The Best Beer of the Month: February 2021
February 28, 2021
The number one question we get asked at The Beer Travel Guide: “Had any good beers lately?” And the answer, invariably, is always yes. In the past, we’ve made our fair readers wait until the end of the year to find out our relatively recent favorites. However, this year, we’re going to let you know every month all of the new craft beers that have blown us away. We’ve selected ten beers that we feel are worthy of calling the best beer in February 2021!
Like our other lists, we’re only allowing ourselves to put one beer per brewery, so we can spread the love to as many fantastic breweries as possible. During this troubled time, your local craft breweries need your support more than ever. So please go support the ten breweries below and any others in your hometown to help them survive this pandemic and serve us amazing beer for years to come. Now, without further ado, our favorite beers this February!
Adventurous Brewing: Leisure Suit
We got our first ever can from this Iowa brewery at the start of the month. Though we were mildly concerned about the can date— there was a delay in our beer mail delivery warehouse due to COVID— the end result still tasted tremendous. It’s got big tropical flavor, but the very smooth finish gives it a nice crushability. We’ll definitely be keeping our eyes peeled for more Adventurous beer in the future.
BeerAdvocate, BeerThugLife, & Crowns & Hops: F2020x3
“The penultimate beer of the festival is F2020x3, a triple dry-hopped west coast triple black IPA from BeerAdvocate, BeerThugLife, and Crowns & Hops. This was one of Russell’s favorites of the whole fest: there are few bigger fans of black IPAs in the world, and the bitter roast with the big hop bite was exactly what the doctor ordered.” Read more about this beer in our Extreme Beer Fest coverage.
Pennsylvania breweries have been very good to us over the years— but this is our first dance with Dancing Gnome. We’d heard great things about their IPAs but never had a chance to enjoy them fresh… until 2021. We tried several, all of which could’ve made this list, but our personal favorite was Mosaic Jam, a single-hop IPA that really brings out the mosaic’s berry notes in a way that few single-hop mosaic beers do. Dancing Gnome’s IPAs are now high on our must-order list.
Dogfish Head: Olde School (2013)
“The end of the night brought up Olde School, a 2013 (!!!) barleywine brewed with figs and dates. Were we just drunk, or had this bad boy held up immaculately for nearly a decade? We assume the latter, because this is an absolute beauty, a boozy toffee and raisin masterpiece that tickles the tastebuds, warms the body, and reaffirms your faith in a higher power.” Read more about this beer in our Extreme Beer Fest coverage.
We’d been wanting to try HenHouse’s Big Chicken for a couple of years now. This year, with Henhouse doing a pandemic-friendly Big Chicken In Place event, we were able to get some delivered fresh to our home! A scheduling conflict prevented us from being able to enjoy the online portion of Big Chicken In Place, but the beer was still tasty, fresh, and… well, big! Big Chicken is surprisingly soft and crushable for a 10+%, with some sweet maltiness balancing out its citrusy hops. The taste is well-rounded, booze is well-disguised, and experience is well worth it.
Highland Park Brewery: Griffith J. Griffith Vietnamese Coffee
Griffith Day is one of the best days in Los Angeles for stout lovers, as Highland Park Brewery releases its elite Griffith J. Griffith stout in cans and makes several of its scrumptious variants available to the public. Look, we may be cheating here a bit— Griffith Day at Highland Park Brewery was the very end of January. That said, since we’d already published our Best Beers in January list, we’re including it here, because we can’t not mention Griffith Day! Our favorite was this crowler of Griffith J. Griffith with Vietnamese Coffee, so rich and creamy and decadent. It’s hard to imagine this won’t make our Best Stouts of 2021 list at year’s end.
Mortalis Brewing: Special HYDRA
“The second you crack this can open, the aroma is almost overwhelmingly fruity and sweet. It sets the tone for this fruited sour before you take your first sip. The can cites raspberry, cherry, and mango, but the major flavors are definitely a darker form of raspberry, like a berry sangria.” Read more about this beer in our Extreme Beer Fest coverage.
Pariah’s fourth-year anniversary package was a must-buy for us, as we’ve been a fan of all of their beer since our first visit two years ago. While LeBron Haze and its big brother, King Haze, were both terrific, our favorite of this batch was Colors, which we’re stoked to learn is a new member of their core beer rotation. It boasts full stone fruit and citrus flavor with some of that trademark dry bite that we love so much in so many of Pariah’s hazy IPAs. We hope Colors sticks around with some regularity— it’s undoubtedly one of the best core hazies in San Diego.
Pure Project: Corylus w/ Vanilla
We visited Pure Project’s outstanding Balboa Park location this month— we could’ve made a whole list out of Pure Project beers alone. When asked what the best beer on tap was, they told us the Corylus with Vanilla was extremely popular. Upon trying it… we think they may have undersold it. It’s a bourbon barrel aged stout with hazelnuts, cacao, coffee, and vanilla, and it’s perhaps the finest stout we’ve had from them. Corylus is luxurious, smooth, bursting with flavor, and immaculately balanced. Very few breweries in California are on Pure Project’s level.
Stave & Nail Brewing: Funk Face
Another of our San Diego area favorites is Stave & Nail: it’s an ideal place to visit and say, “I’ll have one of everything.” We’ve yet to have a bad beer from them, and their barrel program stands out as one of the best in Southern California. We could’ve featured any number of beers– Fiend, their Mexican hot chocolate stout, and Cumulous Clouds, their creamy dry-hopped haze bomb, were both terrific. Yet special mention must be given to Funk Face, a barrel aged sour IPA that takes you on a whirlwind adventure of flavor. Dank hop nose, citrus zest, bright tartness— this beer has it all. We can’t wait for our next trip to San Marcos.
What was your favorite beer of February 2021? Leave it in the comments below! Also, follow Russell and Emily both on Instagram to find out what they’re drinking on a regular basis– and please check out our favorite beers of January while you’re here. Thanks for supporting our site! Cheers!
