From the Editor: Summer 2026, Issue 85
Story by:
Chris Guest
Hello all, and welcome to Issue 85 of The Beer Connoisseur Magazine!
This issue spends a lot of time in that wonderfully strange middle ground where beer becomes more than “just beer.” It represents a flavor map, a business decision, a piece of infrastructure, a cultural argument, a beloved classic, and occasionally, a very dark liquid that seems to have its own gravitational pull.
We begin with sensory analysis, but not in the stiff, clipboard-clutching way the phrase sometimes suggests. Josh Weikert’s piece looks at sensory analysis as something everyday drinkers can actually use: a way to figure out what you like, why you like it, and how to find more of it without being trapped by broad style assumptions or someone else’s tasting notes. That is useful knowledge, and frankly, a lot more fun than pretending that “ooh, malty” is a complete thought.
From there, we move behind the scenes with Venn Brewing Co., where drainage systems take their turn in the spotlight. That may not sound like the stuff of romantic beer writing, but breweries do not run on good intentions alone. Hot liquid has to go somewhere. Floors, drains, grates, cleaning routines and production flow all matter. The pint in your hand may be poetic, but the building that made it still has to survive the work.
Issue 85 also features two World Class Beer Highlights that could hardly be more different in mood. Brouwerij Boon’s Oude Geuze Boon gives us iconic lambic history in a glass, blending, patience, oak, acidity and all the wonderfully unruly character that makes gueuze feel almost alive in the glass. AleSmith’s Speedway Stout, meanwhile, comes roaring in from the opposite direction: black, bold, coffee-charged and massive, yet still controlled enough to remind us why some beers become benchmarks instead of merely becoming famous.
We also dig into the changing relationship between brewery taprooms and great beer bars. Owen Ogletree looks at a question that has been simmering for years: are taprooms helping grow the culture, or are they pulling business away from the very bars that helped build craft beer in the first place? As is usually the case with beer, the honest answer is less tidy than anyone on either side would prefer. Taprooms can be lifelines, destinations and marketing engines. They can also change the math for neighborhood bars already living on thin margins.
Bil Corcoran’s opinion piece takes on another modern beer habit: ratings. Scores, check-ins and online reviews can help drinkers navigate a crowded marketplace, but they can also flatten the experience into a number on a screen. At some point, every drinker has to ask whether they are choosing the beer they actually want or the beer the crowd has already approved for them. Ratings have value. Worshiping them does not.
Elsewhere, we will take a detour into edible history with a look at hyper-regional Chinese American sandwiches, the communities that created them, and the beers that help bring those wonderfully oddball dishes into sharper focus. Then, we spend some time with Horus Ales’ Convocation Year 9 beer, which brings the issue into the world of coveted releases, barrel-aged ambition, and the kind of bottle-club energy that still makes certain corners of craft beer feel like a treasure hunt with obscure glassware.
As always, we also have new beers in the Official Review, fresh Brewer Q&As, and the beer news you may have missed while tending to the important business of being alive.
Thanks for joining us for Issue 85. May your next pour teach you something, surprise you a little, and remind you that the best beer experience is still the one happening right in front of you.
Cheers!
Chris Guest
– Editor
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