The BeerMenus Blog

Phew! We drank a lot of beers this year. We beat up our livers for another trip 'round the sun to deliver you fine folks this list: the 50 best beers of 2018.

Of all the year-end lists we do, this one is my favorite.

Why? Because it proves that the folks who use BeerMenus have fantastic taste. The list is always filled with outstanding breweries, and this year is no exception.

Alright. Enough with me enjoying it. It's your turn!

The clicks are in!

The theme this year: range. We've got a few returning favorites, but we've also got some fresh new faces. We've got bars, breweries, restaurants, and liquor stores. We've got a business in Wichita, KS and a business in New York City.

Another thing we've got? Love for all these businesses. They serve great beer, they run their businesses soundly, and they always tell their customers what's available.

That's the way life should be. Enjoy the list!

Honestly, there weren't a lot of surprises here this year. Lots of top-notch IPAs. The world's most popular bourbon barrel aged beers. A beer made by Kid Rock.

Wait, what?

Yeah. That's right. The people have spoken, and Kid Rock's Badass Beer made the list. Read on to see where it placed and see the rest of the top-10 Most Popular Beers of 2018!

During the last year we at BeerMenus downed more beers than our parents would care to know. But despite the [staggering] volume, each of us had one beer that mattered more, one beer that stood head and shoulders above the rest.

Whether it's the physical form the beer took, the fact that its maker was involved in the tasting, or that it was the favorite beer of a lost loved one, each of the beers below were seriously special to us.

Here are our favorite beers of the year.

Crispy Boys. Those easy drinking lagered beers that always have a time and place—at the beach in the summer heat, around the camp fire with Pops, toasting a solid hike in the trailhead parking lot.

Even in this era of juicy IPA escalation, the whole BeerMenus team has a big place in it's collective heart for Crispy Boys. But, while all of us enjoy a good Crispy Boy, there's one member of our team—Rex, our head account manager—who's by far the Crispiest. Here you'll find Rex's top 10 Crispy Boys of the year.

Sidebar: we thought there was no better way to show our love for Crispy Boys than making a neat-o t-shirt. Check out our store on Teespring to grab one for you and your Crispy buddies!

A few weeks back I visited Jason Sahler, head brewer of Strong Rope Brewery. We talked beer, sniffed hops, and, in a surprisingly delicious twist, we tasted his very first homebrew. It was 15 years old.

Read on to hear more!

Bar tender busy? Too many options on the bottle list? Not sure if you should go for a stout or an IPA?

Your world's already full of tough decisions, so why don't you let BeerMenus handle this one.

Announcing another new feature on iOS: Arrival Beer Recommendations.

We're excited about this one, folks.

Introducing Unsurpassable Clearance: a double NEIPA brewed with Passionfruit. Hazy, oh so hazy.

Where can you find it? Easy: come join us and our friends at one of the upcoming Chicagoland release parties!

• The Open Bottle 3/02
• Beer On The Wall - 3/7
• Rogers Park Social 3/8
• Crown Liquors - 3/15
• Consume - 3/20
• Monk's Pub - 3/22

Can't make it to one of the events? Be sure to follow Unsurpassable Clearance to get notified whenever it becomes available near you!

We're proud to announce a brand new BeerMenus feature, made just for you, the beer lover: Beer Recommendations!

Now each menu on BeerMenus mobile web, iPhone app, and Android app will lead off with an all new "Recommendations" section!

We're still working out a few kinks (hence the BETA tag) but we were just too damn excited to wait any longer. We needed to let Recommendations loose on the world ASAP!

We'll get into the algorithm-y weeds below (grab some popcorn!) but here's the bare bones story on how Recommendations work: Beers land in the "Recommendations" section based on how well they score in 5 categories:

• Is the beer local?
• Is the beer rare?
• Is the beer sought-after?
• Is the beer new to the menu?
• Is it rated well?

As you can see, we also included Recommendations by Beer Style in this launch. We love this tool. It comes in handy if, for example, you want a hoppy beer but you don't know where to start because a place has a ton of IPAs, double IPAs, etc. Simply navigate to "Recommended Hoppy Beers" and order!

As always, if you have any questions/concerns/feedback let us know.

Once you give Recommendations a shot, show us some love by Tweeting about them or sharing this blog post on Facebook !