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The 20 Best Beers That Everyone Should Drink in 2022

Mark Stock
By
Hand grabbing a bottle from a selection of beers.

We are undeniably overwhelmed with delicious brews from across America, be it Portland, Oregon, or Tampa, Florida — all thanks to the surge of craft beer in the last decade. Today, the American beer landscape stands as strong and diverse as it has ever been, from its cheap summer beers to its hop-forward IPA’s iconic offerings.

However, despite our rich beer heritage being a blessing, navigating our local beer landscape can be quite difficult at times. There are more hop varieties now than we can count with our fingers. Throw in relatively obscure styles like saisons, sours, smoked beers, and even garden-fresh cucumber beers — it can be downright confusing.

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That’s why we’ve done the work for you and curated only the 20 best beers you can enjoy this 2022 and beyond. If these selections aren’t enough, you may consider getting an alcohol subscription box to satisfy your beer cravings.

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Best IPA: Pfriem IPA

A bottle and a can of pFriem IPA Bottle on white background.

We can’t keep track of all of the IPAs out there, but we do know that this one from Hood River has been one of the most consistently great ones for years. With a surprisingly complex malt bill, it has plenty of body to back up the delicious hops.

Read more: Best IPA Beers

Best Imperial IPA: Pliny the Elder

A bottle of Pliny the Elder and a glass containing the said beer.

It’s no real surprise that the best IIPA is one of the original offerings that started the trend in the first place. Still a great recipe (and now in a can), it’s a timeless, hop-heavy beer with incredible balance.

Best Hazy IPA: Harland Brewing Hazy IPA

A can of Harland Brewing Hazy IPA on white background.

Hazy IPAs continue to flood the market, but the best ones are straightforward, balanced, and not too high-octane, like this riff from San Diego’s Harland Brewing.

Best Session IPA: Golden Road Wolf PUP Session IPA

A can of Golden Road Wolf Pup Session IPA on white background.

It’s no wonder a fine session IPA comes out of L.A., where day-drinking after a surf outing is necessary, and you need something that’s tasty and won’t knock you out.

Best Alternative IPA: Mikkeller Waves American IPA

A can of Mikkeller Waves American IPA on white background.

This take on the American IPA from the Danish beer masters at Mikkeller is well-rounded, easy to drink, and full of the hoppy freshness you expect from a great IPA.

Best Pale Ale: Oskar Blues Dale’s Pale Ale

Cans of Oskar Blues Dale's Pale Ale on ice.

This American standard-bearer from Colorado continues to be one of the best in the ever-popular pale category.

Best Pilsner: Pilsner Urquell

A bottle of Pilsner Urquell on white background.

A good pilsner is clean, crisp, and unbelievably refreshing. While we in the states make some good ones, it’s tough to top a good Euro version, like this benchmark beer.

Read more: Best All-American Pilsners

Best Amber Ale: Alaskan Amber

A can of Alaskan Amber Ale on white background.

The Amber from Alaskan Brewing Company has inspired many other breweries to try their hand at the style. It remains an outstanding option for a medium-bodied beer that’s quite food-friendly.

Read more: Best Amber Ales

Best Sour Beer: 10 Barrel Cucumber Sour

A can of Cucumber Crush on white background.

This offering from 10 Barrel seemed like an outlandish idea at the time, but it has since become a legend within the sour beer genre.

Read more: Refreshing Sour Beers to Try

Best Stout: Boulevard Whiskey Barrel Stout

Bottles of Boulevard Brewing Whiskey Barrel Stout displayed in between two wooden barrels.

The makers of one of the best farmhouse ales in the States, Boulevard is the brewing pride of Kansas City and makes a delightful, whiskey-kissed stout.

Read more: Best Stout Beers

Best Porter: Maui Brewing Coconut Hiwa Porter

A can of Maui Brewing Coconut Hiwa Porter on white background.

