Winter 2024, Issue 70 Has Arrived!

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). All of this and more are featured in our 2024 Beer and Beverage Trends story.

2024 will also see new beer styles rise in popularity while others will fall by the wayside. We collect those brews in our annual story: Top Emerging Beer Styles of 2024.

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, including the Best Beers of 2023 by Style Category.

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 in our Top 100 Beers of 2023 story. 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. The first and second runners-up are also highly decorated and terrific breweries from around the country. Read on to find out which breweries 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.

The issue closes out with an updated story about the 15 Rarest Beers for Collectors. It's a fascinating list that will surely intrigue fans of rare and expensive brews.

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!

Read Issue 70