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The 15 Can’t Miss Beer Festivals of 2025
Mark your calendars now.
Photography courtesy of Jose Manchola (@yankeerunner77)
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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 lore. 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 doom scrolling 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 Scotland at FyneFest, these are the best beer festivals we don’t want you to miss in 2025.
Editor’s Note: Based on feedback from last year, we will divide this list into two sections—United States and International—to ensure that we cover events all across the globe. Still, we know we can’t possibly add every single event happening in 2025 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).
The 15 Best Beer Festivals You Can’t Miss This Year
These are the confirmed fests we recommend you take PTO for in 2025.
United States
Scenes from Log Jammin’ III in 2023 | Photography courtesy of Jose Manchola (@yankeerunner77)
Log Jammin’ – Human Robot
Where: Philadelphia, PA
When: May 31, 2025
Ticket Price: $150
Why You Can’t Miss It: BarrieHaus, Bierstadt Lagerhaus, Cohesion, Fidens, Fox Farm, Goldfinger, Good Word, Marlow Artisanal Ales, Olfactory, Sacred Profane, Schilling, The Seed, Wooden Robot. Human Robot’s annual lagerbier fest, Log Jammin’, features some of the most incredible big-name lager makers from around the country.
Log Jammin’ highlights all these small lager brands and people making great lager around the country.
“We’re all just slinging liquid,” Human Robot Co-Founder Ken Correll told us.
But perhaps the most important name of the entire fest isn’t even on the list of participating breweries.
For three years, Human Robot has teamed up with the Michael James Jackson Foundation (MJF), donating a portion of the proceeds to the organization that raises money to fund technical scholarships for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in the brewing and distilling industry.
“Since day one, we’ve always tried to be a part of the community,” says Correll, born and raised in Philadelphia. “Being a lager fest and lagerbier, which is near and dear to all of our hearts, we started to think about … what can we do as three white brewery owners to have a better sense of doing something to make our [beer] world better?”
Denver Rare Beer Tasting – Pints for Prostates
Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie | Hop Culture
Where: Denver, CO
When: Friday morning during the Great American Beer Festival
Ticket Price: TBD
Why You Can’t Miss It: At first blush, Denver Rare Beer may seem what it says: a festival that has taken place tangentially to the Great American Beer Festival (GABF), offering some of the rarest beer in the country.
But you need to look a little closer. You need to notice the tent outside the entrance, where people roll up their sleeves to get their blood drawn.
You need to start speaking to the brewers, who have all donated their beer.
And you need to meet Rick Lyke. He’s the man running around from table to table, shaking people’s hands, smiling, talking, and laughing.
Lyke is also a cancer survivor. And his one goal in life is to save as many others as possible: one Pint for Prostate at a time.
So yes, at Denver Rare Beer Tasting, you’ll find some of the rarest beers around (because when you put “rare” into the name, you set the bar high.)
For example, at the fest’s fifteenth event last October, Boston Beer brought its 2021 Samuel Adams Utopias aged on Balaton Cherries. The 29% ABV strong ale ages in Sauternes French oak wine casks on Balaton and Michigan-grown cherries.
“To me, this week every year is like coming home,” said Boston Beer Director of Partnerships and Collaborations Jennifer Glanville, who mentions Denver Rare Beer is one of her favorite festivals of all time. “I see all these rare beers. … And it’s a really high vibe.”
Or Sierra Nevada, who poured Trip Thru the Woods, a 13.8% ABV barrel-aged Narwhal that spent eighteen months in wet bourbon barrels, fourteen months in rum barrels, and four years in Tawny Port barrels. The beer made its debut at Denver Rare Beer last year.
Rare beers are everywhere you look.
What’s also rare? Breweries donate all beer, meaning one hundred percent of all ticket sales can go straight to Pints for Prostates, with a portion of those dollars going to the Prostate Conditions Education Council, which organizes free men’s health screening clinics across the country.
Last year, Pints for Prostates raised $74,723, increasing its total to $2,177,055 all-time.
