Hana is the heirloom barley that brewed the world’s first pilsner, and it nearly disappeared entirely. British farmers pulled it back from the brink, and Hanabi now sources it from one of the only fields on earth still growing the stuff, in Norfolk, England. That grain is the entire point: Hanabi is a Napa brewery founded out of a winemaking life, and their whole project is what they call grain-forward lager beer designed to showcase the flavor of the barley itself rather than the hops or the malting process. Brewed as a pilsner-style lager, the Hana gives fresh wholegrain bread, a saline flick of nori and a note of dried spearmint, then finishes long and clean. It’s the house benchmark, the one beer they brew year-round. Serve it refrigerator-cold and let it warm a few degrees in the glass that’s when the grain starts talking. Drink it fresh; this is not a beer built for the cellar.