Hello all and welcome to our annual, year-end edition of The Beer Connoisseur® magazine! This issue, as always, reflects the past year in beer with our trademark reviews, feature stories and wrap-up lists – showcasing the best breweries, beers and beer styles of 2023.
2023 held notable news across the board for the beer industry, including tragic stories (the shuttering of legendary craft brewery Anchor Brewing Co.), surprising stories (the rise of non-alcoholic beer) and stories of mega-beer boycotts (the Bud Light boycott by conservatives that caused it to fall from its sales throne).
Beyond all that, brewers continued to push the boundaries of brewing and produced an impressive number of top-flight brews, which we have aimed to highlight in our year-end Beer in Review winter edition.
Our Official Review saw a striking 12 World Class beers get reviewed, including one of only six scores of 99 that our judges have ever had the privilege to review. This marks two straight years that we have reviewed a beer that reached that lofty score. The beer scene is still thriving, despite near-constant rumblings of potential setbacks due to increased competition, market saturation and more.
Our Brewery of the Year for 2023 is actually a past winner, but they managed to one-up themselves in terms of high-quality beers this year, as their overall score was higher than it was in their prior year winning the award. Read on to find out which brewery I’m referring to!
We continue to cover upcoming beer and beverage trends for 2024, as well as what beer styles are likely to take the craft world by storm in the coming year. This issue also features a thrilling profile of northwest Arkansas’s Fayetteville Ale Trail and passport program. We also detail the rarest beers around the world for collectors.
No matter what, this issue would not be possible without you, dear reader, and we sincerely thank you for your continued support. We wish you and your family the best in the new year, and we toast to your good fortune in 2024 and beyond.
Happy holidays and a wonderful new year!
Cheers,
Chris Guest
- Managing Editor
