Best Microbrew

Most people know Fort Collins-based New Belgium Brewing for its huge-selling Fat Tire, but serious beer nuts love its more ambitious beers. And Trippel is the best of New Belgium's bolder bunch. This honey-hued, bottle-conditioned wonder is brewed with a Belgian yeast, by a Belgian brewer (the revered Peter Bouckaert), and blessed with Saaz hops. Better and more elegant than most of its brewed-in-Belgium counterparts, Trippel delivers a crisp malt profile, hints of herbal bitterness and a deceptive 8.5 percent alcohol by volume.