The roots may reach back to Belgium, but much of Peaks & Pints’ Sunday beer flight’s restless brilliance flowered in America. Five benchmark beers tell the story of modern brewing: an Oregon orchard sour shaped by lambic tradition, a Belgian farmhouse apparition, California’s defining Double IPA, an Alaskan barleywine pushed gloriously beyond reason, and Chicago’s bourbon-barrel landmark. Less a passport than a map of influence, these are beers that reshaped styles, redefined expectations, and reminded brewers everywhere that greatness is always worth chasing.
The World Cup Final deserves beers that have earned their own place on the global stage. Beginning at noon, Spain and Argentina arrive with 90 minutes and a trophy between them. We answer with five beers that have already won their own enduring arguments. Each of these pours became remarkable for a different reason—through patience, innovation, uncompromising craftsmanship, or simply refusing to brew like anyone else. Settle beneath our giant screen, or our other three screens, raise a taster glass to the finalists, and enjoy five modern classics while the world’s biggest match crowns its champion.
Peaks & Pints World Cup Final Flight
pFriem Family Brewers Estate Kriek
5.7% ABV | Lambic-Inspired Barrel-Aged Sour Ale with Estate Tart Cherries | Hood River, Oregon
Eight years before pFriem‘s lambic kriek ever reached a glass, 40 tiny Carmine Jewel cherry trees quietly took root in an Oregon orchard, beginning a patient conversation between soil, seasons, and fermentation that refused to be hurried. Their brilliantly tart fruit eventually met French oak, wild yeast, and time, unfolding into delicate layers of fresh cherry, flaky pastry, rose petals, almond, soft earth, and a bright, graceful acidity that feels less like a sharp turn than a slow sunrise over the Columbia Gorge. It is a reminder that greatness is sometimes measured not by how loudly a beer announces itself, but by how many years it was willing to wait before saying anything at all. (pFriem’s Estate Kriek is on tap; pictured is their lambic kriek, which is in our cooler.)
Fantôme Ectoplasmic
6% ABV | Farmhouse Ale | Érezée, Belgium
Some beers arrive with a recipe. This one seems to arrive with a rumor. Pale citrus slips through fresh-baked bread and cracked pepper before wild herbs, meadow flowers, and an earthy whisper appear almost uninvited, each sip rearranging the conversation as though the yeast has quietly decided to tell the story differently. Dry, expressive, and delightfully elusive, it captures the untamed spirit that has made Fantôme a legend among farmhouse devotees who understand that mystery can be every bit as satisfying as certainty.
Russian River Pliny the Elder
8% ABV | Double IPA | Windsor, California
Every generation of hop lovers eventually finds its North Star, and this one still shines with unmistakable purpose. Brilliant notes of grapefruit zest, resinous pine, orange blossom, and ripe stone fruit surge across a crisp malt canvas before a clean, assertive bitterness settles in with the quiet confidence of a beer that has never needed to chase trends. More than two decades after helping define the double IPA, Russian River‘s Pliny the Elder remains a reminder that true greatness rarely shouts—it simply keeps setting the standard, one impeccably balanced sip at a time.
Anchorage Deal With the Devil Double Oaked Barleywine
17% ABV | Double Oaked American Barleywine | Anchorage, Alaska
Occasionally, a taster glass arrives that politely rearranges the rest of your afternoon. Layers of bourbon-soaked toffee, Medjool dates, vanilla bean, charred oak, dark caramel, and figs unfold with the patient confidence of a story that has spent nearly two years learning how to tell itself inside successive whiskey barrels. Rich without becoming clumsy and impossibly smooth for its formidable strength, Anchorage‘s Dead With the Devil finishes with a slow ember of oak spice that lingers long after the glass is empty, proving that sometimes the devil really is in the details.
Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Original Stout 2025
14.8% ABV | Bourbon Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout | Chicago, Illinois
There comes a point where a stout stops behaving like a beverage and begins unfolding like an old leather-bound novel left beside a Kentucky rickhouse. Velvet layers of bittersweet chocolate, vanilla bean, dark cherry, toasted almond, espresso, and caramelized sugar drift through polished bourbon warmth before charred oak quietly reminds you where the last fourteen months have been spent. Goose Island built a style-defining icon not by chasing excess, but by proving that immense power can still carry remarkable grace, lingering long after the final sip with the quiet confidence of a true original.
LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory
