25 Must-Visit Breweries at 2019 Great American Beer Fest
October 1, 2019
This year’s Great American Beer Festival boasts over 4000 beers being served by over 800 breweries from across the country– it’s the world’s largest festival for American beer. Even if you attend all four sessions, there’s no way to even scratch the surface of sampling all the delicious beers being poured (though Lord knows you’ll want to try). Fear not: we’re here to help! We’ve compiled a list of twenty-five of our favorites that’ll be in attendance at GABF this year, breweries that you can rely on to serve up the highest quality product, from pilsners to pales and from sours to stouts.
There are plenty of breweries we’ve yet to try that we’re looking forward to encountering for the first time at this GABF, so if your favorite isn’t on this list, chances are we haven’t had the pleasure of encountering their beer yet! However, we have had the pleasure of these breweries– many of them several times over– and can vouch for their quality personally. Odds are high if you visit any of these places at GABF, you’ll find us standing behind you in line!
So add these to your must-visit list– and when you get to the front, tell them The Beer Travel Guide sent you!
We had an incredible time at their taproom in Purcellville, and we think it’s high time Adroit Theory ascends to the ranks of the breweries that earn absurdly long lines at beer festivals. Their IPAs and stouts are both sublime, but we’re most excited that they’re bringing Illusion of Safety to GABF– it’s a rich, distinctive gose that made our list of the Best Sour Beers of 2018.
A local favorite of ours, Beachwood has won medals at GABF each of the last seven years, including Brewpub of the Year awards in 2013 and 2014. Their medals are spread over a wide range of styles, which makes sense to anyone who’s visited any of their SoCal locations. Be sure to also sample everything they’re bringing with the Blendery, their small batch sour beer production company– it was one of our favorite first-time visits last year.
Chicago is teeming with terrific breweries, but we left our last visit tremendously impressed with Begyle Brewing, located in Ravenswood Corridor as part of the city’s “Malt Row.” Their IPAs were all fantastic, but we’re most excited that their pour list includes the Barrel Aged Imperial Pajamas, an imperial coffee stout that hits the spot.
If you’re into hazy IPAs, odds are you’ve already got Black Market Brewing on your “must try” list, as they won last year’s GABF gold medal for Juicy or Hazy Imperial or Double IPA. That beer is back this year, as the aptly named Gold, but don’t stop there– they’re bringing a couple more hazies to go for some back-to-back hardware. We enjoyed everything we tried at their Temecula brewpub, so go try them even if you aren’t down with the haze craze.
Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales
Loyal readers of this site know we are devoted parishioners at the Church of Sour. Denver is packed to the brim with delicious sour beer– we’ve got more Denver sour houses later on this list!– but Black Project holds a special place in our hearts. We named it the Best Place for Sours in our brewery hop guide to Denver, and we’re beyond excited that they’re bringing Magic Lantern, which made our list of 2018’s Best Sour Beers, to the festival. We’ll absolutely be having another sample or ten of it and the rest of their delectable concoctions.
New Mexico: home of Carlsbad Caverns, Breaking Bad, and some of the best milk stouts we’ve ever had. Their Chocolate Milk Stout was featured in our 2018’s Best Stouts list, and while we haven’t yet had the pleasure of sampling the rest of their beer, anyone who makes a milk stout this good is likely terrific across the board (see also: Brink Brewing below). They’ll absolutely be a Day One stop for us, and since they won Midsize Brewpub of the Year at 2016’s GABF, we expect we won’t be the only ones.
Hopheads know about Breakside, which brings the heat to GABF on a regular basis, taking home medals on a nearly annual basis in multiple categories. Any lover of West Coast IPAs will definitely want to make this a top priority, as options like the Breakside IPA and the Wanderlust IPA have won awards at past GABFs and were highlights during our trip to Portland last year.
We were lucky enough to visit Brink Brewing right after last year’s GABF, where it won Very Small Brewing Company of the Year. It’s easy to see why it won– and why we named it part of Cincinnati’s best brewery hop— when you realize they’re good at basically everything. Their ESB and milk stout are both gold medal winners and will both be back this year to try to earn Brink some more well-deserved accolades.
Some people like their IPAs dank, some like them piney, some like them juicy– some even like them milkshakey. If you’re someone, however, who likes their IPAs pillowy? Brouwerij West is for you. They’ve been a festival favorite more than once for us this year, and anyone who hasn’t had the chance to try these San Pedro sippers should give them a shot at GABF.
It’s a tradition in our household that any time we have friends in town who are beer fanatics, we take them to the Bruery. Their tap list is absurdly deep, and they have terrific options encompassing one of the widest variety styles you’ll see at an American craft brewery. They’re a highlight at every festival, including this year’s Firestone Walker Invitational, where they won the People’s Choice Award. They’re also our favorite destination in Orange County. If you love big barrel aged beers, put The Bruery at the top of your list.
Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project
Crooked Stave is another sour beer staple in Denver, having won several medals for sour beer at previous GABFs and having left our mouths delightfully puckered on our last trip. However, they also has some delicious IPAs, and their Von Pilsner is a crispy boy that’s worth seeking out when you’re looking for breaks between high-ABV barrel-aged monsters.
Epic first hit our radar when we tried some of their delicious sour beer. Then we hit their small tasting room in Salt Lake City— twice!– and raced through their whole menu. We then did the same when we visited their Denver location. Suffice it to say, we’re big fans. Stout lovers in particular should seek out this table, as they make some of our favorite stouts in America.
