Best Beer to Bring to a Barbecue
New Belgium Shift
This new offering from Colorado, packaged exclusively in cans, proved the favorite with our tasters. It contains four types of hops including the trendy Nelson Sauvin variety, source of the beer's hint of tropical fruit flavors and aromas. Tasters loved its low 5 percent ABV, its citrusy but not bitter hoppiness, and its overall easy-drinking balance.

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Uncommon Brewers Golden State Ale
This organic golden ale from Santa Cruz is brewed with poppy seeds, an homage to California's state flower. It's crisp and light with a nutty flavor from the seeds, easy to drink, and smooth without being bland. Tasters tuned into its yeasty, fruity overtones, and noticed its slightly heavy 6.4 percent ABV.

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Brewery Vivant Farm Hand
This was the first time CHOW had tasted anything from this Michigan-based brewery specializing in Belgian-style beers. Farm Hand is a 5 percent ABV farmhouse-/saison-type beer, refreshing with a hint of sourness. Tasters found it "lemonade-y," and liked its fizzy carbonation.

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Sun King/Oskar Blues Chaka
Two craft-canning leaders recently put together this Belgian-style ale, packaged in resealable aluminum bottles (OK, so not technically cans). This was the tasting's sleeper, the favorite of many—surprising, since it was the heaviest of the bunch at 8 percent ABV. Tasters liked its "slightly wheaty and maple-y" flavor and great balance of sweetness, caramel malt, and hops.

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21st Amendment Brew Free! or Die
Maybe it was our tasters' San Francisco bias sniffing out a hometown entry even sampling blind, but this local brewery's offering (and we mean local—they're only a few blocks from the CHOW offices) was the top-rated of the pale ales and IPAs. Tasters liked the smooth, full flavor of this 7 percent ABV IPA.

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Maui Brewing Bikini Blonde Lager
Tasters loved this European-style lager for its clean, refreshing flavor and drinkability: "could drink a lot of these," one sampler noted. It was deemed one of the most summery of all the beers—not surprising, since it registers a nice low 5.1 percent ABV.

Elijah Craig 12-Year-Old Bourbon, $24.99
At less than $30, the flavor-to-value ratio here is high. So is the smoke: Aged in barrels with a lot of interior char, this is a bourbon with plenty of toasty richness. Plus it’s 94 proof, which makes it a prime candidate for dilution in the glass, either with water or the ingredients of a well-made Manhattan or Old Fashioned. Murray calls this one a good choice for someone just starting to explore American whiskeys.

Kentucky Vintage 17-Year Bourbon, $64.95
This is similar in style to the ridiculously hard-to-find Pappy Van Winkle's, a bourbon with a cult following. This one’s wheated, meaning that wheat serves as the secondary, or flavor, grain (naturally, corn is the dominant one). As a result, it has softer, more caramelly undertones than bourbons made with a high proportion of rye. But it's also got a hint of fruit: Murray says its bright cherry notes really make it sing.

Willett 5-Year-Old Family Bottled Single Barrel Straight Rye Whiskey, $38.99
Whiskeys distilled from a high proportion of rye are tricky to pull off, since the grain gets sticky and tends to foam during distilling, but you’d never know it, tasting this offering from a classic Kentucky distiller. Murray think this 5-year is perfect: old enough to have a subtle, floral quality, but young enough to retain its robust rye spice and tanginess. And priced just under $40, it’s a good buy.

Yamazaki 18-Year Single Malt Whisky, $145.99
Japanese whiskies have been hot for a few years now, and this one (distilled by Suntory) is one of the best currently available in the U.S. It has subtle smoke over notes of black tea, much like certain single malts from the Highlands region in Scotland, whisky's fatherland. But don't be scared off by the notion of smokiness: Murray calls this one very easy to drink—assuming you don't choke on the price first.

Rattray's 19-Year-Old Selection Blended Malt Scotch Whisky, $89.99
Blended Scotch is enjoying a revival at the moment, and this new brand from A. D. Rattray Ltd. shows blending at its best. It’s a mix of four single malts with the telltale mellow, fruity profile of whiskies from Scotland's Speyside region, all aged in sherry casks, each chosen for a different characteristic (smoke, cinnamon, sweetness). Murray calls it well-rounded, a good gateway Scotch for somebody who hasn’t yet developed a taste for mega-peaty single malts, or who simply doesn't like them.

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Bruery Saison de Lente
A complex, slightly sweet seasonal from Southern California, this beer smelled yeasty and sour, tasted creamy, and finished dry. The 6.5 percent ABV beer is brewed with Brettanomyces, a wild yeast, which tasters noticed gave it a lot of interesting flavors, ranging from "grassy" to "pencil lead, but in a good way," and a touch of sourness.

Best Beer to Drink While Planting Your Garden
New Belgium Dig
This 5.6 percent ABV pale ale is a brand-new spring seasonal from Fort Collins, Colorado's New Belgium Brewing Company. It's brewed using two trendy hop varieties, Nelson Sauvin and Sorachi Ace, which give it a tropical fruit and punchy sour lemon flavor, respectively. Tasters found it balanced, with a fruity/floral aroma, and thought it would be "sessionable for a colder day."

Best Beer to Take on Your First Spring Camping Trip
Fort George 1811 Lager
This Astoria, Oregon, brewery cans its beer in 16-ounce tallboys that're good for outdoor adventure. Its pre-Prohibition-style lager includes corn and is fermented at a warmer temperature than most lagers, a nod to the fact that many 19th-century brewers on the West Coast didn't have a lot of ice to work with. Tasters liked the 5.1 percent ABV beer's malty flavor, hoppy bitter edge, and light, smooth body.

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Stillwater Artisanal Premium
This crisp and refreshing 4.5 percent ABV American blonde ale is a bit of a departure for the Baltimore brewery typically known for its saisons. Nonetheless, it's still fermented with farmhouse ale yeast and two strains of Brettanomyces, which give it a "Belgian," "sweet," "farm-yardy manure" smell.

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Dupont Posca Rustica
This 8 percent ABV beer from Belgium is a gruit: an ancient style made before hops became brewers' go-to bittering ingredient. It tastes fresh and clean, yeasty and effervescent, and pairs well with jams.

Best Beer for a Rainy Day
Sixpoint Harbinger
This 4.9 percent ABV spring seasonal from Brooklyn is a nicely balanced, crisp saison, with a frothy head and an extremely malty finish. A friendly, solid beer to enjoy when you're stuck inside on rainy spring days.

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Anchorage Brewing Galaxy White IPA
Trend alert! White IPAs, which are hoppy wheat beers, are showing up on several breweries' rosters this spring. This version from an Alaska newcomer is brewed with kumquats, coriander, and pepper. It's tangy and a little musky (thanks to Brettanomyces yeast), light in body despite its 7 percent ABV, with floral hop aromas. If you can't find it, try the Deschutes Chainbreaker, another great white IPA.