1. Bud Light Wheat
Style: Golden Wheat
Brewery: Anheuser-Busch, St. Louis

Wheat beer has been growing on us this year thanks in part to this rich and nuanced sauce. With hints of lemon and roasted nuts, it’s huge in flavor for a light beer. Never count out the geniuses who invented Budweiser Tall Boys.

2. Brew Free! Or Die
Style: IPA
Brewery: 21st Amendment, San Francisco

This citrusy sucker is the most chuggable IPA on the list. It has a perfect medley of bite and mellowness—an awesome, full-flavored way to earn your bed spins.

3. Indian Brown
Style: Brown Ale
Brewery: Dogfish Head, Milton, DE

The hop-heads who work at Dogfish have been getting down with this brown for years, and finally, late last year they made it available to national distributors. Its boldness jolts, but the brown sugar and caramel notes make it go down smooth.

4. Old Stock
Style: Ale
Brewery: North Coast Brewing, Fort Bragg, CA

Thick and hazelnutty with hints of Coca-Cola and cherry, this is our new favorite snow-day beer. Drink it, then pee in your moon boot.



1. Sexual Chocolate
Style: Imperial Stout
Brewery: Foothills Brewing, Winston-Salem, NC

Flavored beers are for chicks. But this Nubian queen has three things going for it: (1) It reminds us of Eddie Murphy pre-tranny. (2) It sports the illest label of the year. (3) It gives us an excuse to order beer with dessert. Sip and watch your soul glow.

2. Green Lakes Organic Ale
Style: Amber Ale
Brewery: Deschutes, Bend, OR

Pacific Northwesterners already know that Deschutes kicks serious ale ass, and this new organic job is no ex--ception. Grassy, hoppy, and thirst-quenching. And, no, just because it’s organic doesn’t mean it cancels out the 18 smokes you had last night.

3. Upslope Pale Ale
Style: Pale Ale
Brewery: Upslope Brewery, Boulder, CO

These guys opened shop in late 2008, and they already own our taste buds thanks to their pale. It’s the most palatable craft beer we’ve gulped in a while. Check the ingredients: "Snow melt, malt, Patagonian hops, yeast." We’re officially down with Upslope.

4. Blue Ball
Style: Porter
Brewery: Intercourse Brewing Co., Wilkes-Barre, PA

This quaffable flavored port sneaks up on you with subtle nudges of blueberry and hickory smoke. We want to smother it on pancakes at breakfast, but we’ll probably skip all that and just pull a bottle out from the nightstand drawer and gulp it down on the way to the shower. Good morning, Wednesday!



1. Calico
Style: Amber Ale
Brewery: Ballast Point, San Diego

Ballast has been churning out great beer for lucky locals for years and is finally selling their house favorite in wide release. This sharp ’n’ sweet potion pairs well with BBQ or pizza or a night by yourself stalking your ex on Flickr.

2. Fat Squirrel
Style: Brown Ale
Brewery: New Glarus, New Glarus, WI

A sweet, nutty, malty good time in a bottle. Pack a few hundred of these into your tree hole and hibernate till spring comes.

3. Local 1
Style: Pale Ale
Brewery: Brooklyn Brewery, Brooklyn

This beer’s frothy head is so tall and inviting you want to thrust at it like a human-size pillow. Resist. Sip, and let its floral top notes dance across your skull as its nine percent alcohol content stomps your brain like a pink elephant.

4. Tumble Off
Style: Pale Ale
Brewery: Barley Brown’s Brew Pub, Baker City, OR

With more hops than Bugs Bunny and a grassy, herbal aftertaste that recalls our second-favorite Oregon export, this refreshing concoction from the award-winning Barley Brown boys is guaranteed to cure what "ales" ya.



1. Union Jack
Style: IPA
Brewery: Firestone Walker, Paso Robles, CA

Hands down the best IPA Maxim has ever tasted. Not for the hop-timid. Crazy flavors—apple, peach, Twinkies, and, yes, kind bud—coalesce into an electrifying tomahawk dunk on your taste buds. Note: This stuff makes you, um, regular—and in a hurry. Make sure your pipes are clear before imbibing.

2. UFO White
Style: Wheat
Brewery: Harpoon—Boston

With hints of citrus, this smooth, easily swallowable brew is perfect for pirates worried about scurvy.

3. Phoenix
Style: Pale Ale
Brewery: Sly Fox, Royersford, PA

Is it possible to have delicious hoppiness wherever you go? Yes, you can. In this can!


(Everything is as written by Maxim Magazine)