Colorado Beer Festival Tracker | 2022 Summer Edition

While Colorado beer festival season has technically already well underway, this past weekend officially marked the grand return to summer beer fest season in the Centennial State with a pair of heavy hitters in Odell’s Small Batch Fest and the Creekside Beer Fest.

With many large-scale events opting to take a hiatus over the past two years as a result of the pandemic, this year’s beer fest looks a little bit different with some fresh new concepts, the return of a classic fest, as well as the return of several fan favorites. To help you navigate the multitude of festivals, brewery anniversaries, and more happening around Colorado this summer, we’ve, once again, compiled your comprehensive Colorado Beer Festival Tracker. This year’s research was aided by the Facebook Group: Craft Brews &. Mountain Views: Ultimate Resource to Colorado Beer Events. Be sure to give them a follow AND bookmark this page as we’ll continue to update our list throughout the rest of the year.

Beers Made By Walking

One of the country’s more unique festival concepts, which invites brewers to produce beers using foraged ingredients that can be found on hikes or urban hikes, returns to Colorado after a five year hiatus. BMBW returns to Colorado Springs, the city where the event was first launched, on Saturday, June 4, 2022. Since its initial debut, the roaming beer fest has also found an audience in Seattle, WA, San Francisco, CA, Portland, OR and many more, and in total has worked with over 100 breweries on beers featuring foraged ingredients.

Where: GOCA Downtown – 121 S. Tejon St., #100, Colorado Springs
When: Saturday, June 4 from 2-4:30pm followed by a photography pop-up documenting the event’s 10 year history
Tickets: $25 plus fees: Available Here

Vail Craft Beer Classic

One of the most amazing things about attending a beer festival in the mountains is that you typically get to enjoy incredible beers set to an even more breathtaking backdrop. There might be no more magical summer beer fest than the Vail Craft Beer Classic, which returns June 17 & 18 with over 30 world class breweries and beverage producers available to sample across two sessions. What’s even more fantastic about attending a fest like this is the opportunity to sample from incredible mountain breweries, that don’t always make it down to the Front Range. Use promo code: PORCH to get 10% off your ticket price.

Where: Ford Sculpture Garden Park – 522 S Frontage Rd E, Vail
When: Friday, June 17 from 4-7pm – Saturday, June 18 from 12-2:30 & 3:30-6pm
Tickets: $59 plus fees: Available Here

Big Queer Beer Fest

Betsy Lay of Lady Justice Brewing and Kelissa Heiber of Goldspot Brewing represent a rare few solo, queer, women brewer-owned breweries in the country. And they’ve lead the charge here in Colorado to help provide greater representation and opportunities for the LGBTQ+ community. Their brainchild, the Big Queer Beer Festival, returns for its second year, this time featuring 35+ breweries who will be selling beer to raise funds for Colorado’s LGBTQIA+ community. Last year’s event raised over $6000 and this year’s is sure to be an even greater success.

Where: Town Hall Collaborative – 525 Santa Fe Drive, Denver
When: Saturday, June 18 from 12-5pm
Tickets: Free to attend but beer tokens are one for $3, ten for $25, or guests can opt to purchase the VIP package which includes unlimited drink tokens and a t-shirt or tank top of the participants’ choice for $80. 20% of beer sales will go toward LGBTQIA+-supportive nonprofits

2022 WeldWerks Invitational Festival

For beer geeks, this fest is the absolute zenith. Featuring some of the premier hype beer producers from across the country, the WeldWerks Invitational Festival makes its grand return after a two-year hiatus. This year’s event will feature over 120 beers from 47 world-class breweries predominantly focused on barrel-aged beers including the likes of Side Project, Forager, Moksa, Green Cheek, Phase Three, Amalgam, Jester King, Russian River, and many more!

Where: DoubleTree by Hilton Downtown Greeley – 919 7th Street, Greeley
When: Saturday, June 25 – Afternoon session from 11am – 2pm Evening session from 4pm – 7pm
Tickets: $110 plus fees: Available Here

Brewers Rendezvous

As beer festivals have grown to become a dime a dozen over the past ten years, it becomes rarer and rarer to find fests where brewers and brewery owners all clamor to actually attend and represent their establishments in person. That’s not the case with the Brewers Rendezvous, which has become an industry tradition as a destination festival in one of the most stunning regions of the state. Now in its 26th year, the Brewers Rendezvous, organized by the Colorado Brewers Guild is one of the most competitive festivals to participate in as a brewery with 60 spots available and most of the state’s breweries jockeying for a spot at the fest. This year’s event will feature a Pre-Vous event on Friday night before the main festival featuring unlimited tastings from beers exclusive to that night only from 6-8:30pm with appetizers included.

Where: Riverside Park – 110 Sackett Ave. Salida
When: Saturday, July 9 – From 1-5pm
Tickets: Friday Pre-Vous – $60, General Admission – $55, VIP – $120: Available Here

Hooplagers: Lager-Exclusive Pool Party Beer Festival

If you were to dream up your ideal over-the-top summer beer festival it’d likely include sipping on a full lineup of incredible lagers while lounging in a pool on an inflatable flamingo. Luckily the folks at Wibby Brewing dreamed up that exact scenario a few years back and have blown the concept out into one of the coolest summer beer fests in the country. Transforming their sprawling space into a massive pool party with giant inflatables and a sandy beach, the Wibby team, who are no strangers to producing world-class lagers themselves have been able to curate an incredible lineup of lager producers from around the country.

Where: Wibby Brewing – 209 Emery Street, Longmont
When: Saturday, July 16 – From Noon – 6pm
Tickets: Early Bird Pricing $40: Available Here

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