Last time we were in Denver, we were blown away by Fiction Beer Company, one of the best breweries in the city. Their sours and stouts are top notch, but their IPAs are especially impressive, earning from us the title of Best IPAs in Denver and a spot on our Best IPAs of 2018 list. Their GABF medal winning hazy, Madame Psychosis, will be back this year– but you’re a fool if that’s the only thing you try from this group.
Those fortunate enough to find themselves vacationing in Lake Tahoe owe it to themselves to do as we did and take the trek to Truckee to have some drinks at FiftyFifty Brewing. They specialize in big barrel-aged beers– their Eclipse variants are some of the best stouts in the country, and the I Did It All For The Cookie, an Imperial Brown, took home a bronze last year, helping FiftyFifty lock up the prestigious title of Brewery Group of the Year.
If you want Great Notion, you better race to their table first thing, because we’ve drank their beer at festivals and always had to fight considerable lines to do so. Still, their beer is largely worth it, as they are one of our favorite breweries in Portland, and they’ll be bringing some terrific beers to GABF. Double Stack is a mouthful of maple syrup that won them a silver last year, and Blueberry Muffin is one of the best smelling sours you’ll every encounter.
The second Temecula brewery to grace this list, Ironfire Brewing leapt onto our radar this year as a brewery with several strengths and no discernible weaknesses. They boast terrific barrel aged stouts, so the Last Rites is high on our list of things to try– and if their imperial red, The Outcast Dead, is anywhere near as good as their red ales we had in Temecula, then count us in for that as well.
The first of two breweries from Lafayette, Colorado on this list, Liquid Mechanics blew us away with their barrel aged awesomeness– no joke, they have a beer actually called Barrel Aged Awesomeness. While that won’t be at GABF, they *will* have a new barrel aged banger called Purveyor of Chaos– between that and their sublime Peanut Butter Porter, you’d be a fool to stay away.
We drove from LA to San Marcos *specifically* to visit The Lost Abbey two years ago, and it was worth the mileage… but if you live too far away from the Abbey to enjoy these beer monks’ holy beverages, then say a prayer that their lines aren’t too long and go. They’ve won golds in multiple categories at past GABFs, including multiple medals for sour beer and the award for Small Brewing Company of the Year a little over a decade ago– they’re a festival favorite for a good reason.
It may be controversial to say Chicago’s best pale ale is anything other than Half Acre’s Daisy Cutter, but we strongly urge you to give Maplewood’s Charlatan a chance. It’s medaled at GABF twice in the last three years, and it helped make Maplewood one of our favorite breweries in Chicago. They’re also bringing their delicious hazy, Son of Juice, and another previous GABF medal winner, their oatmeal milk stout Fat Pug. Give Maplewood a visit.
Any trip to Sacramento requires a journey out of town to Auburn to visit Moonraker. Their beers are world class up and down the line, but they truly shine when it comes to IPAs– we buy them any time they’re available in our neck of the woods. They won a silver medal in the Imperial IPA category at last year’s GABF, and don’t be surprised when Moonraker medals again this year.
Russell is woefully behind on writing his Massachusetts coverage from his trip earlier this year for Extreme Beer Fest. Not to spoil his upcoming article, but Night Shift was one of his favorites in the state. Their IPAs and sours were both impressive, leaving us excited for options on their pour list like the Swell DIPA and the Rickey Weisse.
Odd13 is an absolute must for anyone looking for haze. We’ve been ordering their cans through Tavour since we can remember— we even made a road trip out to Lafayette specifically to visit their taproom, and it lived up to our lofty expectations. Don’t be surprised if we show up to sample Codename: Superman even with cans of it at home.
Our Mutual Friend Brewing Company
Our Mutual Friend impressed us on our visit with some of the best IPAs and stouts in Denver— but they’ve been impressing the GABF judges for years with their sour power, earning multiple medals for Brett Beer and Barrel Aged Sours in years past. With multiple wild ales and saisons on their pour list, Our Mutual Friend should be a good friend to any sour lover this GABF.
We’ve been fans of pFriem’s barrel aged sours for a long time now– we currently have multiple bottles sitting on our bar display, waiting for a special occasion that merits consumption of world-class beer. They won Mid-Size Brewing Company of the Year last year, so we expect the lines to start early and often. We’re most excited to visit them not just for the sours, but for their pilsner, which won a medal last year for the second time. Anyone making elite sours *and* crispy boys is a must-visit in our eyes.
Anyone who’s read our guide to Chicago is familiar with how much we love Une Annee. If you like your stouts big, your IPAs juicy, and your sours so mind-meltingly pucker-inducing that they could turn your head inside out, then Une Annee needs to be the first stop you make at GABF. In particular on this year’s pour list, the Le Grand Monde and the El Zacatón are both absolute monsters worth seeking out.
What are you looking forward to at GABF? Let us know in the comments below– and if you see us at the festival, please stop us and say hello! Cheers, and see you all very soon!
It was good to see that my two favorite breweries in Oregon made your list, Pfriem and Great Notion. However, you did not mention that Pfriem also has some wonderful IPA’s, which include my all time favorite, Dank. And Great Notion is our go to for Hazy’s as they always have an impressive choice. I will also add that both breweries have delicious food!