Colorado Beer Beat | Bi-Weekly Beer Release Guide GABF Week

Welcome to the Colorado Beer Beat, a bi-weekly roundup of all of the new can releases around the state. From Denver to Grand Junction and everywhere in between, we have you covered. Be sure to check back on Thursdays (usually!) to find out what’s new in the Colorado beer scene.

As we go through the final countdown to GABF, you may be wondering to yourself, are there going to be any releases I can pick up even if I’m not at GABF itself? Well, the answer is yes! That being said, with the sheer volume of special releases only available at GABF, it’s looking like a lighter couple of weeks for the canned and bottled releases. If you’re one of the lucky attendees of this year’s GABF, you can find some helpful tips here, that if we’re honest, are pretty valid for first-timers or grizzled veterans of the event!

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Colorado Beer Beat | Bi-Weekly Beer Release Guide 8/25

Welcome to the Colorado Beer Beat, a bi-weekly roundup of all of the new can releases around the state. From Denver to Grand Junction and everywhere in between, we have you covered. Be sure to check back on Thursdays (usually!) to find out what’s new in the Colorado beer scene.

After what seemed like an eternity, it’s finally football season again! If you’re an NFL fan, a college fan or just love football of any kind, plenty of your favorite breweries will have games playing in their tap rooms. So, if you’re trying to get out of the house to catch a game, why not enjoy it with a cold beer and your closest friends (beer lovers, obviously)?

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Event Preview | Session Fest 2022

It’s been three years since Drake’s Brewing Co. has been able to throw their summer classic with Bike East Bay. But Session Fest is finally back for its eighth year, this Saturday. With no beer over 5% being poured, it is meant to be an easy going afternoon where you get to sample the lower-end ABVs that breweries have to offer. Hopefully, this makes for hangover-free Sunday the next day.

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Event Review | Little Beer II

What happens when you take some of the best in-and-out of state lager makers and bring them all to one town green in Duluth? A really damn good time enjoying Little Beer.

Over the weekend, Duluth’s Good Word & Public House hosted their second annual “Little Beer” fest, which saw 60+ breweries bring their best low ABV (mostly ~5% and lower) beers to the tables for craft drinkers to enjoy all day long. Oh, and there was snow — which for Georgia in April what the hell was that?! Read More

The Ultimate Guide to The Best Beer Festivals in 2022

Beer fests are back (knock on wood)! After two years of cancellations, postponements, limited capacity events, and worse… the dreaded virtual fest, we are entering 2022 cautiously optimistic about the year ahead. With hopes of herd immunity coming sooner rather than later, we’ve got our fingers crossed that beer festivals are all returning to normal soon.

While most beer festivals are still taking extra precautions for this year’s events, several of them have already begun announcing dates. To help you keep track of the best and brightest beer festivals to mark on your calendars, we’ll be continuously updating our list of the best can’t miss beer festivals for 2022. Be sure to bookmark this page as we’ll be adding and updating this list throughout the year.

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Event Recap | 2022 Winter Brew Fest

On Saturday, January 22, the Winter Brew Fest at Mile High Station kicked off the new year with a bang as the first official beer festival of the year in Denver. Attendees enjoyed over 100 beers, hard kombuchas, hard seltzers, and spirits to sample over day and evening sessions.

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Trends and Takeaways from FoBAB 2021

Like all of the events that returned in 2021 after being canceled in 2020, the Festival of Wood and Barrel-Aged Beers returned to Chicago with more buzz and excitement than in previous years.

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2021 FoBAB Returning to In-Person Event at New Location

The country’s premiere barrel-aged beer festival returns this year as the Festival of Wood and Barrel-Aged Beers (FoBAB) will take place November 12-13 with some changes in place because of the ongoing pandemic.

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BUG Requiring Proof of Vaccination or Negative COVID Test

This year’s Beer Under Glass (BUG) will be unique for a variety of reasons but the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild has put into place precautions to make sure the event can go on as safe as possible despite the Delta variant. Read More

Event Recap | 2021 Great Taste of the Midwest

Since 1987, the Great Taste of the Midwest has been a chance for Midwest breweries and beer lovers to converge on Madison, Wisconsin to enjoy some of the region’s best beers. This past Saturday the tradition continued with some new safety precautions, but that didn’t impact the festival which once again brought the beer community together.

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Event Recap | Good Word Brewing Presents “Little Beer”

For any of you veteran craft beer drinkers out there, what comes to mind when you hear the phrase “beer fest” mentioned in conversation? Memories of overindulgence fueled by Biolyte and the FOMO of the out-of-state breweries who are pouring their beer? Maybe it’s racing around the room to all the hype tables before your palate is overwhelmingly wrecked. There’s also a good chance that you’ve been in line slamming an IPA taster before hitting the next tap in the row…We’ve all been there.

