Stock up on these 12-packs of craft beer for Memorial Day

Sometimes it feels like you need to be a full-blown beer geek to shop the ever-growing beer aisle for a six-pack. With so many options filling the shelves, it’s all too easy to be paralyzed by choice. Craft breweries have caught on, and a new wave of variety packs containing a mix of styles and flavor profiles should make it easier to choose which beer to fill the cooler with at your Memorial Day BBQ.

Here are some 12-packs to shop for, along with some tips on which brews are the highlights in each mix.

Firestone Walker - The Lion’s Share

Available in both bottled and canned packages, the Lion’s Share box gathers the hoppy core lineup from the Paso Robles brewery in one place. It’s tough to pick just one standout from the box, but Luponic Distortion — the brewery’s new foray into experimental hop varieties — is a good place to start. If you’re looking for something a little less hop-forward, try the flagship DBA pale ale. The balanced ale in the English style is a crowd-pleaser that won’t scare off drinkers who typically avoid IPAs. The inimitable Pale 31 and easy-drinking Easy Jack session IPA round out the box.

Pizza Port

The San Diego brewpub chain has been canning a selection of favorites for a couple of years now, and it’s recently begun offering a mixed 12-pack of 16-ounce cans. It’s another box that’s heavy on the hops, with the potent Kook double IPA leading the pack. The bright and tropical Swami’s IPA is the highlight of the Pizza Port canned lineup, and this dry and bitter brew is a representation of the San Diego style of IPAs. Ponto is a crushable session IPA and one of the best examples of that popular category, but it’s the under-appreciated Pick Six pilsners that are the perfect match for a backyard party. Light and crisp with just enough bitterness, Pick Six is the rare craft beer that will satisfy both the beer geeks and those who still prefer macro-brewed lagers.

Stone Brewing

The popular San Diego brand also offers a mixed 12-pack, and the included brews change seasonally. The newest release includes the flagship Stone IPA and the pungent Ruination Double IPA alongside a new beer and an old classic back from retirement. Stone’s black IPA Sublimely Self Righteous was retired last year (and replaced with a dark variant of its Enjoy By series), but fans of SSR’s excellent expression of the interplay between piney-and-citrusy hops and darkly roasted malts will rejoice at another chance to drink the brew. The new beer is Citrusy Wit, and the style (a light and refreshing Belgian witbier) is something that seems antithetical to Stone’s usual offerings. I’m excited to try this mix of old-world style and craft experimentation that adds kaffir lime leaf to the traditional wit profile.

Sierra Nevada - Beer Camp Across America

This box is a little different than the others because it contains two bottles each of six different collaboration beers made by teams of brewers across the country. It’s part of Sierra Nevada’s traveling beer festival, and each beer was made by a group of craft breweries in the six regions that the Beer Camp Across America tour is visiting. There are some out-there beers in the box (such as Sweet Sunny South: a “southern table beer” that uses peaches, honeysuckle and black tea to recall a languid Southern summer’s afternoon on the porch), and the contingent of Southern California breweries that collaborated on the Stout of the Union brew was headed by Long Beach’s Beachwood Brewing. That later brew is the highlight of the box, and stout lovers should not miss the roasty and dark brew that eschews oddball ingredients in favor of an assertive and complex malt flavor. (Beer Camp Across America stops in Long Beach during the end of L.A. Beer Week on June 25th.)

All of the variety packs fall in the $20-$25 price range (except for the Beer Camp box, which fetches closer to $30), and they should all be available at big-box retailers such as BevMo and Total Wine & More, and at grocery stores with a good craft beer selection. (One caveat: Most of these variety packs print a “bottled on” date on the side of the box somewhere; be sure to double check this date and to steer away from any boxes more than eight to 10 weeks old.)

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