together in perfect harmony.
34) Boulevard Proper Pour
ABV: 13.8%
Release Date: March 2022
Price: $14.50 for a four-pack
The Beer:
You don’t often see imperial stouts aged in more than one barrel, but this is exactly what the brewers at Kansas City’s Boulevard did. First, this imperial stout is matured in ex-bourbon barrels. Then it’s aged for six months in ruby port casks that were previously used to age rye whiskey. The result is a sweet, spicy, warming symphony.
Tasting Notes:
Raisins, dried cherries, fruit esters, chocolate, caramel, and light spices make up this stout’s nose. Sipping it brings forth notes of dark chocolate, candied cherries, white grapes, port wine, warming bourbon, and toffee. It’s a sublimely complex beer where all the flavors intermingle and work perfectly.
Bottom Line:
This is a stout for the barrel-aged fan who feels like they’ve already tried it all. The use of port wine barrels that once aged rye whiskey gives this beer a unique taste that you need to try.
33) Abomination Imperial Midnight Snack Biscotti Break Stout
ABV: 12.5%
Release Date: April 2022
Price: $8.99 for a 16-ounce can
The Beer:
If you’re a fan of Evil Twin, you probably recognize this beer’s name due to its similarity to their wildly popular Imperial Biscotti Break. This is because Abomination collaborated with Evil Twin to make this 12% ABV pastry stout brewed with coffee, almonds, and vanilla beans.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a ton of coffee on this beer’s nose as well as roasted malts, toffee candy, and toasted vanilla beans. The palate, although equally coffee centered also features almond cookies, vanilla beans, chocolate, and roasted malts. The finish is a nice mix of sweet vanilla and bitter coffee.
Bottom Line:
If you’ve tried and enjoyed Evil Twin Imperial Biscotti Break, it would behoove you to grab some cans of this even more delicious, memorable, warming stout.
32) Anderson Valley The Pilsner
ABV: 5.2%
Release Date: September 2022
Price: $11.99 for a six-pack
The Beer:
Brewed with Magnum, Mittelfruh hops as well as Pilsner malt, this is a classic throwback style pilsners. This new year-round offering from the folks at Anderson Valley is crushable, crisp, and refreshing any day of the year.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is sweet with cereal grains, sweet corn, citrus, and a fruity sweetness. The palate continue this course with a refreshing, slightly sweet, totally crisp mix of pilsner malts, cereal grains, citrus peels, and tropical fruits. It’s just a thirst-quenching, easy-going beer.
Bottom Line:
Sometimes simple is better and that’s the case with Anderson Valley The Pilsner. It doesn’t even have a flashy name. It’s just an amazing example of crisp, light simplicity in action.
31) Fox Farm The Cavern
ABV: 7%
Release Date: March 2022
Price: Limited Availability
The Beer:
This Doppelbock was brewed with Connecticut-sourced barley that was smoked over oak, local and German malts, as well as Spalt Select and Tettnang hops. It was also cave lagered for more than three months. The result is a smoky, rich, beer you’ll want to drink over and over again.
Tasting Notes:
This beer is quite smoky and woody on the nose. If that’s your jam, you’ll be pretty excited to sip it. The flavor is smoked bacon, roasted malts, caramel, and vanilla. It’s smoky, rich, and unique. It’s the kind of beer that needs to be tasted to be believed.
Bottom Line:
This rich, robust beer was by far our favorite smoky beer of the year. Seek this beer out if you’re a fan of smoked beers.
30) Deschutes The Abyss Coconut
ABV: 14.3%
Release Date: May 2022
Price: $19.99 for a four-pack
The Beer:
Deschutes The Abyss is a popular barrel-aged imperial stout. The only thing that could make it even better would be the addition of roasted coconut flakes, licorice, cherry bark, and vanilla.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is a symphony of dried cherries, milk chocolate, toasted coconut, candied orange peels, and rich oak. The palate is filled with graham crackers, toasted marshmallows, dark chocolate, roasted malts, dried fruits, and a nice kick of coconut that swirls throughout.
Bottom Line:
This is like an Almond Joy (or Mounds Bar) in beer form. Exceptionally so. Chocolate, dried fruits, and toasted coconut make this an exceptionally warming stout.