Coconut, malt, and mocha flavors play beautifully together in this deftly-made beer from one of Hawaii’s best producers.

Best Barrel-Aged Beer: Deschutes The Abyss

A bottle of Deschutes Abyss Beer Bottle Shot on white background.

This imperial stout from Oregon’s Deschutes Brewery is a perennial classic that drinks like wine with layer upon delicious layer.

Read more:  Best Barrel-Aged Beers

Best Fruit Beer: E9 Wild Tacoma Cherry Table Sour Ale

A bottle of E9 Wild Cherry Table Sour on white background.

E9 makes some of the best fruit-infused beers along the west coast, if not the entire U.S. This one is an instant classic that sips like a session beer but is full of stone fruit-driven freshness.

Read more: Best Fruit Beers

Best Belgian-Style Beer: Jester King Noble King

A bottle of Jester King Noble King Bottle displayed on sacks of herbs or leaves.

This Belgian-style beer is dialed in at just 5.8% but teeming with flavor and nuance, which is generally the case for anything coming out of esteemed Texas brewery Jester King.

Best Beer You’ll Probably Never Try: Toppling Goliath Brunch Brand Stout

A bottle of Toppling Goliath Stout and a glass containing the said beer displayed on a hard surface.
Toppling Goliath/Facebook

There are waiting lists for lots of beers, and they can sell out within hours. When your stout is the top-rated beer according to Beer Advocate, it goes extra fast. Good luck getting your hands on this decadent number from Iowa’s acclaimed Toppling Goliath.

Best Wheat Beer: Funky Buddha Floridian Hefeweizen

A can of Funky Buddha Floridian Wheat on white background.

This wheat beer from the Sunshine State shows nice, summery, tropical fruit elements atop a sturdy, grain-driven backbone. It’s great for a warm afternoon or wanting to pretend you live in a climate that currently has warm afternoons.

Best Kölsch: Three Weavers Seafarer

A can of Three Weavers Seafarer Kolsch on white background.

One of the best breweries in Los Angeles makes a mean Kolsch-style beer in Seafarer, one that’s light and wonderfully refreshing, with that signature category kick of subtle fruit notes and a bit of straw.

Best Barleywine: 3 Floyds Behemoth

A can of Three Floyds Behemoth Barleywine on white background.

Half the fun of the barleywine is how it opens up and changes in your favorite beer glass over time. This one from Indiana’s 3 Floyds is absolutely top-notch, bursting with intriguing complexity.

Best Tripel: Taxman Brewing Exemption

A can of Taxman Exemption Tripel Ale on white background.

Most good tripels come from Belgium and arrive in a glass bottle. This canned take from Indiana outfit Taxman Brewing is so tasty, with big aromatics, yeasty flavors, and a pleasant roundness.

Best Non-Alcoholic Beer: Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier Alkoholfrei

A bottle of Weihenstephaner Alcohol Free Beer and a glass containing the said beverage.

Zero-proof beers have improved drastically with the corresponding wellness movement. This one tastes like a damn beer, like it should, without any of the unwanted fuzziness.

Read more: Best Non-Alcoholic Beers

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Fresh beer is better beer. Now, you can have cold draft beer at home or on the go with your own personal beer keg setup.
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There's a wide selection of iconic craft beers and tasty cheap beers available to drink in cans and bottles. But nothing beats a good, heady draft pint served right from a tap or kegerator. As the name implies, a kegerator is a refrigerator that keeps a keg of beer cold and fresh while allowing you to dispense the contents from a built-in pressurized tap system on top.

However, it is a costly appliance, so it’s recommended to do your homework and invest your hard-earned money in a top-notch quality unit that will surely keep your beer fresh. To help you save time on researching the best ones, we’ve rounded up our picks for the best kegerators of 2023, with our selections ranging from on-the-go options to the most innovative dual-tap kegerators.

