After every year I like to run down my favorite Iowa brewed beers! This year, I’ve teamed up with one of my good buddies and an all-around beer connoisseur, the great and wonderful Duke of Drinking. We compiled our list of the 10 best Iowa beers of ’24 based on the following criteria:
*The beer had to be unique to 2024
*The beer had to be the first time either of us have tried
*Of course it has to be Iowa brewed

Of course, we didn’t get to try them all as much as we’d have liked to, so if there’s a beer that didn’t make our list but made yours, we’d love to hear about it! In fact, shoot me your list or check out this post on Facebook – Iowa Beer page and give us your top 10!

Before I ramble on with our list, a shout out to all of those wonderful brewers/breweries/restaurants/establishments that give us the opportunity to imbibe on the wonderful drink that is beer. Thank you all very much and we appreciate you! On to the list:

**Field Day Revel** – 12.55% ABV – Oak Aged Imperial Stout blended with a Fresh Imperial Stout than rested on Almonds, Marzipan, Vanilla, & Chocolate. Revel in the Drink, makes you want to dance and party during this Holiday Season. This beer packed a ton of flavor and you get the flavor of each ingredient throughout each sip. I was worried it would be too sweet, but it had just the right amount. Wonderfully done brew.

**Dimensional Gladius** – 14.6% ABV – Blend of Imperial Stouts aged in Heaven Hill and Blaum Brothers Bourbon barrels for 21-26 months. What I loved the most about this beer is that it was just a big ass imperial stout with no adjuncts. Dimensional let the barrels do the talking and they sure did. I was worried as the nose smelled hot, but damn, the flavor was delicious. Viscous and full of that lovely barrel flavor. Fantastic beer.

**Dimensional/Field Day Dang** 8% ABV – Hazy DIPA with Nelson Sauvin, Motueka Hop Kief, and Citra. Brewed in collaboration with Field Day Brewing. One of the best Iowa made IPAs of the year, and one of the best IPAs made in the world this year. Dang packed a well-balanced hop punch, and if you have Nelson Sauvin and Citra in there, it’s sure to taste good. Hoping this one gets brewed again, delicious stuff!

**Clock House Orange Stripe** 13% ABV – Long-Boil Imperial Stout aged in a Driftless Glen Bourbon De Naranja barrel for 12 months. Rested on a bed of Madagascar Vanilla Beans and Ghana Cacao Nibs. Tasting notes of Orange Cream and Dark Chocolate. The perfect timing of this release as it tastes just as those chocolate covered oranges you see during the holidays do. Clock House always does a wonderful job with their stouts, long boil which equates to a viscous bottle of greatness. The orange was the perfect subtle flavor at the end of your sip. Another winner from Clock House!

**Dimensional Survey Says** – 10% ABV – Hazy Triple IPA with HBC 1019 Cryo, NZH 105, and Citra. Brewed in collaboration with G5 Brewing. You want to talk about a scary triple IPA? Survey Says is just that…absolutely delicious and scarily drinkable for a Triple IPA. This was well-balanced and smooth. Just an outstanding job by Dimensional.

**Clock House Veltross** – 8% ABV – Sanction #2. Double NEIPA dry-hopped with premium lot selected Nectaron and Citra. Not only does Clock House excel at the big boy stouts, their IPA and double IPA game are always on point as well. This year they gave us Veltross, a definite beer of the year contender, part of their “Sanction” series, which hopefully doesn’t mean we won’t see it again. Maybe if we ask Todd and Blake nicely they will brew this baby up again? Pretty please?

**Big Grove Richard the Whale: Golden Ticket 2024** – 13% ABV – The 2024 Richard the Whale Golden Ticket variant is inspired by coconut almond macaroons and we blended this extra special batch of Richard The Whale infused with toasted organic coconut and almonds. Year after year this is an extremely sought after brew, and year after year Big Grove delivers it’s decadence. Hard to get, but if you’re lucky enough, savor this baby, it’s delightful.

**Pulpit Rock Alma Mater**- 5.38% – Alma Mater pale ale is the official craft beer of Luther College. A portion of proceeds support The Luther Fund. Skal Norse! The official craft beer of Luther College should maybe be the pale ale of the state of Iowa! Extremely crushable, wonderfully refreshing, and full of flavor. Pulpit Rock really nailed this pale ale!

**Lua Respiro** – 16% – Made for Iowa Craft Beer Fest 2024. Aged in bourbon barrels for 21 months, then conditioned on Teddy Graham’s, coconut, Saigon & Korintje cinnamon, cacao nibs and vanilla soft serve. I was lucky to be in Des Moines when Lua tapped this brew. All the flavors shone and blended extremely well. Was hoping the cinnamon wouldn’t be overpowering and it wasn’t. Subtle, spot on brew. Excellent for dessert!

**Pulpit Rock BA $ticker $Shock** – 13% ABV – $ticker $hock 2024 is a blend of 35 and 38 month barrel aged imperial stouts then rested on copious amounts of toasted coconut and almonds. Pulpit wows with this one, extremely thick and full of coconut flavor, not too sweet, just the perfect amount and the barrel and chocolate blend perfectly. Another taste of decadence.

There you have it! Our “Pours of ’24”! Let us know what you think and what your list would look like! 2025 should be outstanding for Iowa Beer! Cheers! Join the Iowa Beer Facebook group by clicking HERE: