Most beers are named for the beer. This one is named for the barley and the barley is named for a person. Lyon is a variety bred by artisan grain breeder Kevin Murphy at the WSU Bread Lab and christened in honor of his mentor, Steven R. Lyon; Hanabi sourced their crop from Bill Myers’ family farm overlooking the Palouse River in Washington. That’s the whole ethos of this Napa brewery, founded by people who came out of winemaking: build the beer around the grain the way a grower builds a wine around a site. The result is a pilsner-style lager, straw-yellow under a bright white head, smelling of wildflowers, Meyer lemon and sweet alfalfa, open and generous across the palate and long on the finish with a flinty snap. This is the Spring 2026 edition Hanabi rotates seasonal releases, so it’s here and then it isn’t. Serve it cold, let it warm slightly in the glass, and drink it fresh.