This content was originally published by The Hop Review, a digital magazine that joined the Hop Culture family in March 2020.
This piece was written by Tom White.
The third iteration of Ultra Fresh will take place on the evening of Saturday, May 19th at Bucktown’s Right Way Signs.
Ultra Fresh is personal. From the time we invest into weekly stories on the industry we love, to the countless hours our small team has poured into planning our biggest event of the year, May 19th, 2018, is the culmination of a story we’ve heard time and again over the six years writing The Hop Review—fresh is best.
What the heck is Ultra Fresh?
Ask any brewer and they’ll tell you their beer is ready to drink once it leaves the brewery. We’ve heard this repeatedly during our more than 135 interviews and our carefully curated brewery list for this year’s festival is a testament to just that. With 26 breweries from at most 40 miles away, Ultra Fresh is our celebration of locally brewed beer, poured by the people who helped create it, and packed no more than five days prior. With the incredible Right Way Signs as our unique setting and a host of partners helping us make all this happen, we can’t wait for you to experience Ultra Fresh with us.
The Breweries
Every brewery at Ultra Fresh is there for one reason. We can vouch for their commitment to getting quality, fresh beer in your glass on a consistent basis. Over the years, we’ve got to know all 26 breweries at this year’s event, and sat down for features on nearly all of them. Below, take a stroll through our archives and see these folks helped plant the seed that eventually became Ultra Fresh. While several of these folks have moved on (and some breweries even changed names), they’ve all left behind a culture of freshness that persists today.
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Header photograph by Hilary Higgins. Other images by Nick Costa.
Join us for the third edition of Ultra Fresh on Saturday, May 19th as part of Illinois Craft Beer Week. Grab your tickets here. We’ll see you there!