29) Redhook Lagersquatch
ABV: 5%
Release Date: April 2022
Price: $6.99 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
Named to pay tribute to the mythical hairy bipedal known to wonder the forests of the Pacific Northwest, Redhook Lagersquatch is a classic, crisp lager brewed with 2-row and Munich malts as well as Sterlin and Hallertau hops.
Tasting Notes:
The first aromas you notice on the nose are those of cereal grains, white grape juice, citrus peels, and floral hops. Sipping it brings forth bready malts, caramel, citrus zest, and more floral hops. The finish is dry, sweet, and refreshing.
Bottom Line:
Lagersquatch isn’t overly complex and that’s… kind of the point. It’s crisp, refreshing, and has everything a lager fan could want. We highly recommend this beer.
28) Dogfish Head Wake Up World Wide Stout
ABV: 17%
Release Date: September 2022
Price: $18.99 for a 12-ounce bottle
The Beer:
This highly unique beer is brewed with regeneratively-grown grains, cold-pressed coffee, plant-based milk, and maple syrup. It’s ridiculously high in alcohol content (17% this time around) and brimming with breakfast flavors like coffee, chocolate, and maple syrup.
Tasting Notes:
The nose begins with roasted malts, dark chocolate, caramel candy, vanilla beans, cinnamon sugar, and freshly brewed coffee. Drinking it reveals hints of bitter chocolate, cinnamon, vanilla, maple candy, espresso, and lightly bitter hops. The finish is dry and pleasantly bitter.
Bottom Line:
We don’t always drink beer at breakfast, but this year (when we did) we drank this coffee-filled AM banger above all others.
27) Other Half Vegan Cheddar
ABV: 8.2%
Release Date: June 2022
Price: Limited Availability
The Beer:
Well-known craft brewery Other Half collaborated with Fidens Brewing to make a mash-up of their most well-known beers: Fidens The Vegan and Other Half Cheddar. The result was Vegan Cheddar with its liberal use of Citra, Galaxy, Nelson Sauvin, Ekuanot, and Kohatu hops. Naturally, this beer contains no lactose whatsoever.
Tasting Notes:
On the nose, you’ll find aromas of caramel, bready malts, ripe mango, fruit esters, pineapple, grapefruit, and earthy, herbal, floral hops. The palate continues this trend with more juicy tropical fruit flavors, citrus peels, sweet malts, and piney, herbal, slightly bitter hops at the finish. It’s so loaded with hop aroma and flavor, it will take a few samplings to find all the various flavors.
Bottom Line:
This one is for the hopheads. Other Half makes amazing IPAs and this is their best new release of the year.
26) Alaskan Pilsner
ABV: 4.8%
Release Date: February 2022
Price: $8.99 for a six-pack
The Beer:
Alaskan Brewing is well-known for its Icy Bay IPA and Smoked Porter (among other beers), but this past spring it launched a classic Czech-style pilsner. And while the website doesn’t list its ingredients for some reason, it’s a traditional crisp, clean, slightly sweet, well-balanced easy drinking pilsner for any occasion.
Tasting Notes:
A nose of cereal grains, lemon zest, cracker-like malts, and light fruity aromas greet you before your first sip. The palate is clean, crisp, and highly refreshing with cracker malts, wet grass, cereal grains, and light lemon zest. It’s simple, no-frills, and easy to drink.
Bottom Line:
While there are a ton of new pilsners on the market, Alaskan Pilsner stands above the crowd because of its balance. It’s crushable and perfectly balanced.
25) Perennial Sump Coffee Stout (2022 Variant)
ABV: 11.5%
Release Date: January 2022
Price: Limited Availability
The Beer:
If you’re an imperial stout fan, you’ve probably tried Perennial’s beloved sweet, chocolatey, spicy banger called Abraxas. Well, the Missouri-based brewery has more to offer in the imperial stout realm. Sump Coffee Stout was brewed in collaboration with Sump Coffee. This version is made with roasted coffee beans exclusively from Costa Rica.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is centered on scents of bitter chocolate, caramel, roasted malts, and freshly brewed dark roast coffee. Drinking it reveals more of the same. Dark chocolate, dried fruits, fruit esters, vanilla, roasted malts, and bold dark roast coffee make up this beer’s palate. It’s bold, complex, and memorable.
Bottom Line:
Fans of coffee and imperial stouts should rejoice when they see this beer on the shelf at their local beer store. It has everything they could want in an imperial stout.
