My Favorite Beer of 2022
2022 was supposed to be a rebound year. Mask mandates and indoor gathering limits were diminishing, people began traveling again and they started to shake the proverbial cobwebs off of their social interaction skills that sat idle for two years.
Now that 2022 is coming to an end, I took a dive down memorial lane of the past 11.5 months to see if there was a beer that stood out as the best I tried in 2022. For those who know me, stouts are what got me in to craft beer. That’s not to say I didn’t drink some amazing new IPAs and sours in 2022, because I surely did. I even began to come full circle in the craft beer world, rekindling a love for pilsners, lagers and other styles that had fallen off my radar in the past 5-7 years.
In 2022 my favorite beer was the base version of Ego Death from Resident Culture Brewing in Charlotte, NC. This year marked the 5th year anniversary of Resident Culture, so we sat down with Marc Sklar, one of the brewers at Resident Culture to taste the variants released for their anniversary.
Marc started at Resident Culture in June of 2022 after moving from Birdsong Brewing. Though not involved in producing the base recipe, Marc was welcomed in the process of tasting, blending and identifying what barrel combinations made for the best end product.
The name Ego Death comes from one of Resident Culture’s core tenants, and is exemplified as the entire team, regardless of position, was encouraged to taste the Ego Death variants and give their opinion. “We landed on something that everyone involved walked away from the table feeling good about”, Marc said and indicated that the all hands on deck approach creates buy in from service staff, brewers and management alike.
Here is what we thought of each variant:
Ego Death Base - lots of hazelnut with over 10lbs. per barrel of toasted hazlenuts and cacao nibs. This pours super thick and is a must try for anyone that likes an Almond Joy. Ego Death was aged for 18-26 months in a blend of Willet and Heaven Hill barrels and is the base beer in which the variants below were created.
Vanilla - the base beer plus conditioned with one lb. per barrel of Cooks Island vanilla beans. This was exceptional, and the vanilla really popped when we let this warm up for about 20 minutes.
Coffee and Coconut - the base beer plus conditioned with Mostra Ghost Bear Blend coffee and toasted coconut. We really enjoyed the addition of coconut which added a sweetness and decadence to an already amazing beer.
Banana and Caramel - the base beer plus conditioned with Wild Thai Banana and caramel. This poured extremely thick and was loaded with bananas. This is a must try if you like bananas foster.
Compost Cookie - the base beer plus conditioned with butterscotch chips, dark chocolate chips, potato chips, pretzels and graham cracker. This had a salted caramel finish that we quite enjoyed, which likely came from the pretzels and chips, two ingredients you don’t often find in barrel aged imperial stouts.
Marc let us know that his favorite brewery outside of Charlotte is Creature Comforts from Athens, Georgia and that Lagunita’s Brown Shugga’ was the beer that got him into craft beer. We appreciate Marc and the Resident Culture staff for having us to taste these wonderful beers.
