The 10 Best Beers I Drank at the 2026 Great American Beer Festival (And 3 That Were Awful)

The thing about the Great American Beer Festival is that it smells exactly like you'd expect. A mix of spilled hops, pretzel salt, and the quiet desperation of 60,000 people trying to maintain their dignity while consuming 4,000 different beers over four hours. I've been going since 2019, and somehow it keeps getting weirder. This year, held June 4-6 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, the theme seemed to be 'what if we took every beer trend from the last decade and put them in a blender?'

Some of it worked. Some of it really, really didn't. I tried 47 beers over two days — not counting the ones I accidentally spilled on myself while trying to take notes. My liver is filing a formal complaint. But for you, dear reader, I suffered. Here's what you need to know about the state of American craft beer in 2026.

Let me start with the biggest surprise of the festival: pilsners are back. And I don't mean the watery macros that gave the style a bad name. I mean crisp, floral, impossibly clean pilsners that taste like someone actually cares about them again. After years of pastry stouts and triple IPAs that require a degree in chemistry to brew, it's refreshing to see brewers rediscover the elegance of simplicity.

The 10 Beers That Made Me Forget About My Hangover

1. Tree House Brewing — 'Luminous' Pilsner (4.8% ABV)
This was the first beer I tried and it set an impossibly high bar. Tree House is famous for their hazy IPAs, but this pilsner was a revelation. It had this cracker-like malt backbone with a floral hop finish that tasted like a meadow smells. Zero bitterness, just pure refreshment. I went back for three samples. No shame.

2. Other Half Brewing — 'All Citra Everything' (8% DIPA)
Look, I know Citra is the most overused hop in the game. But Other Half somehow made it feel new. This double IPA had a ridiculous amount of lupulin powder — something I've been seeing more of this year — and the result was a beer that tasted like drinking a glass of orange juice that happens to be 8% alcohol. It's not subtle. It's not supposed to be. It's perfect.

3. Russian River Brewing — 'Pliny the Elder' (8% DIPA)
I know, I know. Pliny is the old guard. It's been around since before most of us could legally drink. But here's the thing: it's still the benchmark. I had it side by side with three other 'triple IPAs' from newer breweries, and Pliny was the only one that didn't taste like a hop extract bomb. It's balanced. It's drinkable. It's still the king.

4. WeldWerks Brewing — 'Juicy Bits' (6.7% NEIPA)
This was my first time trying WeldWerks' flagship, and I get the hype now. It's the platonic ideal of a hazy IPA: soft, creamy, with a mango-and-passionfruit character that tastes less like a beer and more like a fruit smoothie that happens to be beer. Dangerous because it's too easy to drink.

5. Hill Farmstead Brewery — 'Anna' (6.0% Saison)
Shaun Hill is a wizard. I don't know how else to say it. This saison was fermented with a blend of farmhouse yeasts that produced this incredible funk — think hay, lemon zest, and a hint of barnyard. It's the kind of beer that makes you feel sophisticated just for drinking it.

6. Trillium Brewing — 'Fort Point' (5.5% Pale Ale)
A sessionable pale ale that actually tastes good. This is rarer than you think. Most session IPAs sacrifice flavor for drinkability. Trillium's version is packed with Nelson Sauvin and Mosaic hops, giving it a white-wine-like character that's perfect for summer.

7. Burial Beer Co. — 'Skillet Donut Stout' (12% Imperial Stout)
I'm not usually a pastry stout guy. They're often too sweet, too artificial, too much. But Burial's version is different. It's brewed with actual donuts from a local bakery in Asheville, and the result is a rich, chocolatey stout that tastes like breakfast in a glass. The maple syrup note is subtle, not cloying. This is how you do adjunct stouts right.

8. Monkish Brewing — 'The Nothing' (6.0% Belgian Tripel)
A Belgian tripel from a California brewery known for IPAs? It shouldn't work. But it does. This beer has the classic golden color and spicy yeast character of a traditional tripel, but with a dry finish that makes it dangerously drinkable. I had three samples and immediately regretted not buying bottles.

9. Firestone Walker — 'Parabola' (14% Bourbon Barrel-Aged Stout)
This is the beer that I look forward to every year, and it never disappoints. The 2026 vintage was aged in bourbon barrels for 18 months, and the result is a symphony of dark chocolate, vanilla, and oak. It's a sipper. One pour is enough. But that one pour is magical.

10. Alvarado Street Brewing — 'Mai Tai IPA' (7.0% IPA with Pineapple and Lime)
Okay, hear me out. This sounds gimmicky, and it is. But it's also delicious. The pineapple and lime additions are subtle enough that the beer still tastes like an IPA, but with a tropical twist that's perfect for a hot day. It's not going to win any awards for purity, but it's going to make people smile. And isn't that the point?

The 3 Beers That Made Me Question My Life Choices

1. A 'Sour Smoothie' from a Well-Known Brewery (I won't name them)
This was a thick, opaque pink liquid that tasted like someone melted a Fruit Roll-Up in a glass of vinegar. It had 27 grams of lactose per serving — I checked the label. It was not beer. It was a milkshake that had been left in the sun. I took one sip and poured it out. The person next to me asked if I was okay.

2. A 'Triple Dry-Hopped' IPA at 10% ABV
There's a trend right now of breweries pushing IPAs to absurd alcohol levels. This one was a 'triple IPA' that tasted like someone extracted the bitterness from a pound of hops and dissolved it in Everclear. My mouth felt numb. My stomach felt worse. I respect the craft, but I don't understand the goal.

3. A 'Pickle Beer'
Yes, this exists. Yes, I tried it. No, I will not be doing that again. It tasted exactly like drinking pickle juice — salty, sour, and aggressively dill-forward. Some people love this style. I am not one of them. The pickle trend needs to end.

The Big Trend I Noticed: Breweries Are Getting Weird (In a Good Way)

Beyond the individual beers, there were some clear trends this year. The most interesting one was the rise of 'low-ABV' beers that actually taste good. For years, the craft beer industry has been in an arms race to make the strongest, most extreme beers. But this year, I saw a ton of breweries releasing sub-4% beers — table beers, milds, and small beers — that were genuinely delicious. It feels like the industry is finally realizing that not every beer needs to be an event. Sometimes you just want to have two beers without falling asleep.

The other trend was the use of alternative grains. I tried a beer made with millet, one made with buckwheat, and one made with — I swear — sweet potatoes. The sweet potato beer was actually good. It had a subtle sweetness and a silky mouthfeel that I didn't expect. I'm not saying it's the future, but it's a sign that brewers are experimenting in ways that go beyond just throwing more hops at everything.

If you're going to next year's GABF — and you should — my advice is simple: start with the pilsners, move to the IPAs, and end with the stouts. Don't try the pickle beer. And for the love of god, drink water between samples. Your future self will thank you.