24) Modestman Iron Galaxy
ABV: 8.5%
Release Date: January 2022
Price: Limited Availability
The Beer:
This double IPA gets its name because it’s a single-hop IPA made solely with Galaxy hops. For those unaware, Galaxy hops are known for their high concentration of bright citrus and tropical fruit flavors. Using it as the only hop in the recipe gives this beer a juicy, citrus, and dank flavor profile.
Tasting Notes:
Complex aromas of tangerine, ripe peach, guava, mango, candied pineapple, and dank, herbal, floral hops are your gateway to this beer. This leads to flavors of mango, passion fruit, orange peels, lemongrass, grapefruit, caramel malts, and more resinous, gently bitter hops. Dry, sweet, and slightly bitter at the finish.
Bottom Line:
This beer is a great example of how the usage of one single hop can define a beer’s aromas and flavor. This is one for the Galaxy fans.
23) Skookum Falcon & the Falconer
ABV: 12%
Release Date: February 2022
Price: Limited Availability
The Beer:
This flavorful brew is made from a complex blend of barleywines. The first lot is from a brew that was matured for twenty-four months in Four Roses bourbon barrels blended with a barleywine aged for fifteen months in Templeton rye barrels.
Tasting Notes:
Bourbon, raisins, dried fruits, caramel, and wintry spices are prevalent on the nose. Drinking it reveals notes of prunes, dried cherries, toasted vanilla beans, sweet bourbon, cracked black pepper, and wintry spices. The finish is sweet, spicy, and warming like a glass of whiskey.
Bottom Line:
This barleywine is for both bourbon & rye whiskey fans. It’s like someone took a fruitcake and made it into beer and then poured booze all over it.
22) Bottle Logic Lost Coordinates
ABV: 14.5%
Release Date: February 2022
Price: $38.99 for a 500ml bottle
The Beer:
This beer starts as Fundamental Observation 2019 that’s blended with double mash Fundamental Observation from 2022. It’s then aged with three exotic vanilla beans. The result is an imperial stout with dried fruit, vanilla, and chocolate flavors throughout.
Tasting Notes:
Toasted vanilla beans, cocoa, sweet bourbon, cinnamon, and various wintry spice flavors make up this beer’s nose. On the palate, you’ll find bitter chocolate, coffee beans, roasted malts, dried fruits, seasonal spices, and a nice kick of floral, sweet, herbal vanilla. It’s warming, sweet, and highly flavorful.
Bottom Line:
This imperial stout has all of the flavors stout fans love, but it shines with the unique, varying floral, sweet, indulgent flavors the different vanilla beans bring.
21) Trillium Endless Coconut
ABV: 15.6%
Release Date: January 2022
Price: Limited Availability
The Beer:
The brewers at Trillium are constantly experimenting and innovating with barrel-aged beers. Endless Coconut is an imperial stout matured for more than three years in a combination of rum and bourbon barrels. The addition of actual coconut gives this beer its name as well as its unique, tropical flavor.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a ton of coconut on this stout’s nose. There are also hints of chocolate, bourbon, and dried fruits. This all leads you to a palate of toasted coconuts, bitter chocolate, dried cherries, raisins, roasted malts, and warming, sweet bourbon. This is a sublimely complex, sweet, rich winter sipper.
Bottom Line:
2022 seems to be the year of the barrel-aged coconut stout. We love this one because of the addition of dried fruits that adds to the coconut flavor.
20) Weldwerks Summer Starry Noche
ABV: 14.6%
Release Date: June 2022
Price: Limited Availability
The Beer:
This imperial stout is a blend of Medianoche batches that were matured between nineteen and twenty-four months in various well-known bourbon and rye barrels. It was conditioned with three pounds of toasted coconut flakes, raw coconut chips, and toasted macadamia nuts to give it a truly unique flavor.
Tasting Notes:
A nose of dark chocolate, sweet bourbon, peppery rye, candied pecans, and toasted coconut greet you before your first sip. Drinking it reveals hints of dried fruits, bourbon, oaky wood, chocolate fudge, caramel, a nutty sweetness, and more toasted coconut. It’s sweet, nutty, loaded with coconut flavor, and exceptionally indulgent.
Bottom Line:
If coconut is the name of the game in 2022, this beer is for fans of the toasted tropical fruit as well as drinkers who enjoy chocolate-coated nutty sweetness.
