The Best Beers We Had At The 2021 Untappd Beer Festival
October 8, 2021
Words can’t express how excited we were to get to attend our first major in-person beer festival last weekend. Untappd Beer Festival happened in San Diego October 1st and 2nd, and we were fortunate enough to get to attend both days. Admittedly, Untappd’s first attempt at a festival in Charlotte did not go very well, but they clearly learned a lot of lessons from their mistakes and put together a very well-organized, well-executed beer fest at Petco Park. (One such lesson: throw the festival in a city like San Diego that is far less likely to face sudden lightning storms.) The brewery list was impressive, the bands were fantastic (shout out to Arson Daily!), and, quite thankfully, the number of attendants was kept at limited capacity due to ongoing pandemic precautions, so lines were kept limited, spacing was maximized, and the experience of attending the festival was very enjoyable.
We love getting to try new breweries from across the country at beer festivals and experience new styles, encounter new points of view, and meet new people making great American craft beer. We were very encouraged to see not just a wide array of states across the country represented, but also a good number of female-owned and minority-owned breweries featured as well. The beer industry still has a long way to go to reach true equality, and accusations of racism and sexual impropriety are still depressingly frequent in the craft beer world. We were happy to see movement in the right direction in regards to diversity at this festival– and we hope that all major companies that throw American beer festivals, including Untappd, will push harder to listen to female and minority voices, amplify what they have to say, and promote true equality in even more meaningful ways going forward.
As for the beers being poured last weekend… maybe it’s just the extent to which we’ve been missing beer festivals, but we found it borderline *impossible* to narrow down the best beers we had at Untappd Beer Festival. So we decided to instead the most impressive breweries that truly made the experience such a blast. Some of these we’d had before, some of them were new to us, but either way, these breweries had multiple beers each that knocked our socks off. Thanks again to those involved with the festival— especially to Kyle Roderick, an absolute gentleman Saturday afternoon— and thanks to every visiting brewer, booth worker, security guard, and everyone in between who helped show us a great time this weekend.
And now, without further ado… our favorite breweries from the festival!
We’ve yet to take a trip to Yosemite since Around the Horn Brewing opened, but clearly the national park isn’t the only attraction in town. You Stay Classy was one of the best west coast IPAs at the festival… but the real standout was the Tip Top Mocha Pop, a blackberry and coffee fruited sour that blew us away. In a festival that featured several delicious fruited sours, Tip Top Mocha Pop was easily the most distinctive in the field.
Nothing’s better at a beer festival than a brewery known for its lagers. We all love imperial stouts, hefty IPAs, and the like at festivals, yes, but that makes a light crisp lager all the more necessary. Luckily for us, Art History from Geneva, Illinois was serving up the best lagers of the festival, like the Good Morning Munich Helles and my personal favorite, Bauhaus, an exceptional German pilsner.
Barbarian knocked our socks off at Great American Beer Festival in 2019, and here we are again, wowed once more by this Idaho brewery. The Nectaron 5000 easily ranked among the best hazy IPAs being poured, and the Maui Sunset? More like a Wowie Sunset. This tropical masterpiece was the best barrel aged sour we encountered in either session. Looks like we need to plan a trip to Boise…
We were familiar with DankHouse after getting a can of DDH Couch Kush’n— and subsequently replicating its artwork to the delight of Instagrammers everywhere. We tried the Kush’n again, and once again, DankHouse lived up to its name. We were also excited the Liquid Edibles: RickHoused, a barrel-aged version of their stout, and it was outstanding, toasty, chocolatey, and just enough barrel kick.
Russell got a chance to visit Definitive in Portland this summer— and even in a terrific beer town like Portland, Definitive was an instant favorite. So we had to make sure Emily got to try what Definitive had to offer. Sure enough, she agreed— Particles, Russell’s favorite Portland IPA, is still a banger, and Euphoric Nights (Double Raspberry Marshmallow Delight) is still among the best fruited sours around.
Horus Aged Ales and beer festivals: name a better pair. Since we aren’t lucky enough to be Convocation Members, our only consistent opportunity to drink Horus is on the festival circuit. Fortunately, even though every Horus beer was a timed pour, we were able to try everything. Thicc Skin, their Trillium collab, was a great way for the VIP section to end the night… but even though we’ve had it before, nothing topped Proper Dose, which is, in our humble opinion, one of the best coffee stouts on Earth.
We’re generally not the type to gravitate toward fruited sours, for the most part, so when we saw Texas’s Ingenious Brewing had a table largely filled with fruited sours, we weren’t sure what to think… but if what they were pouring last weekend was any inclination, they make some of the best fruited sours in the country. Both Fruit Brute and Trips (their Tripping Animals collab) were highlights among the many fruited sours tried over the two nights.
