The Best Beer of the Month: March 2021
March 31, 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 March 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 March!
Adroit Theory: Dia de Los Muertos (Ghost 906)
It will come as no shock to regular readers of this site to see an Adroit Theory stout on this list. Ever since Russell’s visit to their taproom in Purcellville a few years ago, they’ve earned instant purchase status whenever we find them available. While everything they make is killer, their stouts are really where they’re at the top of their game. Dia de Los Muertos (Ghost 906) is an old school Russian Imperial with notes of dark chocolate, dark coffee, and ample roastiness. We have a couple more Adroit Theory stouts in the fridge, so don’t be surprised if they pop up on another of these articles.
Drekker Brewing: Underwater Ally
Drekker has received a lot of coverage on this site for their smoothie sours, which easily rank among the best the country has to offer. However, it’s important we continue to point out that Drekker also cranks out top-shelf IPAs. Underwater Ally is a hazy double IPA with oats and spelt, giving a smooth, creamy mouthfeel with a lively, citrusy grapefruit flavor. Not too many hazy IPAs in America can strike this sort of balance between juice, cream, effervescence, and a dry finish. Anyone even remotely in the Fargo, North Dakota vicinity should try to make the trek to Drekker— we’re certainly hoping to get there in the near future.
Enegren Brewing: The Lightest One
After years in LA, we just recently made our first journey to Moorpark to visit Enegren Brewing. Friends have insisted for years we make the journey, and only recently did we overcome our laziness to give their famous lagers a try. Whatever expectations we brought with us to Enegren, they were shattered and exceeded. It’s nearly impossible to pick one of their godly beers— Lagertha? Kaffee Brau?— but we settled on The Lightest One. Quite frankly, we don’t think we’ve ever had a beer *this* light that’s also *this* flavorful. It’s got incredible crispness with just a splash of hops, making this the perfect all-day crusher for any occasion. This summer, we’ll absolutely be returning to Enegren to get all our easy-drinking warm weather beers directly from the source.
Humble Sea: HS4 with Highland Park
Humble Sea is one of our favorite breweries in California. They recently celebrated their fourth anniversary, so we ordered their anniversary box and had it delivered to Los Angeles. While the caliber of haze in this box was no surprise, it was the west coast fare that really stood out in this pack. If we had to choose one, we’d go with their HS4 collaboration with Los Angeles’s own Highland Park, a decocted west coast pilsner. It’s tropical, piney, exceptionally crisp, and certainly belongs in the same tier as the godly pilsners that Highland Park produces. This should serve as a reminder to those who seek out Humble Sea haze that no matter what the style, Humble Sea has you covered.
Long Beach Beer Lab: The Chimerat
On a recent visit to Long Beach, we swung past one of our favorite LB breweries, Long Beach Beer Lab. These yeastmasters bake exceptional bread and brew exceptional beer. They embrace the sour power in a way few in the greater Los Angeles area do, crafting a variety of fantastic saisons, kvasses, Flanders reds, lambics, and fruited sours. The Chimerat is an açaí blueberry sour that has real rich juice and berry skin complexity, all topped off with a truly delightful pucker. Anyone visiting Long Beach owes it to themselves to buy a pastry and a sour, sit on their patio, and enjoy the warm Southern California breeze.
We admittedly don’t do much writing about hefeweizens on our site, because, frankly, most of the hefs we have end up tasting fairly run of the mill. It’s unclear what it was about Hefe Metal from Sioux Falls’s Remedy Brewing that grabbed our attention. Maybe it was the hot day. Maybe it was that balance of banana, cloves, wheat, floral notes, and everything else you’d come to associate with the best of hefeweizens. But this was the first hef in recent memory that really left us sitting back and luxuriating in the perfect execution of this style.
Slice Beer Company: Hippie Cabbage
Slice Beer Company in Lincoln is one of those breweries that’s tantalizingly close to you but far enough out of reach that you rarely get a hold of it. Even if friends visit Sacramento, they so rarely will make the trek north to Lincoln to snag us some cans. Luckily, our buddy Chase did just that last month— and while the hazes are always a highlight, those who follow this site know our affinity for their triple west coast IPAs. Hippie Cabbage is no exception: this Mosaic and Ekuanot hopped beer has big berry, leafy flavor, but with a surprisingly smooth delivery of its 10% ABV and a nice bite at the end. Their TIPAs may be the best in the country.
Southern Prohibition: Selfie Destruct
We were fortunate enough to receive more beer last month from our favorite brewery in Mississippi, Southern Prohibition Brewing. While they make delicious beers across a number of styles, it’s their hazy IPAs that really make our eyes pop and our mouths water. We named one of their hazies, 4xDH Space to Face, as one of the best IPAs of 2020, so it’s no surprise that Selfie Destruct follows in Space to Face’s footsteps. It’s pillowy, creamy, dank, a little dry, and incredibly refreshing. Every beer we get from SoPro is a treat, so we hope to get to try more in 2021.
Tripping Animals: Maple-Pear Tarte Tatin
This is the second time in 2021 that Tripping Animals has landed a sour on our Best of the Month list, and every can we get on the West Coast gets us that much more rabid about planning a visit to the East Coast to visit their taproom. This Maple Pear Tarte Tatin caught our eye largely because, well, Russell’s dad likes saying “tarte tatin” (seriously, it’s fun to say! Try it!). When we actually tried the beer, we were blown away. It somehow manages to be sour… have maple sweetness… and possess distinct pear flavor. We have no clue how the mad geniuses at Tripping Animals do this… but we’re thirsty for more.
There are few breweries in America we hold in higher esteem than Une Annee. Ever since our legendary trip to Niles that resulted in us emptying our wallets and trying literally everything on the menu, we seek it out whenever we can— especially their transcendently tart sours. When we saw they were canning some of their otherworldly Le Seul series sours, we had to give it a spin, and Le Seul XIX, like all the others, didn’t disappoint. We’d never heard of “aronia” before, but it carries a cranberry/plum sort of flavor, and obviously this bad boy packed that classic Une Annee pucker-inducing punch. We’ll be back to Chicago around Memorial Day… and best believe we’ll plan another trip to Niles.
BONUS: Smooj: Pina Colada
Okay, so this isn’t a beer. In fact, when we heard the term “smoothie seltzer,” we were immediately both shocked and appalled. Still, we’re nothing if not open-minded, so we bought a couple cans from Tavour to try. Upon our first taste of this… look, we don’t know how the hell to label this, but it tastes AMAZING. Pure Pina colada sweetness is topped with a robust layer of thick flavorful foam— we were scooping it out of the glass with our fingers! Smoothie beverages do still garner some skepticism from us… but Smooj is the real deal.
What was your favorite beer of March 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 and February while you’re here. Thanks for supporting our site! Cheers!
