After originally publishing this piece only covering festivals in the United States, we received feedback from our fans to increase our reach. An absolutely great point as we have readers all over the world! Accordingly, we’ve researched and added a few top international festivals to this piece. If you have suggestions for other events around the globe that should be a part of this piece please email us at [email protected].
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The 9 Craft Beer Trends to Watch in 2024
A few years ago, we traveled around the country, hosting a beer festival in a different city almost every month—Oakland, San Diego, Chicago, Portland, ME, New York—the list goes on. Our Juicy Brews festivals became the stuff of legends. If you went, you know. If you never went, you probably heard the lure. We even threw Spooky Brews, a Halloween-themed fest, Beers With(out) Beards featuring all women and femme-identifying-owned breweries and brewers, and Queer Beer. Of course, the pandemic brought all that to a screeching halt. So, for the time being, we’re staying grounded. Which has allowed us to consider: What events would we like to attend this year? (If we had unlimited miles and time).
Today, for a festival to be worthy of people’s time and perhaps a long car ride or plane ticket, it needs to have that x-factor. That feeling of FOMO that makes you cringe with regret if you’re sitting at your desk Monday morning doomscrolling through Insta while you should be working, seeing all the incredible photos of that one weekend.
Luckily, many breweries have caught on, whipping up whimsical weekends that whisk us away from the monotony of everyday life. From getting lost in the jungles of Miami with Tripping Animals to camping out in upstate New York with The Drowned Lands, these are the best beer festivals we don’t want you to miss in 2024.
Editor’s Note: We know we can’t possibly add every single event happening in 2024 to this list. This is just a bunch that caught our eye. Did we miss your favorite? Think we should add one to the list? Let us know about it! DM us (@hopculturemag) or shoot us an email at [email protected]!
The 12 Best Beer Festivals You Can’t Miss This Year
Find the confirmed fests we recommend you take PTO for in 2024.
Irie Jungle – Tripping Animals
Where: Tripping Animals Brewing, Doral, Fl
When: Saturday, April 20, 2024
Ticket Price: $60-$150
Why You Can’t Miss It: Slather on your sunscreen, bust out the shades, and blast Guns N’ Roses Welcome to the Jungle. Tripping Animals just announced the return of its fourth annual Irie Jungle, a multi-sensory celebration of eighty of the most acclaimed breweries, Florida’s hottest food pop-ups, crazy immersive art installations, and more. All within the Doral-based brewery’s 20,000 sq ft indoor and outdoor taproom.
Expect pours from folks like 3 Sons, Burial, Burley Oak, Charles Towne Fermentory, Dewey Beer, Dream State, Eight State, Garage Beer, Highland Park, KCBC, Kings, Mortalis, Other Half, Parish, Salud Cerveceria, Schilling, Southern Grist, TRVE, Widowmaker, and more.
You’ll probably see Tripping Animals pop up on this list at every other festival. But the boys from this Venezuelan-owned brewery (“tripping” in Venezuelan is slang for “fun or laid back”) know how to throw one killer party themselves.
Welcome to the Irie Jungle!
Beervana
Where: Hitting Sky Stadium, Wellingtong, New Zealand
When: Saturday, August 23, and Sunday, August 24, 2024
Why You Can’t Miss It: – Our friends at Garage Project in New Zealand led us to this event. According to Garage Project Co-Founder Jos Ruffell, “It’s kind of like the GABF of [New Zealand], but it’s more open to the public with like 10,000 plus people turning up.” Actually New Zealand’s oldest beer festival, Beervana “is a celebration of craft beer, as close to heaven as beer enthusiasts will ever find,” according to the festival’s website. We’ll be honest, if Garage Project will be there, we can guarantee it’ll be a pretty raging good time.
Barrel & Flow
Where: The Stacks at 3 Crossings, Pittsburgh, PA
When: Saturday, August 10, 2024
Ticket Price: $50-$200
Why You Can’t Miss It: Voted the #1 Brew Fest in America by the readers of USA Today, Barrel & Flow strives to be the most welcoming beer festival in the country. Showcasing all Brown- and Black-owned breweries and brewers, Barrel & Flow follows its motto to “Keep Black Arts on Tap!”
Unique to Barrel & Flow, over half the breweries who participate team up to with Black artists, performers, and businesses to create one-of-a-kind collabs just for the fest.
