Photo illustration by Texas Monthly It’s been a rotten year. Let’s get that out of the way. The coronavirus pandemic, combined with social, political, and economic unrest, has ruined 2020 for most of us. Businesses were shuttered, jobs were lost, and family and friends got sick. Yeah, it’s been bad. So let’s talk about beer. Choosing the best Texas beers of the year is almost an impossible feat, not unlike choosing your favorite Bill Callahan song. There are too many great choices, and too many variables that could sway your opinion. I’ve spent most of this year working from home, quarantining with my family in Brownsville, and riding my bike around the perimeter of Texas. All that meant I had plenty of time to drink lots of beer, but the experience was far from my usual routine of visiting breweries around town and throughout the state. When at home in Austin I stuck close to the house, which meant I bought beer from either H-E-B or WhichCraft, a neighborhood beer store I’m lucky to have nearby. If I visited breweries for to-go beers, they were usually within five miles of my house. And while I was on my bike trip for two months, I got to see a lot of Texas but not many of her breweries. Hotels or campgrounds were where I purchased the majority of my beers on that trip, so it wasn’t exactly prime picking. There were exceptions, of course: I was able to visit 903 Brewers, Nocona Beer & Brewery, Wichita Falls Brewing, and El Paso Brewing, all for the first time.