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The Borg drink is a viral Gen-Z favorite that’s really not all that new
Sorry, kiddos. "Borg" has been around for a while. We just call it something else.
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Every new generation thinks they've invented the wheel when it comes to anything trendy. We're sorry to say, Gen-Z, but "flared leggings" are called yoga pants, most of us were using flip phones before you were born, and don't even think about talking to us about pop punk unless you know who Billie Joe Armstrong is.
When it comes to drinks, most generations have a hallmark party beverage that defines their college years, holding the power to flood them with a rush of nausea and fuzzy memories even decades later. For Gen-Z, that drink is called "Borg." What they haven't realized yet, though, is that this falsely fruity concoction has been around for years under the name "Jungle Juice."
While Jungle Juice was originally invented by U.S. soldiers during the Second World War, it was Millenials who made it the truly trashy, hangover-inducing party swill it is. Most stereotypically mixed in a large bucket or something else that can be found in a dorm garage, Jungle Juice is a mixture of vodka and a cheap, fruity mixer such as Kool-Aid. Naturally, there aren't any hard and fast recipe rules, but that's the usual gist of Jungle Juice.
The Gen-Z twist, Borg, does have some clever upgrades, and for that, we give them due credit. Firstly, the rather gross-sounding name is actually a witty acronym for "Black Out Rage Gallon." We love that there's no beating around the bush with this generation. They know how to call a spade a spade. Second, unlike the communal trough that's used to dole out Jungle Juice, Borg is made and served in individual plastic jugs, cutting down on germ spread. We can appreciate that growing up in the days of COVID has made for some much healthier thinking. We also love that Borg can be capped, making it much more difficult for potential predators to tamper with a drink.
Of course, the optional addition of new ingredients like Liquid IV also help to curb the hangover that will undoubtedly come with drinking vodka from a plastic jug. That sure would have been nice back in the day.

Borg drink recipe

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Is erythritol harmful? What a dietitian says new data means for your Keto diet
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While sugar substitutes have been around for more than a century, they didn't really become mainstream here in the United States until around the mid-70s. According to Carolyn De La Pena, professor of American Studies at UC Davis and author of Empty Pleasures: The Story of Artificial Sweeteners from Saccharin to Splenda, between 1975 and 1984, Americans increased their consumption of artificial sweeteners by 150 percent. This timeline makes sense when you take into account that the late seventies coincided with the start of our crazed diet culture and the revolving door of fad diets.
One such diet that doesn't seem to be going anywhere, however, is the Keto diet. Still hugely popular among Americans trying to shed a few pounds, Keto focuses heavily on limited or no carbohydrates. Because sugar contains carbohydrates, followers of Keto have turned to artificial sweeteners to satisfy those late-night cravings - sweeteners that, more often than not, contain erythritol. Erythritol in particular has become hugely popular because it's much better for baking than other sugar substitutes, has less of an artificial flavor, and will keep the eater in Ketosis, which is key for losing weight on the Keto diet.
A new study has made waves recently because its findings indicate there's a link between erythritol and higher rates of heart attack and stroke (though the study did note that only an association was found — not causation. So should you be worried?
We asked Dan LeMoine, RD, the award-winning author of Fear No Food and the Clinical Director at Phoenix-based Re:vitalize Nutrition, what he had to say about erythritol, including its benefits and potential health risks. "Artificial sweeteners are still sweeteners. While many are non-nutritive or zero-calorie, we tend to view them similarly as we do regular sweeteners or sugars — moderation is key. While many have amazing implications on weight loss – being low to no-calorie options and having little impact on blood sugar, some have their downside," he says.

While some of that sugar substitution has been good for waistlines and health issues that come from obesity, it seems to be causing more and more concern when it comes to other potential health issues. "For example," says LeMoine, "some research indicates the popular sweeteners stevia may have negative effects on the gut microbiome. And the recent study showing correlation between the sugar alcohol, erythritol, and heart attack and stroke."

Read more