Expect loads of Black artists, musicians, food featured, too.
Last year’s list include standouts like Black Calder Brewing, Smittox, Soul Mega, Green Bench, Khonso Brewing, Rhythm Brewing, Off the Wall, Warcloud, Altered Genius, Crowns & Hops, Brockton Beer Co., Urban Jungle, Funkytown, and more!
Hop City – Northern Monk
Where: Northern Monk Refractory, Leeds, United Kingdom
When: Friday, May 17, 2024 – Saturday, May 18, 2024
Ticket Price: £24.79-£170.75
Why You Can’t Miss It: – Our social media manager turned us onto Hop City. Featuring the best hoppy beers—which means everything from DIPAs and TIPAs to hazy pales, fruited and sour IPAs—Hop City includes some of the world’s top-notch brew. The list so far this year includes Uchu Brewing, Frontaal, Fidens, Gravity Well, Commonwealth, Future State, Arpus, and more.
Firestone Walker Invitational
Where: Paso Robles, CA
When: Summer 2024
Ticket Price: TBD
Why You Can’t Miss It: One of the best beer festivals in the country for the last decade, the Firestone Walker Invitational is quite simply the pinnacle of beer fests. This is how it’s done, folks. So take note.
Firestone Walker Brewmaster Matt Brynildson personally handpicks each and every one of the breweries from around the world that attend.
For example, after traveling to New Zealand and meeting Garage Project, Brynildson knew he had to invite the Wellington-based brewery halfway around the world to the Firestone Walker Invitational. And after discovering a then-little-known beer style called Italian pilsner in the form of Tipopils from Birrificio Italiano in Italy, Brynildson invited them.
This is one of the only fests where you’ll find some up-and-coming international breweries alongside domestic ones.
Last year, we attended ourselves, impressed with the aforementioned Garage Project, which we’re not sure ever had a line less than like thirty people deep, and Birrificio Italiano. Others included Omnipollo, Mahrs Brau from Bamberg, Bayern, Germany, and Yo-Ho Brewing Company from Japan with beers like an Umami IPA with bonito flakes. When we asked people why they wanted to try Yo-Ho’s beers, we heard a range of responses from “I saw a line, so I jumped in” to “They’re from Japan and seemed cool.”
That’s the Firestone Walker Invitation vibe: just a bunch of chill folks looking to enjoy their favorites and discover new beers from breweries they may have never even heard of.
And that’s half the fun here. Oh, and the food rocks, too…AND it is included in the price of the ticket.
Toer de Geuze – HORAL
Where: Pajottenland Region, Belgium
When: Saturday, May 4, 2024 – Sunday, May 5, 2024
Ticket Price: This is not a straight-up ticketed event. Admission to all participating breweries is free. You pay as you go.
Why You Can’t Miss It: One of our readers actually told us to checkout out Toer de Geuze. And we’re so glad we did! Not a traditional festival in the sense that you buy a ticket, show up to one spot at one time, and imbibe for a few given hours, Toer de Geuze instead involves a bunch of the top lambic producers in the Pajottenland region of Belgium opening their doors for a given weekend every other year.
Visitors can take tours at the participating breweries, learn more about lambic production, and, of course, drink many of these incredible spon-ferm beers. Oftentimes the breweries will give folks a taste of limited-edition or special release beers.
Here are the places you can expect on the 2024 Toer:
- Boon, Fonteinstraat 65, 1502 Lembeek
- De Cam, Dorpsstraat 67, 1755 Gooik
- De Troch, Langestraat 20, 1741 Wambeek
- Den Herberg, Octave de Kerchove d’Exaerdestraat 16, 1501 Buizingen
- Eylenbosch, Isidoor Crokaertstraat 167, 1731 Zellik
- Hanssens*, Vroenenbosstraat 15, 1653 Dworp
- Kestemont, Isabellastraat 16, 1703 Sint-Gertrudis-Pede
- Lambiek Fabriek, Eugène Ghijsstraat 71, 1600 Sint-Pieters-Leeuw
- Lindemans, Lenniksebaan 1479, 1602 Vlezenbeek
- Mort Subite, Lierput 1, 1730 Kobbegem
- Oud Beersel, Laarheidestraat 230, 1650 Beersel
- Tilquin, Chaussée Maïeur Habils,110 1430 Bierghes
- Timmermans, Kerkstraat 11, 1701 Itterbeek
Pro tip: There is a free shuttle bus that runs between the participating blenders, just make sure you make a reservation.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime type of festival. If you get to go, make sure you hit us up and tell us how it went!
