Looking forward to the year in beer, I asked brewers at four breweries that opened in 2015 to tell me about the just-released beers they’re most excited to drink in 2016. Ones containing brettanomyces, lactobacillus, and pediococcus—strains of yeast and bacteria that make beer sour and/or funky—appeared on the lists of all the brewers I talked to, evidence the sour-beer trend doesn’t appear to be waning anytime soon.
Hopslam Ale (Bell’s) Dubovick puts this imperial IPA brewed with honey in his top five beers of 2015. “I love the malt sweetness, the way the honey plays in it, that bright citrus dank hoppy burst at the end,” he says.
Foeder Saison (Perennial Artisan Ales) This saison spent nine months in a foeder, a large wine barrel, prior to its recent inaugural release. It’s fermented not only with yeast strains from the well-known Dupont and Fantome breweries but also brettanomyces and lactobacillus. Taylor describes it as tart and fruity: “With all these Belgian strains of yeast, you’re going to get major fruit-punch-style taste on the back end.”
Anything from Haymarket Pub & Brewery’s “Beerthday” celebration on January 12 Each year Haymarket celebrates its anniversary by releasing special beers. While the lineup for the fifth “Beerthday” hasn’t been announced, Shimkos says all of Haymarket’s barrel-aged beers are impressive. If you can’t make it to the event, Haymarket’s Indignant Imperial Stout, aged for six months in Woodford Reserve bourbon barrels, is a regular fixture in the brewpub.
Anything by Transient Artisan Ales Pallen recommends the recently released Neckbeard Nectar, an imperial stout with coconut, cinnamon, vanilla, and molasses. He also endorses the Pentameter #2, a lambic-inspired ale aged in oak barrels—or anything else by the gypsy brewery, which is so small and its beer so sought after that it can be difficult to find at all.
