California

The dry, clear, aggressively bitter interpretation of American IPA, built on pine and grapefruit with the malt stripped right back.

Lager yeast fermented warm in the Californian manner, producing a clean amber beer with woody, minty hop character.

A 1975 San Francisco ale that was dry-hopped with Cascade before American craft brewing existed as a category, and which ceased production when Anchor closed in 2023.

The 1972 beer that brought porter back, at a point when the style had effectively stopped existing anywhere.

The beer that was California Common — lager yeast fermented warm in shallow open vessels — and effectively the only example of the style.

A widely available Californian blonde ale, and the clearest example of what the style is actually for.

One of the highest-volume American craft IPAs, and evidence that a hop-forward beer could be a mainstream flagship.

The American imperial stout most drinkers calibrate the style against, brewed continuously since 1995.

The beer that defined the American double IPA: enormously hoppy, startlingly dry and drinkable for its strength.

A barrel-aged American sour ale with cherries, and one of the beers that established that the category is a method rather than a recipe.

A vintage-dated American barley wine, released annually and explicitly intended to be cellared and compared across years.

A fresh-hop winter IPA brewed annually since 1981, and one of the earliest American IPAs.

The hazy IPA that reached general distribution first, from the brewery whose pale ale defined the style it departs from.

The most influential beer of the American craft movement, and the one that made Cascade’s grapefruit character the sound of American hops.