19) Toppling Goliath Think Piece
ABV: 7.8%
Release Date: March 2022
Price: $20 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
Toppling Goliath and Untitled Art are highly respected craft breweries. So it’s no surprise that when the duo collaborated to make an imperial IPA, it would be one of the best beers of the year. Citra, Riwaka, and Sabro hops give this beer its bright, piney flavor profile.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is a mix of orange pulp, lemon peel, wet grass, grapefruit, honeydew melon, pineapple, and herbal, piney hops. While the nose is inviting, the plate, with mango, guava, caramelized pineapple, grapefruit, lemon, tangerine, and resinous, dank pine, is even better.
Bottom Line:
This is a great beer for anyone looking for a traditional, well-made imperial IPA. Everything seems to work in perfect harmony to create just the right sweetness-to-bitterness ratio.
18) Parish DDH Ghost in the Machine (2022)
ABV: 9.3%
Release Date: April 2022
Price: Limited Availability
The Beer:
This double dry-hopped version of Parish’s popular Ghost in the Machine IPA dropped in April. It’s a hazy, juicy, memorable IPA loaded solely with Citra hops. Really, that’s it.
Tasting Notes:
Grapefruit, tangerine, peach, pineapple, lemon, and dank pine are notable aromas on the nose. The citrus party continues with more ripe grapefruit, orange peel, lemon, tangerine, peach, mango, and more resinous, earthy pine at the finish.
Bottom Line:
This one is for the citrus fans. If that’s you, this is absolutely the IPA for you. The liberal use of Citra hops propels this beer into a different stratosphere.
17) Revolution Coconut Deth
ABV: 14.3%
Release Date: June 2022
Price: Limited Availability
The Beer:
Another beer carrying the coconut mantle for the year is Revolution Coconut Deth. This limited-release imperial stout started as Deth’s Tar Barrel-aged Imperial Oatmeal Stout that was aged with toasted coconut. This results in a complex imperial stout with bold vanilla, graham cracker, chocolate, and coconut flavors.
Tasting Notes:
Toasted coconut, oaky wood, raisins, roasted malts, and sweet bourbon make up this stout’s impressive nose. It flows into a palate of more toasted coconut sweetness that pairs well with the dark chocolate, caramel, roasted malt, coffee, oak, and bourbon flavors that are also prevalent in this beer’s flavor profile.
Bottom Line:
It might seem like there’s no room for another coconut-based imperial ale. But this one is so rich, decadent, and delicious that we want to drink it every day of the year.
16) Anchorage A Deal With Evil
ABV: 17%
Release Date: May 2022
Price: Limited Availability
The Beer:
This beer began as barleywine provided by Evil Twin Brewing that was then matured in Sine Qua Non red wine barrels for twenty-eight months before being transferred to casks that formerly held Henry Mckenna bourbon for another full year. It’s then blended with their own barleywine called A Deal With The Devil before being aged for another eight months in Buffalo Trace Bourbon casks and then seven months in Woodford Reserve barrels.
Tasting Notes:
This highly complex, nuanced nose begins with dried cherries, caramel candy, raisins, butterscotch, oaky wood, and bourbon. The palate is equally as bold with notes of sticky toffee, almond cookies, dried cherries, prunes, fruit esters, and warming bourbon at the very end. You’d have a tough time finding a more warming beer for a cold day.
Bottom Line:
If you can find this highly complex, warming barleywine, grab a bottle of three. It’s the kind of beer you want to tuck in with on a cold winter night.
15) Side Project Symmetry
ABV: 15%
Release Date: January 2022
Price: Limited Availability
The Beer:
Symmetry is an aptly named beer because it’s a collaboration between Side Project and Crooke Stave. It starts with brewing and aging imperial stouts at each brewery (between twenty-five and sixty-four months). The aged stouts are then blended together before cinnamon as well as Mexican and Madagascar vanilla beans are added.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is all vanilla beans, cinnamon sugar, oaky wood, sweet bourbon, roasted malts, and dark chocolate. The taste is similar with a wallop of toasted vanilla beans, candied nuts, oak, roasted malts, caramel, and warming, slightly spicy bourbon on the finish.
Bottom Line:
This unique, flavorful collaboration will make you an instant fan of these two breweries. The two imperial stouts complement each other perfectly.
