Best Winter Beers: Grapefruit Lagers. Cream Ales and Hazy IPA’s

American Craft Beer|January 23rd, 2020|

(Courtesy Sufferfest Brewing)

2020 is ON and American craft brewers are addressing the season with a variety of offerings that are fun and cold weather-ready.

Open Beer, Drink, Repeat (Chico, CA) – Now owned by Sierra Nevada Brewing, the Sufferfest Beer Company was early to the healthier beer game. Founded in 2016 by Caitlin Landesberg, an athlete herself, Sufferfest offers a full-spectrum of craft beers, including a Kölsch with only 95 calories. Rich in flavor but light in calories, Sufferfest Repeat is a 3.5% ABV Kölsch brewed with bee pollen, a great source for naturally occurring vitamins and micronutrients like potassium-rich barley, sodium, iron, and fiber.

Prime Stash (Atlanta, GA) – SweetWater Brewing has a new 420 Strain Variety Pack featuring a rotating roster of terpene beers, and one brew in particular, guaranteed to get you wrecked. SweetWater Trainwreck Hazy Double IPA is an uber-dank 8% ABV limited release with big growing room aromatics and strain-specific terpenes that are completely off the rails.

Let Them Drink Cake! (Comstock Park, MI) – Perrin Brewing is releasing its first Side Hustle Series offering of the year, but it’s only available in Michigan. Brewed with real carrots, pineapple and carrot cake from Arnie’s Bakery, Perrin Carrot Cake Cream Ale is 5.8% ABV limited release. Perrin will release a new Side Hustle Series beer every other month for statewide distribution. The series allows Perrin’s brewers to creatively explore new ingredients and techniques, and provide Michigan’s craft beer lovers with innovative new flavors.

Ruby, Ruby, Ruby (Shiner, TX) – The start of the new decade might mean ‘trying’ to stick to your 2020 health goals, and the Spoetzl Brewery has a smart compromise that delivers both balance and buzz with only 95-calories, 1g of sugar, 3 carbs and no fat. Brewed with a touch of fresh ginger to temper its tartness, Shiner Ruby Redbird is 4% ABV lager brewed with fresh grapefruit from the Rio Grande Valley.