It’s rare to find an event that brewers care about this much. But it’s because Lyke cares. It’s because the cause matters. And it’s because this is truly one of the year’s best festivals.
Schilling Oktoberfest – Schilling Beer Co.
Photography courtesy of Jose Manchola
Where: Schilling Beer Co., Littleton, NH
When: Late September / Early October
Ticket Price: TBD
Why You Can’t Miss It: A brewery born from Germanic roots, Schilling has become one of the most well-respected lager-centric breweries in the entire country in a relatively short amount of time. You may be surprised to learn that brewing at such a high peak is still so young in beer years.
Opened by Jeff and Stuart (Stu) Cozzens on September 26th, 2013, Schilling gets its roots from its family.
The name Schilling comes from The Cozzens brothers’ great-grandfather, Dr R.J. Schilling, who was just an “awesome dude!” explains Jeff. “We wanted to honor him but also speak to the styles of beers we make, especially continental European-inspired lagers.”
So, in 2014, Schilling decided to celebrate its first anniversary in style: hosting an Oktoberfest at its idyllic Littleton, NH, taproom.
If you think carefully about the roots of Oktoberfest, this makes complete sense. Oktoberfest started with a wedding. Bavarian Crown Prince Louis (later King Louis I of Bavaria) married Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen on October 12th, 1810.
The nuptials included a raucous party open to the citizens of Munich on the fields in front of the city gates. Named Therensienwiese or Therese’s Fields, the Wiesn, or outdoor meadow, hosted days of drinking and horse races. Amid the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815), this party aimed to unite Germans during a tumultuous time.
Everyone had so much fun that the festival became a yearly celebration.
Built off of what Jeff calls gemütlichkeit, the German word for a sort of “untranslatable warm, fuzzy, perfect beer-drinking gathering,” he says, Schilling’s Oktoberfest marries those time-honored traditions with just a touch of modern sensibility.
We were super bummed that we couldn’t make Schilling’s Oktoberfest last year, so you can bet we’re not planning to make the same mistake this year. Mark your calendars now and get yourself to New Hampshire this fall!
Firestone Walker Invitational
Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie | Hop Culture
Where: Paso Robles, CA
When: Summer 2025
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.
“The original concept for the fest was to bring the best brewers from around the world to Paso Robles and showcase their beer to our Firestone Walker fans,” Brynildson once told us.
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. And after drinking a sh*t ton of XPA from Balter Brewing while visiting Australia for the hop harvest, well, you know they ended up in Paso Robles, too.
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 mixed up crazy concoctions like Yuzu Sunrise, a two-tone beer with a yuzu base and raspberry one on top, and the Flat White, a strong, roasty coffee stout topped with a layer of nitrogenated cream ale that looked like milk.
“It’s basically a fancy black and tan,” said Ruffell. “But it tastes great.”
Others included a golden barrel-aged ale fermented with a whole host of lovely wild yeast collected from native New South Wales flowers and re-ferments with Gamay red wine grapes from Wildflower Brewing and Blending in Australia. We also found beers from Mahrs Brau in Bamberg, Bayern, Germany, and Yo-Ho Brewing Company in Japan, 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.
The Great Pumpkin Festival – Elysian
Photography courtesy of Elysian Brewing Company
Where: Seattle, WA
When: Late September / Early October
Ticket Price: TBD
Why You Can’t Miss It: When Elysian Cellarmaster Dan-o Beyer taps a giant pumpkin filled with beer, arms reach out for pours, and the Great Pumpkin Beer Festival (GPBF) is officially in full swing.
The event started small twenty years ago. When Elysian brewed its first four pumpkin beers, it invited a couple of friends to its original home, the brewery’s Capitol Hill Pub.
Armed with eight pumpkin beers—four from Elysian and four from guest breweries—the first festival crushed it. And it kept growing from there, spilling into the parking lot and eventually the Seattle Center.
Elysian’s GPBF has become a bit of a local legend, attracting, on average, six thousand pumpkin beer drinkers a year.
When asked to describe the fest, Redmond and Elysian Brewing Innovation Manager Brian Wold looked at each other first, grinned, and laughed.