14) Half Acre Before Land Shook
ABV: 14.3%
Release Date: September 2022
Price: Limited Availability
The Beer:
Half Acre Before Land Shook is one of the most complex imperial stouts you’re likely to ever try. It’s a blend of three different barrel-aged imperial stouts. The first was aged in Pinhook and Eagle Rare casks. The second is in Heaven Hill and Elijah Craig barrels. And the last in Knob creek barrels. Each is matured for as many as sixteen months before being infused with vegan marshmallows, sea salt, and vanilla beans.
Tasting Notes:
Toasted marshmallows, graham crackers, chocolate, roasted malts, and sweet, bold vanilla make appearances on the nose. Sipping it brings forth notes of dark chocolate, roasted marshmallows, toasted malts, coffee, vanilla beans, and salted caramel. It’s sweet, bold, and unique in the best way possible.
Bottom Line:
You might assume that salt isn’t a great addition to barrel-aged imperial stouts, but the slight salinity adds an extra depth to this remarkable beer.
13) Off Color Ten Crowns
ABV: 5.5%
Release Date: March 2022
Price: $11.99 for a four-pack
The Beer:
Off Color is Ten Crowns’ take on the Czech-style dark lager. It’s known for its caramel malt, classic, old-world flavor. The same kind of flavor you might find if you were to purchase the same type of beer in the Czech Republic on a cold winter night.
Tasting Notes:
Roasted malts, caramel, raisins, chocolate, and light, floral hops start the nose off before your first sip. The palate is all roasted malts, barley, chocolate, toffee, brown bread, and floral, herbal, earthy hops. The mix of roasted malts and hops makes this a really drinkable, wintry beer.
Bottom Line:
If you’re not all about imperial stouts when you want a dark beer, but also don’t feel like a pilsner is appropriate, Ten Crowns Off Color is a flavorful, rich, healthy in-between.
12) Firestone Walker Paraboloid
ABV: 15%
Release Date: February 2022
Price: $10.99 for a 12-ounce bottle
The Beer:
If you’ve ever had Firestone Walker Parabola, it’s time to step it up to Paraboloid. The mad scientists at Firestone Walker age this imperial stout in 18-year-old Sazerac rye and 12-year-old Old Fitzgerald barrels for a full two years. The stouts are then blended together to create a unique, flavor experience.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is a mix of toasted oak, roasted malts, chocolate, dried cherries, toffee, and licorice. Take a sip and you’ll find hints of roasted malts, dark chocolate, sweet treacle, raisins, and dried cherries. The finish is warming, and sweet, and leaves you wanting more.
Bottom Line:
The blending of rye whiskey and bourbon barrel-aged imperial stouts gives this beer an exceptional, exciting, robust flavor profile that will appeal to all barrel-aged beer fans.
11) Deschutes Black Butte XXXIV
ABV: 11%
Release Date: July 2022
Price: $18 for a 22-ounce bottle
The Beer:
Fans of porters know about all about the robust, sweet, memorable flavor of Deschutes Black Butte. This year, the iconic Oregon brewery celebrated its 34th anniversary by dropping a special imperial porter called Black Butte XXXIV. This limited-release, 11% ABV imperial porter was matured in rum casks and infused with cold brew coffee, nutmeg, orange peels, and vanilla beans.
Tasting Notes:
Bold aromas of roasted malts, toasted vanilla beans, chocolate, caramel, licorice, and sweet oaky wood start this beer off on the right foot. The palate is loaded with sticky toffee, molasses, coffee beans, candied orange peels, oak, and wintry spices. The finish is warming, sweet, and slightly spicy.
Bottom Line:
If you’re already a fan of Deschutes Black Butter or sweet, robust porters in general, you’ll enjoy this limited edition, anniversary version. It’s bigger, richer, and not to be missed.
10) Night Shift Granita Weiss
ABV: 6.4%
Release Date: January 2022
Price: $12 for a 750ml bottle
The Beer:
This Berliner weisse is the 2022 release from night Shift’s Weisse Series. This fruited sour is brewed with blood orange, guava, and pineapple. The result is a tart, sour, slightly sweet, fruity beer.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is really fruity with pineapple, tangerine, guava, sweet wheat, and peach. The palate continues this fruity, citrus-fueled trend with more guava, mango, passion fruit, pineapple, and orange zest. It’s tart, dry, and pleasantly sweet.
Bottom Line:
Sometimes sour beers can be just that. A little too sour. This one stands above the rest because of its balance of tart, sour, and dry flavors.
9) Side Project Coeur de Cuvee #9
ABV: 7%
Release Date: May 2022
Price: Limited Availability
The Beer:
Side Project’s Coeur de Cuvée is their series of aged and barrel-fermented saisons. The 9th release came out in May and is Merry Edwards Pinot Noir barrel of Oude Fermier that was refermented with passion fruit before it was blended and bottle conditioned.
Tasting Notes:
This beer starts off with an explosion of passion fruit, fruit esters, white grapes, and funky yeast. The palate is more of the same with bold passion fruit, mango, pineapple, funk, and oaky wood. It’s dry, fruity, tart, and pleasing.
Bottom Line:
This passion fruit-filled saison is so filled with funky, fruity, slightly tart flavor that it will change how you feel about saisons forever.
8) Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Sir Isaac’s Stout
ABV: 13.9%
Release Date: November 2022
Price: $34 for a 500ml bottle
The Beer:
Goose Island Bourbon County Stout is the OG bourbon barrel-aged stout and the original version could easily find a spot on this list. But, this year, there’s one alternative version that stands above all the rest. Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Sir Isaac’s Stout’s name is a reference to the beloved childhood snack the Fig Newton. This bourbon barrel-aged imperial stout gets its unique dried fruit, honey, and caramel flavors from the addition of Black Mission figs.
Tasting Notes:
A nose of raisins, figs, cracker-like malts, sweet bourbon, chocolate, and oaky wood reveals itself before your first sip. Drinking it reveals notes of fudge, coffee beans, roasted malts, raisins, graham crackers, figs, and warming, pleasant bourbon.
Bottom Line:
Even if you aren’t a huge fan of Fig Newtons, you’ll love the dried fruit flavors paired with chocolate, bourbon, oak, and caramel, in this fantastic beer.
7) Cellarmaker Training Bines
ABV: 7%
Release Date: May 2022
Price: Limited Availability
The Beer:
Sometimes you see a beer that was made in collaboration with two breweries. Maybe three. But this hazy IPA was a collaboration is a collaboration of five breweries (Cellarmaker, Pint House Brewing, Cloudburst Brewing, Green Cheek Brewin,g and Highland Park Brewery). It’s brewed with Firewater Ranch Citra, Central Cove Mosaic, Green Acre Simcoe, and Freestyle Farms Motueka hops.
Tasting Notes:
It all beings with the aromas of ripe grapes, guava, pineapple, orange peel, lemongrass, and caramel malts. It moves into a palate of pine needles, tangerines, honeydew melons, mango, and light spices at the finish that tempers the sweetness. The finish is dry and sweet and makes you want to take another sip.
Bottom Line:
You might think a collaboration of this magnitude would make for a muddled mess. This is definitely not the case. While some New England-style IPAs can be overly sweet, this one shines because it’s not.
6) Russian River Pliny the Younger
ABV: 10.25%
Release Date: March 2022
Price: Limited Availability
The Beer:
Russian River is a big deal in the beer world. This is especially true when the California brewery releases Pliny the Younger. This 10.25% ABV triple IPA is a bold, dank, piney, yet surprisingly well-balanced beer every IPA fan should make an effort to try someday.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is a parade of citrus peels, mango, pineapple, wet grass, and herbal, floral, earthy pine. Drinking it reveals even more mango, guava, pineapple, grapefruit, orange peel, freshly cut grass, and a wallop of earthy, dank, resinous pine. The finish is dry, sweet, and filled with earthy hops.
Bottom Line:
You might think that Russian River Pliny the Younger is just an overhyped IPA, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. It’s a beer for the dank, earthy pine fans and the 2022 version lives up to the hype.
5) The Bruery Saison De Lente
ABV: 6.5%
Release Date: August 2022
Price: $16 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
This Brett Saison ale was first brewed back in 2009 only to be “retired” a few years ago. The brewers at The Bruery brought it back this summer and we couldn’t be happier. It’s known for its earthy, wild, funky, tart, and dry flavor.
Tasting Notes:
This is a sublimely funky-smelling beer. There are notes of grass, orange peels, lemon zest, earthy, yeast, and grapefruit. The palate is dry, crisp, and filled with more funky yeast, hay, light spices, green apples, and citrus zest. It’s tart and exceptionally dry.
