Best Fall Beers of 2024: What to Crack Open This Season
Autumn is prime time for enjoying ales and lagers, and there's no shortage of fall beers waiting to be tapped—be it while watching a football game, reading up on IPA beer history, or raking leaves (we'd also recommend hoisting lager steins at your local Oktoberfest bash). Fall’s cooler weather welcomes a bounty of fall beers.
There are plenty of heartier styles suited for taking off the chill and pairing with that bubbling pot of chili. Stouts, porters, and nitro beers are once again fair game, and coolers swell with fleeting releases such as fresh-hopped pale ales and pumpkin everything.
We welcome several intriguing ales to store shelves, including IPAs seasoned with spruce tips to ambers ales spiked with maple syrup.
Below you’ll find 24 of the best fall beers to drink during fall’s crunchy, leaf-filled glory. Try the best fall beers of 2024 before winter’s first snowfall.
Related: The Best Pumpkin Beers, Ranked
Best Fall Beers of 2024 at a Glance
Best Pumpkin Beer: New Belgium Voodoo Ranger Atomic Pumpkin
Best Smoked Beer: Alaskan Brewing Co. Smoked Porter
Best M?rzen: Jack’s Abby Copper Legend
Best Festbier: Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest
Best Amber Ale: Left Hand Brewing Sawtooth Amber Ale
Best Brown Ale: Cigar City Brewing Maduro Brown Ale
Best Schwarzbier: K?stritzer Schwarzbier
Best Stout: Bell's Kalamazoo Stout
Best IPA: Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale
Best Non-Alcoholic Beer: Guinness 0
Pumpkin Beers
Forget the Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino. Come fall, there’s no finer seasonal treat than a pumpkin beer brewed with pie spices and plenty of pumpkin too. Pumpkin beers are American brewing’s signature fall seasonal.
Smoked Beers
A crackling backyard fire can set the stage for sipping a rauchbier, a style of beer made with smoked malts. If you like BBQ, you might love a few smoked beers.
Festbier and M?rzen Lagers
Whether you’re tailgating before a football game or pulling on lederhosen for an Oktoberfest party, you’ll want to stock up on these signature fall lagers. The malty and robust m?rzen and golden festbier lagers are a little stronger than your average light lager but no less refreshing. P.S. Oktoberfest celebrations start in September, not October.
Amber and Brown Ales
Cooler weather calls for richer beers that lean on malt character, namely the amber and brown ales. Some versions opt for a heavier hand with hops and complementary flavors such as maple syrup.
Porters, Stouts, and Schwarzbiers
When the nights grow longer, you’ll want to turn to warming porters and stouts that taste of chocolate and coffee thanks to the use of dark malts. You’ll also want to look for a schwarzbier, a dark lager that should be your go-to grilling beer.
Pale Ales and IPAs
In the fertile fields of the Pacific Northwest, late summer is harvest time for hops, the little green flowers that add aroma, flavor, and bitterness to beer. Most hops are dried and packaged for later use. But some freshly picked hops are rushed to breweries to create a fleeting taste of the harvest season: freshly hopped pale ales and IPAs.
Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale
Style: American IPA
ABV: 6.8%
Brewery: Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, Chico, CA
This seasonal treat is brewed during the hop harvest, with cones rushed straight from the farms to Sierra Nevada's brew kettles. The result is heady perfume of citrus- and pine-forward American hops over red-hued malt bill that's a touch pinier than the average IPA.
Other Half Space Diamonds
Style: Hazy IPA
ABV: 8.5%
Brewery: Other Half Brewing Company, New York, NY
This modern classic exemplifies the hazy IPA, packed to the can seams with the peach and passionfruit flavors of Galaxy hops. The flavor is big—massive really—but a smooth, not quite sweet malt backbone balances out the bold hops for a surprisingly balanced, pleasantly warming IPA.
Three Floyds Broo Doo
Style: Harvest Ale
ABV: 7.0%
Brewery: Three Floyds Brewing Company, Munster, IN
This modern classic exemplifies the hazy IPA, packed to the can seams with the peach and passionfruit flavors of Galaxy hops. The flavor is big—massive really—but a smooth, not quite sweet malt backbone balances out the bold hops for a surprisingly balanced, pleasantly warming IPA.
Non-Alcoholic Beers
Perhaps the greatest advancement in beer of the last decade is the elevation of non-alcoholic beer to a beverage that indeed tastes like beer. We admit they're not all winners, but the best ones are practically indistinguishable from their full-strength peers.
Guinness 0
Style: Irish Dry Stout
ABV: 0.0%
Brewery: Guinness & Co, Dublin, IRE
It tastes just like Guinness—can there be higher praise than that? Overthink this beer and you might notice the body is a touch thinner, but otherwise it feels like a clone. It features the same nitrogenation, snappy bite, and roasted barley.
Partake Brewing Oktoberfest
Style: Oktoberfest
ABV: 0.5%
Brewery: Partake Brewing, Calgary, CAN
Partake recalls the classic amber lagers of Oktoberfest with this crisp, quaffable beer. Toasted barley dominates, but isn't overwhelming, and is balanced by a kiss of spicy German hops. Pair with a giant pretzel and you're ready to fest.
Athletic Brewing Free Wave
Style: Hazy IPA
ABV: 0.5%
Brewery: Athletic Brewing, Milford, CT
With a little more body and a ton more hops than most non-alcoholic IPAs, Free Wave satisfies and feels substantial—like a good hazy IPA should. Athletic brews Free Wave with a trio of crowd-pleasing American hops—Citra, Mosaic, and Amarillo—that bring bold juicy citrus flavors and aromas.