“How do we describe it?” says Redmond. “It’s unlike any other beer festival. It’s amazing. It’s so energetic.”
Wold picked up the thread, saying, “It’s joyful. These people are here to drink pumpkin beer, which is odd, but they’re just having a good time!”
Redmond chimes in again. “It’s polarizing, right? People love or hate pumpkin beer, so these are all people who love it. It’s all of us, pumpkin weirdos, celebrating pumpkin beer!”
So yes, this will probably be a polarizing pick here, but GPBF just sounds crazy enough to pique our interest.
For instance, it wouldn’t be too crazy for you to see people dressed up as Ghostbusters or wearing pumpkin heads. Elysian even hosts an annual costume contest, making the festival like a giant Halloween party.
Other surprises usually include a pumpkin pie eating contest, carnival games, pumpkin carving, fortune teller readings, and the pièce de résistance for some—free Elysian tattoos.
Everything culminates in tapping that humongous pumpkin filled with one of Elysian’s core pumpkin beers.
The ritual gives off the vibes of the official Munich Oktoberfest, where the mayor of Munich starts every festival by tapping a ceremonial keg.
Just with pumpkin beer. And pumpkin beer served from a very, very large pumpkin (2,023 pounds last year).
Barrel & Flow Fest
Where: The Stacks at 3 Crossings, Pittsburgh, PA
When: Saturday, August 9, 2025
Ticket Price: TBD – tickets go on sale in February
Why You Can’t Miss It: For two years in a row, USA Today has named Barrel & Flow Fest, the premier craft beer festival promoting Black- and Brown-owned breweries and brewers, the number-one beer festival in America.
And for good reason.
As Barrel & Flow Fest Co-Founder Day Bracey explains, the festival generates millions of dollars in revenue every year in Pittsburgh. No one who works at the festival gets paid less than $25/hour, and there are no volunteers. Bracey says they pay their music acts above industry standards, keep their vending fees low so the Black community can access the event, and price their tickets appropriately for a region where the average household income for a Black family is $37,000.
With the price of a ticket around fifty dollars, Day says, “You still have a little bit of money in your pocket to spend with those folks at the festival.”
With around 185 vendors, including 30 food trucks, all focused on Black- or Brown-owned businesses, Barrel & Flow Fest creates an incredible supportive ecosystem accessible to everyone.
Additionally, to pour at the festival, you either need to be a Black-owned brewery or pair with a Black artist or entrepreneur to create a new beverage for the festival. If you distribute the beer, you must pay and credit the Black artist for the label. “There are literally thousands of dollars generated through the labels; thousands of dollars generated through the beer sales and the collaborations,” explains Bracey, who points to an economic impact report released last year that cited Barrel & Flow Fest as generating around $350,000, but he believes that number to be even higher. “I don’t believe they’re counting the money that came out of my pocket and also the amount of money generated at the festival—literally hundreds of thousands of dollars—and then heads in beds and the ripple effect of those artists and different brands who are now in these breweries.”
Get yourself to what we predict to call America’s number-one beer festival three years in a row.
Irie Jungle – Tripping Animals
Where: Tripping Animals Brewing, Doral, FL
When: Saturday, April 29, 2025
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 recently announced the return of its fifth annual Irie Jungle, a multi-sensory celebration of fifty 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-square-foot indoor and outdoor taproom.
Expect pours from folks like 3 Sons, Burial, Burley Oak, Civil Society, Equilibrium, Finback, Green Cheek, Horus, Human Robot, KCBC, Kings, Mortalis, Other Half, Outer Range, Resident Culture, Salud Cerveceria, Schilling, The Seed, Vitamin Sea, WeldWerks, Woven Water, 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!
Foeder for Thought – Green Bench
Where: Green Bench Brewing Company, St. Petersburg, FL
When: Friday, March 7th, 2025
Ticket Price: TBD
Why You Can’t Miss It: Back for its ninth 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 a couple of years ago, 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. In an Instagram post, Green Bench teased that they’re adding an exciting new element to the event this year. They haven’t dropped the deets yet, but we’re very excited for the reveal.
Collaboration Fest – Colorado Brewers Guild
Photography courtesy of Nikki A. Rae Photography
Where: The Westin in Westminster, CO
When: Saturday, April 19, 2025
Ticket Price: $40-$85
Why You Can’t Miss It: Where 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 (with whom we hooked up for a rad trip to Belgium last year), Strange Craft, WestFax (brewers of one of our “Best Beers We Drank in 2023”), Wild Provisions, and more.
The Dark Embrace Invitational – Angry Chair, Cycle, and Ology
Graphic courtesy of Angry Chair
Where: Perry Harvey Sr. Park, Tampa, FL
When: Saturday, March 8, 2025
Ticket Price: $95-$240
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 invites 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 Silver GA and Gold VIP ticket, which also gets you an additional bottle of a barrel-aged imperial stout with banana, coconut, caramel, chocolate, and cinnamon.
You’ll also find beers from the likes of Side Project, Moksa, Widowmaker, Other Half, Bottle Logic, Phase Three, Parish, Schilling, Trillium, Vitamin Sea, Tripping Animals, WeldWerks, Woven Water, and more.
Wavy Days – Mast Landing
Graphic courtesy of Mast Landing
Where: Thompson’s Point, Portland, ME
When: Saturday, June 28, 2025
Ticket Price: $20-$79
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 sixty killer breweries from across the country.
Mast Landing has dropped a list of the participating breweries. You take a look and tell us it’s not fire.
We’re talking: Trillium, Bissell Brothers, Foam, Ology, Dancing Gnome, Hop Butcher For The World, Xul, Drowned Lands, Drekker, The Seed, Vitamin Sea, and more!
International
Beervana
Where: Sky Stadium, Wellington, New Zealand
When: Saturday, August 22, 2025 – Sunday, August 23, 2025
Why You Can’t Miss It: Our friends at Garage Project in New Zealand led us to this event. Garage Project Co-Founder Jos Ruffell says, “It’s kind of like the GABF of [New Zealand], but it’s more open to the public with like ten-thousand-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.
Hop City – Northern Monk
Where: Northern Monk Refractory, Leeds, United Kingdom
When: Friday, May 16, 2025 – Saturday, May 17, 2025
Ticket Price: £64.80
Why You Can’t Miss It: Hop Culture Social Media Manager Magic Muncie turned us onto Hop City. Featuring the best hoppy beers—everything from DIPAs and TIPAs to hazy pales to fruited and sour IPAs—Hop City includes some of the world’s top-notch breweries. The list so far this year includes Revenant (named to our list of “The 11 Best Breweries of 2024”), SOMA and FUERST WIACEK (both named to our list of “The 17 Best Breweries to Watch in 2025”), Queer Brewing, Garage Beer Co., Track Brewing, Other Half, Vitamin Sea, Outer Range, and more.
FyneFest
Where: Fyne Ales Brewery Tap & Shop, Cairndow, Scotland
When: Friday, May 30, 2025 – Sunday, June 1, 2025
Ticket Price: £30-£140
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 place 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 throughout the weekend. Third, there is the beer (which is crazy that we’re listing the beer third). Over 150 of the U.K.’s best breweries participate 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.
Tallinn Craft Beer Weekend
Photography courtesy of Põhjala
Where: Tallinn Creative Hub, Tallinn, Estonia
When: Friday, June 13, 2025 – Saturday, June 14, 2025
Ticket Price: €96-€149
Why You Can’t Miss It: Named one of our “17 Best Breweries to Watch in 2025”, Põhjala hosts one of the biggest beer festivals in their part of the world. “It’s held in a former power plant that’s now been renovated as an event space, so the whole place looks … out of this world,” Põhjala Head Brewer Martin Vahtra shared with us. While Vahtra says they still have around twenty breweries to announce in the lineup, they do have some names already dropped, including Ārpus, Finback, Frontaal, Lervig, Mad Scientist, Pinta Barrel Brewing, Seven Island, and Sureshot, to name a few.
