Highlights from the 2025 Denver Rare Beer Tasting

In the world of beer, few things last for 16 revolutions around the sun. Your favorite brewery probably opened after 2010. Hazy IPAs, the most popular craft beer style, have not existed in earnest for 16 years. Change and adaptation are constants in the brewing industry, and maintaining interest in a product or brand for over a decade and a half is a major undertaking. The 2025 Denver Rare Beer Tasting, hosted by Pints for Prostates, has been a feather in the hat of Great American Beer Festival week since the late 2000s – learn more on the official event page. With this year’s 16th and Last Call edition of DRBT, an end has been brought to a one of its kind festival that offered some of the rarest and most sought after beers in the country.

While GABF grabs the headlines and the vast majority of patrons, the DRBT is for the real heads, the true craft beer connoisseurs who stop at nothing to seek out and sample the best and rarest beers to be found in an intimate festival environment. The Last Call edition of the 2025 Denver Rare Beer Tasting featured over 55 breweries pouring some of their most exclusive beers. There were styles to satisfy all palates from the light and refreshing to the funky and complex to the big and brash. PorchDrinking did our due diligence in sampling what we could, and we noted some particular beers that stood out.

Amalgam Brewing – Balaton and Boysenberry Reduction

These freeze distilled beers were amongst the most insane featured at Last Call. Packing near-irresponsible levels of concentrated fruit flavor, drinking these beers was more akin to a Mead in a less heavy package.

Bierstadt Lagerhaus – BFL (2020)

This 12% Marzen-adjacent behemoth is by far the biggest beer Bierstadt has ever brewed. While it packs a hefty punch, it still went down smooth like the rest of their excellent German Lagers. Given this backstory, we will let the reader guess what BFL stands for.

Comrade Brewing – Superdamp AKA Fresh Hop Superpower IPA (2025)

There has to be hops for a beer festival to consider itself proper, and Comrade delivers with a fresh hop version of its mainstay Superpower West Coast IPA. Taken to 11 with the addition of Strata fresh hops, this is one of the dankest and most well balanced IPAs to be found, certainly worthy of any 2025 Denver Rare Beer Tasting.

Kane Brewing – A Night To End All Dawns (Vanilla Bean) (2024)

Take an already legendary Stout and pump it full of 11 different vanilla varieties to arrive at this decadent treat that seamlessly blends big barrels with big vanilla while not overdoing either.

Moksa Brewing – Two By Two

Barrels and vanilla beans define this special anniversary beer from Moksa. It remains agile enough to allow the barrels to shine while still lending credence to the vanilla adjuncts, a hallmark of the 2025 Denver Rare Beer Tasting.

River North Brewery – Anniversary 13

While not quite putting up the 23% of its 2 years ago cousin, Anniversary 13 still manages a respectable 22.7% ABV. Points for effort. Like its older cousin, this Barrel Aged Stout drinks dangerously smooth yet is best enjoyed a couple oz at a time, as often appreciated by the 2025 Denver Rare Beer Tasting attendees.

Schilling Beer Co – Jalowetz

This Czech Pale Lager uses ingredients and techniques that could be found at the turn of the 20th century. We can’t imagine a beer being any better than this over 100 years ago.

Side Project Brewing – Beer : Barrel : Time (2024)

Is it even a rare beer festival without bringing something special from Side Project? Perhaps their most famous Barrel Aged Stout, BBT needs no explanation as it masterfully blends 3 elements into one of the most sought after beers of modern times, a gem at the 2025 Denver Rare Beer Tasting.

WeldWerks Brewing – Bubble Wrap: Cookies & Cream, Marshmallow + Vanilla

This mega collaboration between WeldWerks, Other Half, The Veil, Side Project, and Angry Chair leans into its pastry origins with a generous aging on Oreos, marshmallow fluff, and vanilla beans. The case of too many cooks with too many ingredients is restrained here by a careful balance not leaning too sweet or overly thick.

It’s sad to say goodbye to Denver Rare Beer Tasting, but it is comforting to remember the legacy it has left. DRBT proved that a festival hyper-focused on quality and desirability over quantity can be successful. Ultimately, Rick Lyke, the founder of Pints for Prostates and DRBT, had had enough of planning and organizing the festival and decided to hang it up. He should rest comfortably knowing that his baby went out with a bang and will be remembered by thousands of beer lovers for the experiences it has brought them over the years. Raise a glass and give a final “Cheers!” to a legend in the 2025 Denver Rare Beer Tasting history.