Collabfest 2025!
If you are a Colorado resident, or someone who’s willing to travel interstate for a beer festival, I highly suggest making the trek to Colorado’s Collabfest. As you could probably guess, Collabfest is a whole beer festival dedicated to collaborations between two or more breweries. It’s put on by the Colorado Brewer’s Guild (CBG) and serves as a fundraiser for the Guild. It also features some of the weirdest, silliest, and most questionable experiments in beer that you’ve never drunk before (and maybe won’t ever want to drink again). Spanish Cedar IPAs, Pilsners with a West African grain that tastes like Sauvignon Blanc, and even an homage to Goldschlager–and those are just the collabs that Mountain Toad is a part of!
This festival isn’t just beer, it’s a festival about the stories, experiences, and commentaries (the intangible ingredients) that the brewers bring to the beer. As a brewer, I can say that this beer festival is absolutely my favorite both to attend and to pour for this very reason. The beers are delicious and the really great ones get you talking about what actually makes a beer a beer. Can you make a beer with pork shoulder or Nashville hot chicken? Can AI make a good beer recipe (the answer is a resounding “NO” by all accounts)? Does the story behind the beer make it taste any different? Brewers at this festival are just as excited to tell you about their beer as you probably are to drink it, which isn’t true for your typical beer fest.
Everyone at the CBG does a wonderful job setting up and running this event and it is ALWAYS a blast. My personal favorite beers to try are ones that showcase new ingredients, new processes, or historic beers that you don’t see anywhere. I am incredibly excited to go and I am incredibly excited for you, dear reader, to join us! Tickets go pretty fast so get them while you can! Collabfest is April 19th at the Westin in Westminster!