4 Tastings, Rare Beers & Much More

Telluride Blues & Brews Festival first started in 1994 as the “Telluride Brewers Festival” with 18 breweries showcasing their best suds on Main Street in Telluride. Fast forward 30 years later and the festival has grown to feature a variety of delicious craft beer.

Remaining true to the festival’s roots, the Brewers Showcase experience provides attendees with opportunities to interact directly with breweries and sample rare, new and classic beer offerings while supporting local, regional and national craftsmanship in the craft beer industry.

The Brewers Showcase is a multi-faceted experience with events spanning the entire festival weekend. The Showcase will host five intimate tasting sessions with 23 breweries pouring unlimited samples for attendees and a special tasting tent by the Colorado Brewers Guild serving the best in Colorado craft beer from select breweries that can’t attend the event. To top it all off, the Showcase will kick off with a multi-course beer pairing dinner that will strategically pair modern mountain dishes with special craft beer.

Sierra Nevada Brewing Company will return as the long-standing craft beer partner to the Telluride Blues & Brews Festival. Throughout the event, Sierra Nevada will pour many of their classic styles along with six rare, specialty beers and a unique "festival-only" flavor.

Tasting Sessions

Tasting Sessions

Presented by the Telluride Blues Society

The Brewers Showcase will feature four tasting sessions in a new Beer Garden on the festival grounds located in between the Main Stage and the Blues Stage. These sessions will host fewer attendees and breweries than the traditional Grand Tasting, providing attendees with the opportunity to interact with the brewers on a more intimate level than in years past.

Two of the sessions will be held on Friday afternoon and two on Saturday afternoon. Four of the sessions will offer attendees a tasting experience with 23 breweries pouring over 60 styles of craft beer. The sessions will also feature a special tasting tent by the Colorado Brewers Guild serving the best in Colorado craft beer from select breweries that can’t attend the event. Each session will run for two hours in length.

The late Saturday session will feature 30 or more special, high ABV, barrel-aged, rare, wild and non-traditional craft beers. This session will also run for two hours in length.

  • Friday, September 13 from 1 - 3 pm

  • Friday, September 13 from 4 - 6 pm

  • Saturday, September 14 from 1 - 3 pm

  • Saturday, September 14 from 4 - 6 pm

Tasting sessions participants must be 21+ in age and must have an accompanying primary entry festival pass (Single-Day Festival Pass or 3-Day Festival Pass).

2023 Pour List

2024 Pour List will be announced in Summer 2024

Sierra Nevada Brewing Company

  • Regular Tasting Sessions - Hazy Little Thing, Strainge Beast Hard Kombucha Mimosa, Torpedo IPA, Pale Ale
  • High ABV Session - Big Little Thing IIPA

Ska Brewing Company

  • Regular Tasting Sessions - Mexican Style IPA, Lager, Oktoberfest
  • High ABV Session - Nefarious Barrel Aged Imperial Stout, Double Modus Hoperandi

Telluride Brewing Company

  • Regular Tasting Sessions - Cold Feet Cold IPA, Russell Kelly IPA, Suero Lime Pilsner
  • High ABV Session - Fishwater DIPA, Batch 1000, Sleeper Pow Day Burbon Barel Aged Stout

Firestone Walker Brewing Co

  • Regular Tasting Sessions - 805 Cerveza, 805, Mind Haze, Cali Sqeeze Blood Orange
  • High ABV Session - Parabola

Odell Brewing Company

  • Regular Tasting Sessions - Hazer Tag, Big Sippin', Oktoerfest,
  • High ABV Session - Friek

4 Noses Brewing Company

  • Regular Tasting Sessions - Rio Lento, Pumpaction Pumpkin Ale, Noice, Emphatic IPA, Peachopotomus Ale, Michelada Picante
  • High ABV Session - Dear Dahlia 3X IPA, Wild Provisions Metes and Bounds Wild Ale

Aspen Brewing Co.

  • Regular Tasting Sessions - Ajax Pilsner, Cloud Nine Saison, This Season's Blonde, Gold Level Dry Hop Lager, Independence Pass IPA, Excess In Moderation IPA
  • High ABV Session - 10th Mountain Coconut Imperial Stout, Cloud Nine Saison

Carver Brewing Company

  • Regular Tasting Sessions - Lightner Creek Lager, Her Majesty (blueberry and lemon sour, Yankee Boy New England IPA
  • High ABV Session - Big Bike Double IPA

Crooked Stave

  • Regular Tasting Sessions - Sour Rose, NZ Pilsner, Juicy East
  • High ABV Session - Camera Obscura BBA Stout

Guanella Pass Brewery

  • Regular Tasting Sessions - Shmoke and a Pretzel - Cherrywood Smoked Marzen,Hawt Mama - Jalapeno Raspberry Blonde, Georgetown Jack-O, Pumpkin Ale,
  • High ABV Session - Two Teef - 2023 Silver Medal Winning Kentucky Common

High Trestle Brewing Co.

  • Regular Tasting Sessions - Durango Dark Lager (a dark lager), Colorfest (our Autumn seasonal – Marzen style), Hop Hugger IPA (a west coast IPA)
  • High ABV Session - Derail Ale (an Imperial Golden Ale)

Grand Canyon Brewing Co

  • Prickly Pear IPA
  • