Today we visit the hidden land of Franconia, lately a font of lager types Americans are embracing. The most visible ambassador is Mahr’s oddly-named Ungespundet, a perfect example of what makes Franconia so special.

Pliny was a bright light in the fog. Despite its hurricane of flavors, it was more focused, refined, and elegant than other IPAs of the day. With the benefit of time, we can see that it reset expectations about what was possible, pointing to the future we now inhabit.

Pay close attention to what pours from the cask engines of English pubs, and you’ll notice the beer has gotten juicer and more daring. Even old-school breweries have tuned up their ales. This change owes a lot to today’s classic, Thornbridge Jaipur IPA. 

Guinness is treated as if it is one beer, not a brewery. Like Pacifico or Heineken, naming the company names the beer. Yet the beer we think of when we name the brewery doesn't date to 1759, but two hundred years later. Here's its story:

Located in the West Flanders city of Roeselare, Rodenbach has been making dark ales for 200 years in a brewery that inspires the reverence of an old church. The brewery’s history, their process, and the beer’s quality make Grand Cru one of the most important beers in Belgium.

Not every classic sells millions of barrels. Some merely keep alive the flame of tradition that has been burning for centuries. 

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is the most important beer brewed in the United States, and possibly the most important beer brewed since Josef Groll made a pale lager in 1842. This is its story.

Fuller’s ESB has won a boatload of trophies and is regularly cited as one of the best beers of Britain. It also became the standard English bitter for early American craft breweries. Yet even more than these reasons, it’s the way ESB is made that makes it truly special.

How did the Pacific Northwest develop such a robust brewing scene so early? How was it practically born with a taste for hops? And where was the first craft-era IPA brewed? The answers all lead to Yakima and one of the great characters in craft brewing.

Pilsner Urquell’s ubiquity obscures its importance—and also its general weirdness. Yet this is easily the most influential beer ever made, and one with a history deeply scarred by the darkness of empire and war. It is also, for those who taste carefully, a totally bizarre beer that is quite different from those it inspired.

Anchor Steam forms the connective tissue binding the older American tradition of European brewing and the inventive era of craft brewing that followed. The processes used to make Steam Beer cast backward, but the formulation created the blueprint craft breweries would use when they emerged a decade later.

During this time of pandemic, when we have more time for reading than exploring new beers, I thought it would be a great time to explore some classic, much imitated (but rarely equaled) beers and what makes them tick.