Foeder for Thought – Green Bench x Good Beer Hunting
Where: Green Bench Brewing Company, St. Petersburg, FL
When: Friday, March 8th, 2024 from 5pm-10pm
Ticket Price: $115
Why You Can’t Miss It: Back for its eighth year, Foeder for Thought celebrates all things fermented. Green Bench Head Brewer and Co-Owner Khris Johnson started Foeder for Thought as an approachable beer festival for fermentation-forward beers. One of our freelancers, Stephanie Grant, attended last year, noting that along with plenty of wild ales and spontaneously fermented beers to enjoy, this event goes further, hosting thoughtful panel discussions in Green Bench’s backyard. Run in tandem with Good Beer Hunting Founder Michael Kiser, Foeder for Thought gets you drinking, talking, hanging, and most importantly, thinking. But not too hard.
Collaboration Fest – Colorado Brewers Guild
Where: The Westin in Westminster, CO
When: Saturday, March 30, 2024 from 3pm-6pm
Ticket Price: $40-$85
Why You Can’t Miss It: Where else can you find 165+ of Colorado’s best breweries teaming up to brew 120 one-of-a-kind collabs just for one festival? Answer: Collaboration Fest. Started in 2014, this event has become one of the most revered beer events in the country, earning a spot on USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice travel awards.
But what really tells us that this is a can’t-miss beer festival? Amongst Colorado brewers, this is one of their favorite fests of the entire year. We’re talking about folks from Bruz Beers, Cohesion (one of our “Best New Breweries 2022”), New Image, Novel Strand (one of our “Best Breweries 2022”), Our Mutual Friend, Primitive, Purpose (whom we hooked up with for a rad trip to Belgium last year), Strange Craft, WestFax (one of our “Best Beers We Drank in 2023”), Wild Provisions, and more.
FyneFest
Where: Fyne Ales Brewery Tap & Shop, Cairndow, Scotland
When: Friday, May 31, 2024 – Sunday, June 2, 2024
Ticket Price: £30-£135
Why You Can’t Miss It: – When our friends at Pellicle, one of the most incredible craft beer magazines in the U.K. call FyneFest unlike any beer event in the U.K., we know it has to be good.
First of all, there is the location. FyneFest takes places on the Fyne Ales brewery estate, located in a very scenic part of Scotland’s longest sea loch. 😱 Second, the music, including forty-plus live bands over the course of the weekend. Third, there is the beer (which is crazy that we’re listing the beer third). Over 150 of U.K.’s best breweries take part in FyneFest—Polly’s Rivington Brewing, Thornbridge, Chapter Brewing, Siren, and Lakes Brew Co, just to name a few. Oh, and did we mention you can actually camp out on the estate for the weekend, too, if you’d like? So there’s also that.
The Dark Embrace Invitational – Angry Chair, Cycle, and Ology
Where: 1000 E Harrison St, Tampa, FL
When: Saturday, March 9, 2024 from 1pm-4pm
Ticket Price: $110-$250
Why You Can’t Miss It: Breweries don’t just collab on beers anymore. Angry Chair, Cycle, and Ology teamed up to bring you an exclusive, collaborative festival unlike any other. For its second iteration. The Dark Embrace Invitational invited fifty of the best breweries in the world to post up in Tampa during Tampa Bay Beer Week in early March.
You can bet Angry Chair, Cycle, and Ology are making a special VIP collab bottle included with every GA and VIP ticket, which also gets you an additional Irrefutable Scoop Cake bottle.
You’ll also find beers from the likes of Side Project, North Park, Omnipollo, Other Half, Bissell Brothers, Bottle Logic, Phase Three, Parish, Schilling, The Eighth State, Trillium, Vitamin Sea, Trilling Animals, The Answer, Woven Water, and more.
