The Best Beers of 2024
Happy Holidays! We hope your Christmas stout was rich, sweet, and full of adjuncts, and that your New Years stout will be richer, sweeter, and contain even more adjuncts.
Welcome to our best beers of 2024 article, where we use your check-ins to rank the community’s favorite brews of the year. Before getting into the results – in the last article, I posted a survey asking how much you interact with the various sections of these articles (feel free to respond now if you’d like). Here are the results of the survey:
- Most people skim through the article, either looking for their favorite beer styles, or their favorite breweries. With that in mind, I may make the articles shorter in the future, perhaps by combining some styles together.
- Most people have ordered a beer because they saw it ranked highly in these articles. Happy to hear it!
- Results were split on the “more top beers” column on the right side of each table, in which I credit a brewery for making many different highly regarded beers in a single style, while still allowing other breweries to chart as well. I kind of wanted to drop this from the articles, but several people said they look at them so I may keep doing it.
- Results were split on the embedded instagram posts. While some people said they took up too much space or looked like ads, other people enjoyed the extra context. I’ll probably keep doing it.
- Pssst, there’s some breaking news in one of the embedded posts today…
- More people do not click the links to Untappd than those who do. But… I think they’re important so they’ll stay.
- Most people said the length was good, with some saying it was too long. Nobody said it was too short (lol). As mentioned before I might merge a few things, like lager + pilsner and sour + farmhouse. Not for this year end article, but for the quarterly ones. I’d like to merge IPA – Hazy and IPA – Not Hazy, but there’s just so many hazies that we’d never see a non hazy again (that wasn’t made by Pinthouse anyway), so I’ll keep those separate.
Standard disclaimer: This data comes from Untappd and is not our personal opinions. Click here to find out more about how this data is gathered.
Here are the top beers released in Central Texas in 2024!
Lager:
| Brewery | Beer Name | Style | Date Created | Beer Rating | More Top Beers |
| 3rd Level Brewing | Toshiro Rice Lager | Lager - Japanese Rice | June 22, 2024 | 4.3 | |
| 5 Stones Artisan Brewery | Braunfelser Schwarzbier | Schwarzbier | October 25, 2024 | 4.12 | |
| Roughhouse Brewing, Collaboration with Roadmap Brewing Co. | The Sheriff | Bock - Doppelbock | January 20, 2024 | 4.11 | |
| Meanwhile Brewing Company | That Summer Feelin’ | Lager - Other | July 28, 2024 | 4.11 | |
| Oddwood Brewing, Collaboration with Obsidian Brewery | Banquet Hall | Lager - American | June 12, 2024 | 4.08 | |
Pilsner:
Pale Ale:
| Brewery | Beer Name | Style | Date Created | Beer Rating | More Top Beers |
| Real Ale Brewing Company | Rio Blanco Pale Ale (Dry Hopped w/ Phoenix) | Pale Ale - English | April 20, 2024 | 4.21 | |
| Barking Armadillo Brewing | High Five Pale Ale | Pale Ale - American | July 22, 2024 | 4.01 | |
| 5 Stones Artisan Brewery | Hope Springs Eternal | Pale Ale - American | May 5, 2024 | 3.99 | |
| Phantom Warrior Brewing Company | Liberty Ale | Pale Ale - American | May 11, 2024 | 3.98 | |
| Fast Friends Beer Co. | Lil Xtra | Pale Ale - XPA (Extra Pale) | August 10, 2024 | 3.96 | |
| Since most of those aren't actually in Austin, here's 3 more: | (But they're all great breweries that deserve the recognition even if they're a bit out of town!) | | | | |
| New Braunfels Brewing Company | Citra SMASH | Pale Ale - American | April 6, 2024 | 3.93 | |
| Pinthouse Brewing | XPA Gon Give It To Ya | Pale Ale - XPA (Extra Pale) | September 13, 2024 | 3.91 | |
| Zilker Brewing Company | Who’s Who | Pale Ale - New England / Hazy | May 2, 2024 | 3.9 | |
IPA (New England / Hazy):
| Brewery | Beer Name | Style | Date Created | Beer Rating | More Top Beers |
| Pinthouse Brewing, Collaboration with Green Cheek Beer Company | Dino Snacks (2024) | IPA - Triple New England / Hazy | December 16, 2024 | 4.69 (nice) | Emilio (2023), Southern Hemisphere Emilio, Cactus Blaster (2024), Nomura Imperial Jellyfish (2024), Lost Wild (2024), Island Kitty (2024), DDH Electric Jellyfish (2024), Blastin' Greenies, Counting Stars (2024), Fully Adrift (2024), Mega Man, Fresh Hop Electric Jellyfish, Fresh Hop Training Bines (2024), Sonic Botanist: Sativa |
| Frontyard Brewing | Second Contact | IPA - Imperial / Double New England / Hazy | September 27, 2024 | 4.25 | |
| Bold Republic Brewing Company | Mermadillo 2024 | IPA - Triple New England / Hazy | November 9, 2024 | 4.23 | |
| Meanwhile Brewing Company | Drawing Board | IPA - Imperial / Double New England / Hazy | May 21, 2024 | 4.17 | |
| Fast Friends Beer Co. | Birthday Buds | IPA - Triple New England / Hazy | May 16, 2024 | 4.15 | |
IPA (West Coast / Other):
| Brewery | Beer Name | Style | Date Created | Beer Rating | More Top Beers |