On Saturday, June 5, Good Word Brewing & Public House hosted a festival in collaboration with the City of Duluth that was one of the first beer-centric events to happen in Georgia since COVID-19 effectively shut down large gatherings a year ago. This was not a typical beer fest, though. Read More

Cheers, Yinz! A Beer Fest That Gives Back to Breweries

The culture of craft beer has always had a strong connection to the communities in which it thrives. For many of us, our neighborhood brewery is far more than merely a place that produces the things we enjoy drinking–it is a community center, a gathering place, and an intrinsic part of our daily lives, not to mention a foundational element for hobbies, relationships, and fostering a sense of place. Enter Cheers, Yinz!, a beer festival built to help beloved local breweries weather the economic (and emotional) effects of decreased sales and temporary closures.

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Beers With(out) Beards Festival 2020

Sometimes it can be extremely difficult to look at the silver lining of 2020, particularly for those working in the craft beer industry. Being able to experience the Beers With(out) Beards festival helped me see at least one silver lining: Craft beer festivals have never been more accessible than right at this moment. Living in the Midwest, I would not have been able to make it to the Beers With(out) Beards festival in-person, so being able to join this festival of incredible women and non-binary people working in craft beer was a dream.

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Oktoberfest Beer Showcase | Dry County Brewing Company Oktoberfest

Autumn weather is approaching — even here in Georgia — but before the bottle shop shelves are covered in pumpkin Ales, there are a plethora of Oktoberfest Lagers to try! One of the best statewide options each year is brewed by Dry County Brewing Company in Kennesaw, Georgia. Read More

BREAKING | Big Beers, Belgians & Barleywines Announces 2021 Cancellation

There will be no joy in Breckenridge this January as Laura and Bill Lodge, organizers of Big Beers, Belgians & Barleywines, have announced the cancellation of the 2021 event. The festival was planned for January 7-9, 2021 in Breckenridge, CO. The cancellation follows similar moves by virtually every onsite beer festival in 2020 and represents one of the first 2021 events to be canceled. It would have marked the 21st annual event.

Organizers attributed the cancellation to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions on gatherings.

“Our Big Beers board has met and discussed the pandemic situation. We are very clear that our first priority as a Big Beers community needs to be supporting our sponsors and brewers throughout this bizarre and difficult time as they work hard to adapt business as necessary – and not by asking you to travel and/or otherwise support us in January of 2021,” said organizer Laura Lodge.

Lodge went on to explain that they’ve decided not to move forward with a virtual version of the event, but that they are still exploring the possibility of some scaled-down homage via newsletter or social media that would take place on the originally proposed January 2021 date.

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HOMES Brewery | Cat Person & Peaked

Over the past three years, HOMES Brewery out of Ann Arbor, Michigan, has quickly become one of the most buzzed-about breweries in the country. Two shining examples of their proficiency with hoppy beers can be found in Cat Person and Peaked.

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Event Recap | The Side Project Invitational

An Inaugural to Remember

It’s been almost two weeks since the Side Project Invitational, and attendees’ heads are still spinning over the experience. Subtitled as “A Festival of Barrel-Aged Stouts & Barleywines,” it was immediately advertised as not for the faint of heart. Strategically placed on Super Bowl Sunday, February 2nd, as the kickoff to Side Project’s annual Stout Week, it brought people from all over the United States to Maplewood, Missouri to see what all the hype was about.

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Brewbies Oceanside 2020 | Event Recap

February 8 marked the much anticipated Brewbies Festival at Bagby Beer in Oceanside, CA. For 11 years, the Brewbies organization has worked to bring breweries and the public together in support of breast cancer awareness. Working with the Keep a Breast Foundation, the festival has donated more than $540,000 to breast cancer research to date.

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Event Recap | 2019 Wynkoop Brewing Day of Darks

Again this year dark beer lovers filled the top floor of Wynkoop Brewing Co. for some of Colorado’s best dark beer pours. Breweries from up and down Colorado’s Front Range brought heavy, dark and malty brews to Day of Darks. Meanwhile, Wynkoop supplied chocolate treats for pairing, including ice cream made with Wynkoop’s own Cowtown Milk Stout.

Brewers brought their A-game with kegs, cans, bottles and even some growlers with extra-special brews. While most beers were production-level and available at the breweries, enjoying them all in one space was certainly a great convenience. Attendees also had fun trying a handful of one-offs and pre-release beers that some breweries brought, although one had to sniff those out early as they tended to go fast. Read More

Pour List Preview | Wynkoop’s 2019 Day Of Darks

As the days get shorter and the temperatures lower, the beer drinker’s mind turns to thoughts of rich, comforting Porters, Stouts, and other dark beers. Thankfully, Wynkoop Brewing Co. in Denver anticipates those longings by hosting their annual Day of … Read More