Altered States Libation & Arts Festival Volume III – The Eight State Brewing Company
Where: The Eight State Brewing Company, Greenville, SC
When: Saturday, July 27, 2024 from 1pm-10pm
Ticket Price: $100-$400
Why You Can’t Miss It: Truth: The Eighth State’s imperial pastry stouts often take our brains to a completely different plane. One of our “12 Best Craft Breweries of 2020,” The Eighth State makes some of the best stouts in the country, from Abiogenesis (one of our “20 Best Beers We Drank in 2020”) to Waiting on Forever (One of our “21 Best Beers We Drank in 2021”) to Stress Dream (one of our “22 Best Stouts to Drink for International Stout Day”) and everything in between.
Meant to celebrate the libration and creations that alter our state of mind, this beer fest packs an incredible lineup of breweries and music.
Beerwise, you’ll find mind-numbing beers from the likes of Root & Branch, Forager, Branch & Blade, Corporate Ladder, Incendiary, Ology, Weathered Souls, Goal, Kings, DSSOLVR, Burial, Cantillon, 3 Fonteinen, Cellarmaker, and more.
With the music lineup just announced, you’ll find headliners such as George Clanton, Susto, Comtruise, Neggy Gemmy, Enumclas, and more.
Little Beer IV – Good Word Brewing
Where: Good Word Brewing, Duluth, GA
When: Saturday, April 13, 2024 from 1pm-5pm
Ticket Price: $65 – going on sale soon on Oznr
Why You Can’t Miss It: Now in its fourth year, Good Word’s Little Beer celebrates all things lager and English beer. You’d be hard-pressed to find a similar fest anywhere in the country.
So when Good Word—whose Czech-style dark lager made our list of “The 27 Best Beers We Drank in 2022” and “Best Craft Lagers to Buy Right Now,” and whose English porter made our list of “The 21 Best Beers We Drank in 2021,” throws this fest, you know it’s going to be exceptional.
Nationally recognized as one of the best beer festivals, Little Beer IV will welcome over seventy breweries to Duluth, GA, to show off their best lagers and English beers.
While we haven’t seen a brewery list drop yet, keep an eye out (@goodwordbrewing). We’d bet our entire vertical of Abraxas this fest will have one of the dopest lineups of the year.
Foolers’ Ball – Drekker
Where: Brewhalla, North Fargo, ND
When: Saturday, April 6, 2024 from 12pm-5pm
Ticket Price: $75-$125
Why You Can’t Miss It: From the mad scientists of Drekker, comes a festival as crazy as any of the fruited sours from the North Dakota brewery’s Braaaaaaaains series. Seriously, it’s about to get weird in North Dakota (if it wasn’t already). Back for it’s second year, Foolers’ Ball assembles forty of Drekker’s weirdest pals (their words, not ours) to “shock, delight, and entertain your tastebuds,” according to Drekker.
We imagine if BeerAdvocate came back with an Extreme Beer Fest on a much smaller scale, Foolers’ Ball might fit the bill. So far, a few of the whacky breweries lined up include The Brewing Projekt, Xül, North Park, Weldwerks, Other Half, Modist, Barrel Theory, Resident Culture, Homes, and more.
Cask Festival 2024 – 2nd Shift Brewing
Where: 2nd Shift Brewing, St. Louis, MO
When: Saturday, February 24, 2024
Ticket Price: $25-$75
Why You Can’t Miss It: 2nd Shift’s annual festival celebrating all things cask is one of a kind. First, it’s a cask festival, serving beer the traditional English way at cellar temperature, naturally carbonated, unfiltered, unpasteurized, and served directly from a cask through a beer engine. Plus, a $25 ticket seems like the deal of the year to enjoy a ton of one-off beers here from breweries like Alma Mader, BKS Artisan Ales, Forbidden Root, Good Word, Insight Cellars, Main & Mill, Narrow Gauge, Perennial, Rockwell, and even Superstition Meadery.
Cabin Fever – The Drowned Lands
Where: Drowned Lands Brewery, Warwick, NY
When: Saturday, March 2, 2023, and Sunday, March 3, 2023
Ticket Price: $10
Why You Can’t Miss It: Besides the fact that Drowned Lands, one of our “10 Best New Breweries of 2020,” makes some of our favorite beers in the entire country? (Like Deep Creek, a triple IPA that nabbed a spot on our list of “The 27 Best Beers We Drank in 2022.”) It’s an excuse to don your best aprés ski attire, cuddle up next to one of the fire pits on the brewery’s incredible upstate New York property, make a s’more or two, and drink beer from a killer tap list.
