Festival of Barrel Aged Beer (#FoBAB) 2017 Awards

The world’s largest barrel-aged beer competition — The Illinois Craft Beer Guild‘s Festival of Barrel Aged Beer (#FoBAB) in Chicago — is currently satisfying hoards of beer lovers. For breweries, it’s also a chance to see if their beer stood-out among the sea of special beers. The awards have been announced and our Chicago/Midwest editor, Mike Zoller, relayed the information as it happened. Here are the results — Congrats not only to the winners, but also every brewery that took the time to offer their beer to a thirsty, enthusiastic beer crowd.

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FoBAB—A National Barrel-Aged Party

Barrel-aged beers are the dope suits of the brewing world—looking good and ready for a party. Across the nation, brewery’s special releases and anniversary parties frequently involve something from a barrel, and bottle share parties are routinely marked by ice-filled buckets of barrel-aged whales. The Festival of Barrel Aged Beer (FoBAB) involves a sea of brewing alchemy; it’s the A-list party of brews. One will find special beer after special beer produced by some of the nation’s best breweries and barreling programs.

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Event Preview | 2017 Festival of Wood & Barrel-Aged Beers (FoBAB)

With the 15th annual Festival of Wood & Barrel-Aged Beers (FoBAB) less than a week away, the weeks and months leading up to this year’s event have been different than in the past. With a price increase and the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild releasing the brewery lineup before the event for the first time ever, there seems to be more talk about FoBAB than in recent years.

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Chicago Quick Sips | October 30

Quick Sips is our way of highlighting beer events, tap takeovers and other notable beer news around the city of Chicago. If you’d like to submit something to be included in the next Quick Sips, please email us at [email protected].
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FoBAB Releases Brewery Lineup for First Time Ever

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Festival of Wood & Barrel-Aged Beers (FoBAB), event organizers have released the complete list of breweries that will be pouring prior to the event for the first time ever. While the specific beers can’t be listed due to the competition and judging aspect tied to the festival, more hype has been added for the November event as festival-goers now have a preview of what’s to come.

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Event Recap | 2016 Festival of Wood & Barrel-Aged Beers (FoBAB)

Now that my liver has had a few days to rest I’m able to look back on the 2016 Festival of Wood and Barrel-Aged Beers. Once again the beer selection at FoBAB was incredible. In fact 2016 seemed to highlight more “whales” than last year. There were definitely some beers worth highlighting that didn’t take home medals this year. Read More

The Festival of Barrel Aged Beers | FoBAB 2016 Awards

The world’s largest barrel-aged beer competition, held at the Festival of Barrel Aged Beer (FoBAB) in Chicago, is underway. However, the FoBAB 2016 awards are now official, and our Chicago/Midwest editor, Mike Zoeller was there. Here are the results — congrats to all the winners!
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Discussing Chicago’s Beer Culture & FoBAB with Werk Force Brewing

Chicago’s brewing culture is as diverse as its population, but one genre of brewing resonates strongly with Windy City beer enthusiasts — barrel-aged brewing. In 1993, Greg Hall at Goose Island experimented with beer in bourbon barrels and, as they say, the rest is history (see this movie about that story). The legacy of his idea manifests itself every November with Goose Island’s Black Friday Bourbon County release and numerous barrel-aged beer festivals, notably the Festival of Barrel Aged Brewing (FoBAB). Brandon Wright, of Chicago Brew Werks/Werk Force Brewing, shares his unique perspective on Chicago’s love of barrel-aged beer.

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Event Preview | 2016 Festival of Barrel Aged Beers (FoBAB)

Every November since 2003, the craft beer world descends on Chicago for the Festival of Barrel Aged Beers – more commonly known as FoBAB. It’s the largest festival celebrating barrel-aged and wood-aged beers featuring more than 150 brewers and more than 400 beers for fans to try.

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