A Look Back at the 2024 Festival of Wood & Barrel Aged Beer

This past weekend the Festival of Wood & Barrel-Aged Beer (FoBAB) made its return for the 22nd year to the Credit Union 1 Arena in Chicago, Illinois. Held each fall, the 2024 edition of FoBAB took take place over two four-hour tasting sessions from Friday, November 22 through Saturday, November 23.

Each year, FoBAB brings out the best of barrel-aged beer from across the country. Over 170 breweries served over 350 various barrel-aged beers over the course of two sessions. For the judging portion of the event, his year FoBAB expanded from 12 categories to 13, adding the new Blended Beer category to the mix.

The other categories include Strong Porter & Stout; Specialty Strong Porter & Stout; Barleywine/Wheatwine; Other Pale Beer; Lagers; Other Dark Beer; Fruit Beer; Specialty & Experimental Beer; Wild Beer-Brett; Wild Beer-Mixed Culture/Acidic; Wild Beer-Mixed Culture/Acidic with Fruit; and Cider/Perry Mead. And to top this all off, a new Fan Favorite was added this year so that attendees could state their favorite barrel aged beverage!

All beer sent to FoBAB is judged and donated as a fundraising for the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild. Each brewery is required to send enough beer, at least one 1/6 barrel or bottle or can equivalent, for judging and each session. The judging that consists of judges from around the world takes place during the morning and afternoon of the first day of the festival. Then once the judging is completed in time for the kickoff of FoBAB, the beer list is revealed to the public on the FoBAB website.

Since the festival is held in the Midwest, many of the participating breweries were from this area. It is the Midwest breweries that started the barrel-aging movement and these breweries continue to commit to the process.

This is great for attendees like us from afar to sample beers from breweries we normally not available to us. And it wasn’t just our group that traveled to Chicago as festival organizers stated that 35% of FoBAB attendees this year are traveling to Chicago from out of state. Entry was just $85 and includes all samples during each session. Yes, quite the value when compared to other festivals closer to home in the Pacific Northwest!

But it wasn’t only Midwest breweries that attended as a few from the Pacific Northwest did show up. It was slimmer than past years with 10 Barrel Brewing not participating after laying off its innovation staff. Last year alone, 10 Barrel took home three awards from a possible 36 for a fantastic showing.

This year the roster of Pacific Northwest breweries was to include Breakside Brewery, pFriem Family Brewers, Fremont Brewing, and Reuben’s Brews. Unfortunately, the two Washington breweries festival beers did not arrive in time for the competition and festival.

With only two Pacific Northwest breweries in the competition this year, it was nice to see that Breakside Brewery received an award. The brewer was awarded 1st Place for its Somebody New In The Old West in the Strong Porter & Stout category. This category has been dominated by Midwest based brewers in the past so a great showing from Breakside Brewery was nice to see!

But it is not only barrel-aged beer being served at FoBAB. Both the Lager Lounge that featured lagers from around 20 breweries made a return as did the Super-Zero Lounge. Hosted by Revolution Brewing, the Super-Zero Lounge provided attendees plenty of cans of the brewery’s great tasting Super Zero Sparkling Hop Water. This was much appreciated.

Here is the list of winners from the 2024 Festival of Wood & Barrel-Aged Beer from all 13 categories, Best of Show and the newly created Fan Favorite.

2024 Festival of Wood and Barrel Aged Beer Award Winners:

STRONG PORTER & STOUT

1. BREAKSIDE BREWERY & TAPROOM – Somebody New In The Old West
2. WHITE OAK BREWING – Into The Thick Of It
3. FIRESTONE WALKER – Paramburana

SPECIALTY STRONG PORTER & STOUT

1. CAHABA BREWING COMPANY – Romulus
2. OLD IRVING BREWING COMPANY – Champurrado Krampus
3. HALF ACRE BEER CO. – Benthic 2 x 4

BARLEY WINE & WHEATWINE

1. VERBOTEN BREWING (FORT COLLINS) – Double Oaked Cognac Grow Old With You
2. KROS STRAIN BREWING – Barrelywine Vol. 12 Single Barrel
3. BROTHERSHIP BREWING – Noble Cask

BLENDED BEER

1. THE LOST ABBEY – Serpent’s Kiss Imperial Stout For The Rare Beer Club 30th Anniversary
2. THIRD EYE BREWING COMPANY – Barrel-Aged Private Consciousness
3. VERBOTEN BREWING AND BARREL PROJECT – Grow In Darkness

OTHER PALE BEER

1. BUBBLEHOUSE BREWING COMPANY – That Escalated Swiftly
2. FORBIDDEN ROOT – Well Positioned – Oak Aged Saison
3. SKETCHBOOK BREWING CO. (SKOKIE IL) – Tripel G – Belgian Style Tripel

LAGERS

1. ELMHURST BREWING COMPANY – BA Elevator
2. KROS STRAIN BREWING – Barrel-Aged Czech Dark Lager
3. SOLEMN OATH BREWERY – Foederface 

OTHER DARK BEER

1. HALF ACRE BEER CO. – Orin
2. LOOSE ENDS BREWING – NPN – Applejack Brandy Barrel Aged
3. SUN KING BREWERY – Diddy Muckle

FRUIT BEER

1. REVOLUTION BREWING – Cherry V.S.O.J.
2. SUN KING BREWERY – Soul Shakedown Party
3. CRUZ BLANCA BREWERY – La Locura

SPECIALTY & EXPERIMENTAL BEER

1. BLACK HORIZON BREWING – From Earth To You
2. G5 BREWING COMPANY – Eternal Burning
3. CRUZ BLANCA BREWERY – Tepache Cowboy

WILD BEER BRETT

1. OFF COLOR BREWING – Funky Beer For Tacos
2. BENCHTOP BREWING COMPANY – Baby
3. BOULEVARD BREWING COMPANY – Foeder 7

WILD BEER MIXED CULTURE/ ACIDIC

1. MILIEU FERMENTATION COMPANY – SMOL.
2. IKE & OAK BREWING CO – Cutbow
3. IMPERIAL OAK BREWING BROOKFIELD – Blanc

WILD BEER MIXED CULTURE / ACIDIC + FRUIT

1. PRYES BREWING COMPANY – Idyll Forest: 2024 Soirée
2. FIRESTONE WALKER BREWING COMPANY – Primal Elements With Pink Guava And Pineapple
3. LUPULIN BREWING COMPANY – Star Damage – Calamansi & Sabro

CIDER PERRY & MEAD

1. MISBEHAVIN’ MEADS – Clint’s Apple Pie
2. MISBEHAVIN’ MEADS – Stake In The Tart
3. RIGHT BEE CIDER – Barrel-Aged Clementine

BEST OF SHOW – WINNER
HALF ACRE BEER CO. – CHICAGO, IL
Orin – Other Dark Beer

BEST OF SHOW – RUNNER UP
BLACK HORIZON BREWING – WILLOWBROOK, IL
From Earth To You – Specialty & Experimental Beer

FAN FAVORITE
NEURONOVA BREWING – CHICAGO, IL
1 Ceres – Strong Porter & Stout

If you missed or want to watch the awards ceremony from the 2024 Festival of Wood & Barrel Aged Beer, you can do so in the video below.

To learn more about FoBAB visit fobab.com or follow the festival on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.