Because who said winter means you can’t get outside and drink beer!? “A chance to celebrate the cold, the snow, and the frosty days that will soon break away to spring,” writes Drowned Lands, who promises to release some extraordinary beers for this snowy day of revelry.
Drowned Lands Cabin Fever Festival sold out last year, so make your plans while you still can.
Wavy Days – Mast Landing
Where: Thompson’s Point, Portland, ME
When: Saturday, June 29, 2024 from 12pm-4pm
Ticket Price: $12-$75
Why You Can’t Miss It: We threw a festival with Mast Landing back in the day. Our Caribbean island-theme fest smashed it. Yes, we’re biased, but the folks at Mast Landing just know how to throw a good party. This multi-day celebration ends with the big festival featuring fifty-five killer breweries from across the country.
Mast Landing just dropped a peak at the first sixteen breweries. You take a look and tell us it’s not fire.
We’re talking: The Veil, Two Tides, Foam, Ology, Drekker, XÜL, Other Half, Tripping Animals, Finback, Schilling, Vitamin Sea, Burley Oak, Southern Grist, Belleflower, and more!
Free the Whales
Where: Tenaya Creek Brewery, Las Vegas, NV
When: Saturday, September 14, 2024 from 3:30-8pm
Ticket Price: $65-$85
Why You Can’t Miss It: When Kris Marino started Free the Whales nine years ago, he simply wanted to throw the best birthday party ever. So he teamed up with J. Wakefield to host a bottle share; both raided their beer cellars to bring out some of the best whales (i.e., rare beers) they could find. “It was me and Wakefield unloading our cellars and checking out all these Cantillons, magnums of Russian River, and s**t like that,” says Marino.
But what began as just a dope a** bottle share meant to, as Marino says, “share our whales and get good beer out to the people,” grew legs, becoming one of the best beer festivals in the country with some of the craziest, rarest beer.
marino is bringing Free the Whales back for its ninth year, bigger and badder than ever, setting his sight on Vegas to host. All signs point to Free the Whales being the party of the year in 2024.
Best Beer Festivals to Keep an Eye on For 2024
We can’t officially confirm these fests yet, but keep an eye out if they pop up this year.
Dragonsaddle Day – Hoof Hearted Brewing
We have a special place in our hearts for Dragonsaddle Day, as it was one of the first festivals we mustered up the courage to go to in 2021 amid the pandemic. Although a paired-down version of this epic music and beer festival, that event still reminded us how to have fun again.
Whacky, zany, off-the-wall, Dragonsaddle Day is “the most righteous date of the year at our Marengo Dojo,” according to Hoof Hearted. Actually centered around one beer, Dragonsaddle, a dank AF TIPA that takes you right back to smoking a joint in your car during your free period in high school while blasting Van Halen, this fest usually includes lots of variants plus some equally ridiculous barrel-aged beers and rare guest taps.
Whale Watching 2024 – Finback Brewery
Hosting this fest for the second time last year, Finback’s Whale Watching included pours from sixty breweries, special Finback releases, magnum pours, and rare bottles to share.
Terroir Festival – Arizona Wilderness x Firestone Walker
The super unique fest featured a combination of beer and wine ingredients, meaning people enjoyed pours from twenty exceptional brewers and winemakers. Under Firestone Walker’s Terroir Project, several participating breweries made beers co-fermented with grapes grown within 100 miles of their brewery. Still, others had to feature at least one beer/wine hybrid, creating a festival full of beers unlike any other. Some made just for the Terroir Festival. Arizona Wilderness hosted this one in November of 2023, so we’ll wait to see if they bring it back in 2024.
Funk n’ Sour – Jester King
Jester King’s annual celebration of all things funky and sour, pairing top-class breweries with local Austin food joints. All held in Jester King’s incredible Texas Hill Country beer garden.
Live Oak Rauchfest
Calling all smokeheads! Live Oak’s ode to all things rauchbier, aka smoked beer, Rauchfest, took place in late January 2024. While we missed this one this year, we’re putting a little star on our calendar for 2025. Live Oak served Schwarzer Rauch, Grodziskie, Rauch Leicht, Fumigator, and Wolpertingerweizen. And offered bierstacheln, aka hot beer poking. You know what they say: Where they’re smoke, there’s fire. And this festival looked pretty fire.