| Pinthouse Brewing | Fresh Hop Green Battles (2024) | IPA - American | September 27, 2024 | 4.2 | West Coast IPA Is Dead (2024), Coastal Cool, Drippy Cones, Who's Hugo (2024), Telescope Weather (2024), New Zealand Scorpion Disco, Mosaic Takedown |
| Draught House Pub and Brewery | 55 | IPA - American | November 23, 2024 | 4.08 | |
| Nomadic Beerworks | Tiki Season | IPA - Fruited | June 1, 2024 | 4.08 | |
| Ghost Note Brewing | Terpene Dream | IPA - American | September 18, 2024 | 4.07 | |
| Pecan Street Brewing | Automatic Attraction | IPA - American | January 26, 2024 | 4.07 | |
Porter (Standard):
Stout (Standard):
| Brewery | Beer Name | Style | Date Created | Beer Rating | More Top Beers |
| Pinthouse Brewing | Internal Desires | Stout - Pastry | December 13, 2024 | 4.16 | |
Red Horn Brewing Co,
Collaboration with Obsidian Brewery | Jackie | Stout - White / Golden | July 9, 2024 | 4.07 | |
| Acopon Brewing Company | Tilberi | Stout - Milk / Sweet | January 30, 2024 | 4.02 | |
| Nomadic Beerworks | Coco Bongo | Stout - Milk / Sweet | January 26, 2024 | 4 | |
| Lazarus Brewing Company | Montana Milkshake | Stout - Coffee | January 12, 2024 | 4 | |
Porter/Stout (Imperial):
Strong Ale:
| Brewery | Beer Name | Style | Date Created | Beer Rating | More Top Beers |
| Batch Craft Beer & Kolaches, Collaboration with Horus Aged Ales and Urban Jungle Brewing | A Batch of Jungle Bird | Barleywine - American | January 23, 2024 | 4.37 | A Batch of Jungle Bird (Vanilla) |
| Rentsch Brewery | Whiskey Business | Strong Ale - American | August 16, 2024 | 4.26 | |
| Acopon Brewing Company | Berefaeder | Barleywine - English | July 16, 2024 | 4.21 | |
| Frontyard Brewing | Barleywine | Barleywine - Other | February 3, 2024 | 4.17 | |
| St. Elmo Brewing Company | Baby (2024) | Barleywine - American | March 2, 2024 | 4.14 | |
Sour:
Farmhouse:
| Brewery | Beer Name | Style | Date Created | Beer Rating | More Top Beers |
| Jester King Brewery | Balcones Bourbon Barrel Aged Moderne Dansk (Blend #5) | Farmhouse Ale - Other | March 18, 2024 | 4.4 | 分 桃 (Fēn Táo) (Blend 10), SPON Three Year Blend (2024), All-Texas SPON 2024, Omniscience & Proselytism (Blend 11), Bird Bump (Batch #2), All Y'all N Co |
| Pinthouse Brewing | Saison De Monstre | Farmhouse Ale - Saison | August 9, 2024 | 4.26 | |
| Ghost Note Brewing | Moving To the Country | Wild Ale - American | November 13, 2024 | 4.13 | |
| Hold Out Brewing | No Moon Tonight | Farmhouse Ale - Saison | March 1, 2024 | 4.06 | |
| Lago Vista Brewing Company | Saison Du Lac | Farmhouse Ale - Saison | March 22, 2024 | 4.01 | |
| Roughhouse Brewing | Caveship ‘24 | Farmhouse Ale - Other | August 25, 2024 | 4.01 | |
Belgian:
Wheat:
| Brewery | Beer Name | Style | Date Created | Beer Rating | More Top Beers |
| 3rd Level Brewing | El Hefe Grande | Wheat Beer - Hefeweizen | August 15, 2024 | 4.07 | Hairyman Hefe |
| Lazarus Brewing Company | Fields of Gold | Wheat Beer - Witbier / Blanche | April 26, 2024 | 4 | |
| Live Oak Brewing Company | Wolpertingerweizen | Wheat Beer - Dunkelweizen | January 15, 2024 | 3.97 | |
| Phantom Warrior Brewing Company | Crayon Eater | Wheat Beer - Hefeweizen | February 10, 2024 | 3.95 | |
| Batch Craft Beer & Kolaches | Frühschoppen | Wheat Beer - Hefeweizen | February 3, 2024 | 3.84 | |
Ale (Other):
Specialty:
| Brewery | Beer Name | Style | Date Created | Beer Rating | More Top Beers |
| Celis Brewery | Eat the Worm | Smoked Beer | November 13, 2024 | 4.05 | |
| Zilker Brewing Company | Early Birdie | Shandy / Radler | September 21, 2024 | 4.03 | |
| Nomadic Beerworks | The Kluger | Shandy / Radler | July 12, 2024 | 3.97 | |
| Hopsquad Brewing | Stoop Kid | Malt Liquor | March 3, 2024 | 3.94 | |
| 3rd Level Brewing | Steambeer Willie | California Common | February 8, 2024 | 3.92 | |
Not Beer:
Year End Commentary:
In terms of brewery openings and closures, this has been kind of a weird year. We had three new breweries open in Austin (and four more in the greater Central Texas area), all of which had been known since 2023 besides the surprise Bear King Cottonwood Shores taproom. On the closures side, there were eight breweries that closed. But, there’s a catch: only two of those are the end of a brewery brand – Bull Creek (which I doubt many people had been to), and then the big one is Last Stand. The other six breweries (Tanglefoot, Beerburg, Family Business, Bluemont, Big Country, and Vista San Antonio) either still have another location that’s open, or are contract brewing with plans to reopen in the future. We can even extend this to Fairweather Cider and Austin Eastciders who are both doing just fine without their taprooms.
So I guess the point here is that physical locations may not be seeing as much business as in the past, but the beer is still flowing through H-E-B. This isn’t much of a surprise to the breweries, many of whom have been putting more focus into distribution in the last few years.
Will The Alright finally open their doors in 2025? We can’t wait to find out! See you next year!
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