Bottom Line:
We’re really glad they decided to bring this beer back in 2022. You’ll have a hard time finding a saison with a more funky and dry flavor profile.
4) Treehouse The Greenest Green
ABV: 8.8%
Release Date: June 2022
Price: Limited Availability
The Beer:
When it comes to New England-style IPAs, there are few breweries that do it better than Treehouse. In June it launched The Greenest Green, a hazy, juicy IPA brewed using a layered hop approach. It’s known for its juicy, cloudy appearance and bright citrus and tropical fruit flavors.
Tasting Notes:
This beer starts with classic New England-style IPA aromas of ripe melon, orange zest, pineapple, mango, guava, peach, caramel, wet grass, and lightly floral hops. One sip and you’ll find notes of papaya, mango, pineapple, grapefruit, tangerine, honeydew melon, bread-like malts, and slightly dank, resinous, lightly bitter hops at the finish.
Bottom Line:
In a sea of juicy, hazy IPAs, this absolute tropical juice bomb stands above all the others this year. Seek this beer out immediately.
3) Kane Double Double Cask
ABV: 15.7%
Release Date: January 2022
Price: Limited Availability
The Beer:
Kane Double Double Cask gets its name because it’s a marriage of two double barrel-aged barleywines. One is matured in Woodford Reserve barrels for twenty months before being finished in Weller and Blanton bourbon casks for one year. The second is a barleywine that was matured in Armagnac puncheon for almost two years before being finished in Heaven Hill rye and Sazerac rye barrels.
Tasting Notes:
Caramel, molasses, raisins, dried cherries, wintry spices, oak, and bourbon are notable aromas on the nose. Taking a sip, you’ll find raisins, chocolate, candied cherries, maple candy, oaky wood, warming bourbon, and toffee. It’s complex and warming.
Bottom Line:
In a year seemingly flooded with amazing barleywines, this balanced, fruity, oaky example stands above the rest. Grab a bottle INSTANTLY… if you see it in the wild.
2) Three Floyds Cocomungo
ABV: 15.6%
Release Date: February 2022
Price: $7.99 for a 12-ounce bottle
The Beer:
It feels like it’s fairly easy to make a decent barrel-aged stout these days, harder to make a great one, and extremely difficult to make one that really turns heads. Three Floyds Cocomungo is that beer. This popular, highly-rated imperial stout was matured for more than a year with maple syrup and toasted coconut in barrels that previously held Willett bourbon.
Tasting Notes:
The aroma is brown bread, roasted malts, chocolate fudge, maple candy, toasted coconut, vanilla, and sweet bourbon. The palate is more maple syrup, toasted coconut, dark chocolate, butterscotch, oak, dried fruits, and warming whiskey. Everything works together in perfect unity to make a complex, flavorful imperial stout.
Bottom Line:
When it comes to barrel-aged imperial stouts released in 2022, Three Floyds Cocomungois by far the best. There are no better, indulgent chocolate bombs than this beer.
1) Hill Farmstead Double Barrel Aaron
ABV: 14%
Release Date: March 2022
Price: Limited Availability
The Beer:
Hill Farmstead is arguably the top brewery in America and its 2022 release Hill Farmstead Double Barrel Aaron is our favorite beer of the year. It gets its name because this barleywine was aged in two different barrels. It was first added to an ex-bourbon barrel where it was aged for two years. It aged for another three years in Ruby Port barrels. This beer was brewed way back in 2015 and took seven years to make its way to a bottle.
Tasting Notes:
You’ll find yourself nosing this beer longer than usual because of the myriad aromas you’ll find. We’re talking dried cherries, chocolate, caramel candy, butterscotch, sweet port wine, oak, and bourbon whiskey. If the nose wasn’t complicated enough, the palate takes it to a whole new level with notes of bourbon-soaked raisins, dried cherries, orange peels, pipe tobacco, brown sugar, toffee, dark chocolate, oak, and more warming bourbon.
Bottom Line:
This is one for drinkers who enjoy not only a well-made, long-aged barleywine but drinkers who prefer a different, exciting flavor experience every time they take a sip. There are so many flavors to be revealed, you’ll feel like you’re unwrapping a new present every time you lift the glass to your lips. It’s truly the best beer of the year.