On the aforementioned trip to Maine earlier this year, Russell stopped at a few New Hampshire breweries and has been craving their brand of haze ever since. Enter Modestman Brewing, from Keene, New Hampshire, slinging some of the finest haze at the entire festival— the Center of Attention MEGA earned multiple return visits. On top of that, their Hard Rass was also one of the finest fruited sours of the weekend. No need for Modestman to be modest: they make outstanding beer.
Movement Brewing is a newer brewery located outside Sacramento— they opened very shortly after we last passed through that area, so this was our first time giving them a try. Their Whip Wrangler was a tasty fruited sour… but the one that really caught our eye was the Illuminati Biscotti, their toasted almond, vanilla, and coffee stout collab with Moksa. It was rich, nutty, roasty, and decadent— easily one of the best pastry stouts of the festival.
Usually at these festivals, it’s tough to grab a beer more than twice, because no matter how good it is, there’s just so much left to try and so relatively little that your body can handle. Yet Emily had Solaris’s Purple Flowers *three times* in a single night, letting you know it was her favorite of the whole festival— sour, sweet, and just a hit of floral lavender. They also served a mean IPA in Quiet Village. This relatively new brewery in Murrieta is definitely one to watch.
Our only familiarity with Weathered Souls coming into the festival was their Black is Beautiful collaboration effort— we loved the cause, the initiative, and the taste of the beer. So we expected really good things this weekend from them. Their fruited sour, Steven’s Creation, was one of the better fruited sours of the festival… but then we tried Habitual Line Stepper, which is, to put it mildly, one hell of a stout. Straight forward, no sugary adjuncts, exactly what an old school stout should taste like. Anything Weathered Souls does going forward, we’ll seek it out.
Wild Mind has been on our radar for a long time, because they specialize in the barrel-aged, spontaneously fermented sorts of sours that we deeply love. At the festival, however, they were pouring largely fruited sours. We were initially a bit disappointed… until we tried them. The Hanoi Ohana and the Inspiration Information were both fantastic slam dunk smoothie beers, some of the best of the fest of their style. We’ll be sure to try to get our hands on the rest of Wild Mind’s beer soon enough.
The Half Time Beverage table
We were familiar with Half Time before last weekend— we’d done a couple of their virtual festivals during the pandemic, and we’d certainly perused their impressive selection more than once. So it came as no surprise to us that the menu they were serving at the festival was *bonkers.* Hazy from Other Half? Check. IPA from Prison City? Check. Multiple fruited sours from Mortalis? Check. And our personal favorite, the Barn Beer from Plan Bee Farm Brewery, an exceptional straight-forward sour? The cherry on top. We look forward to seeing what else Half Time does, at festivals and beyond, as they continue to grow.
BONUS!
Best Hard Seltzer:
We’d had one of Drekker’s PLOP fruited hard seltzers before… but nothing could have prepared us for the uniqueness of the PLOP: PB&J Supreme. Yes, you read that right. It’s a peanut butter and jelly fruited hard seltzer. And somehow, in defiance of God and man, it manages to have fresh peanut flavor, rich jelly flavor, and *still* be sweet enough to hit the way a fruited seltzer should. Drekker: you are makers of miracles.
Best Mead:
Russell and his brother drank plenty of mead during his recent road trip through Indiana (shout out to Boneflower and Manic Mead), but we were unable to make Misbeehavin work for our schedule. Thank God Misbeehavin came to this festival, so we could try their product firsthand. The Banana Banger was rum-soaked banana goodness… but the Jammy AF was a velvety berry wonder, definitely our favorite mead of the festival.
Best Barleywine:
We’ve sung the praises of The Lost Abbey many times on this site… and we’ll continue to do so here! At a festival with a lot of fruity drinks, seltzers, and adjunct-heavy beers, we were overjoyed to encounter a fantastic traditional beer. Enter Infinite Silence, a beautiful barleywine from the always reliable geniuses at The Lost Abbey. Sometimes, at a beer fest, you just need a taste of life.
Best Kiwi Wine:
We had no idea what to expect from Mission Trail. We knew they’d be serving kiwi wine, but… we’re fairly confident we’d never had a kiwi wine drink before. That said… these cocktail concoctions from Mission Trail were *amazing.* Kiwifornia Jones was a rich berry delicacy, and Lost in the POG was the closest thing to a full blown tropical Mai Tai we had at the festival. We hope to drive through Bradley, CA soon so we can try more from Mission Trail.
Thanks again to everyone who made the festival so fun! What was your favorite beer at the festival? Or, if you didn’t get to attend, which of these would you be most excited to try? Let us know in the comments below! Cheers!
