For even the most casual craft beer drinker, the hallmarks of the stereotypical beer festival are familiar: $75 for a three-hour time slot, dozens of breweries slinging two-ounce pours, the inherent “try as many beers against a ticking clock” challenge thwarted by long lines at every booth.
Despite its ubiquity, this scene just might be circling the drain in 2024. COVID-19 halted fests in 2020 and 2021, and they never really saw a triumphant return. Some popular festivals, like Washington, D.C.’s 14-years-running SAVOR, are no more, while plenty have been put on indefinite hold, like J. Wakefield Brewing’s Wakefest in Miami; even staples like the Great American Beer Festival have shrunk in size.
It’s a sign of the times when it comes to the craft beer industry and its audience. OG craft beer fans are advancing into their 30s, 40s, 50s and beyond. Pubinno “chief beer officer” and Resin cofounder Chris McClellan points out, from personal experience, that this is no longer the most eager demographic for an all-you-can-drink mad dash. “I think the novelty of going and trying 8 million different two-ounce samples has gone off for a lot of people,” he says. “It’s fun once or twice or 10 times, but now the industry has matured and sits in a different place in the consumer mindset than it used to.”
Jimmy Carbone, a former beer bar owner who produces smaller food-and-drink pairing events, agrees. Years ago, he says, “the only way to try new beer was to go to a beer fest, other than drinking what was at a bar or package store.” Now, with the ubiquity of breweries and taprooms, Jason Sahler of Brooklyn’s Strong Rope Brewery asks: Why splurge on tickets and wait in long lines for two-ounce pours?
That doesn’t mean beer festivals are a thing of the past. Rather, they’re taking on a new form. The beer festival of 2024 is message-driven, or small and hyperniche—or both—reflecting an audience that has matured not only in age but in beer knowledge. Consumers have come a long way since the early brewery boom, and now, they already know what they like. “In 2024, craft beer lovers definitely have a more discerning palate and are looking to try new and exciting beers,” explains Carrie Knose Wilson, communications manager for the Colorado Brewers Guild, which hosts the annual Collaboration Beer Fest. “A festival that showcases [specific] offerings will draw a more specific crowd.”
Barrel & Flow, established in 2018, is one such festival and a leader in the new ethos-driven craft beer fest category, though it’s joined by a number of other inclusion-focused events like Queer Beer Fest and Drink Like a Girl Fest. Held annually in August, Barrel & Flow is a sprawling operation, but unlike the generic convention-center fests hosted by event production companies with the single goal of selling as many tickets as possible, it’s aimed directly at increasing representation and removing barriers of entry for BIPOC in beer. Founder Day Bracey puts his social services background to work with a mindful weekend-long lineup, including an educational and networking-centered conference. The festival itself features over 100 breweries (as of 2023); some are Black-owned or employ Black brewers, while others have partnered with Black brewers on collaboration beers. This year, Bracey says they’re on track to have almost all Black-owned businesses, something that wouldn’t have been possible when the event debuted. Barrel & Flow’s impact is tangible, and craft beer consumers clearly appreciate the programming: It’s taken the top spot on USA Today’s 10 Best Beer Festivals list the past two years.
Other festivals taking the place of the bygone behemoths are style- or category-themed, reflecting the way breweries themselves have streamlined their tap lists. Just as breweries provide destinations for those interested in European lagers or smoked beers, niche festivals offer some of the same magic that early beer fests did for craft beer in general: They gather hard-to-find, limited-run examples of specific styles for die-hard fans and curious newbies.
There’s Little Beer, organized by Good Word Brewing and the city of Duluth, Georgia, celebrating low-ABV lagers and English styles; Pils & Love, launched by Italian-style pils creator Birrificio Italiano, which gathers fellow brewers of the style in different cities each year; and Chicago’s FoBAB, a festival of barrel-aged beer. Also in Chicago, Dovetail Brewery throws a smoked beer party, Thank You for Smoking; similarly, Austin, Texas’ Live Oak Brewing has Rauchfest; the New England Real Ale Exhibition, or NERAX, features cask beer in Boston; and Strong Rope’s Caskiversary, in Brooklyn, zeroes in on mostly local cask beers. In Denver, meanwhile, Collaboration Beer Fest concentrates on just that, collabs brewed specifically for the event.
Notably, these focused fests are typically organized by breweries or local guilds, rather than event production companies. This allows breweries to play on their strengths, call on other breweries in their network and speak directly to their communities. The resulting festivals are less one-size-fits-all and more specialized.
In fact, today, the more specialized the better. “Ten years ago, if you said, ‘Let’s run a smoked beer fest,’ you’d get a lot of blank stares,” explains McClellan. “Now you can say, ‘We have a grodziskie, a smoked märzen,’ and people know them or want to try them.” As head brewer at Live Oak, where Rauchfest is in its seventh year, Dusan Kwiatkowski can attest to this. “There’s enough people now who have run the gamut of styles and know what they like. Breweries can do a cask event and get an audience, and smaller breweries with the flexibility to make different styles can [collaborate on] events.”
Ten years ago, craft beer was novel enough that the general blanket term got ticket buyers through the doors. Now, breweries are thinking about what specific categories within craft beer will engage consumers who have access to just about everything at their local breweries and bottle shops. “Craft beer is just beer now,” Sahler says. “We need to do more now to get people to come to these events. If you can bring added value, have a concept to it, a singular focus, that’s a driver. You’re not looking to have 1,000 people, you’re looking to have 200, and a more intimate event. That’s what I’m trying to create.”
