After Tasting 855 Beers in 2025, These Are the Best

Well, it’s officially drinking season! (Just kidding, it’s always drinking season.) This is Tony Rehagen, your Top Shelf Society beer expert, hoping you had a pleasant, hop-and-malt-filled Thanksgiving and are already refilling the fridge for the festive weeks to come. Before I hoist a holiday stein to the New Year, I always like to look back on the beers I’ve most enjoyed from the previous 12 months. But first, the news in brews:

When it comes to craft beer’s year, it’s all about the numbers — and you can find plenty of stats telling a gloomy tale. Overall, volumes of craft beer are generally down, prices are mostly up, and brewery closures nationwide continue to outpace openings for the first prolonged period since 2005. Tariffs on international necessities like Canadian barley and hops and aluminum and the general rate of inflation we’re all feeling are partially to blame.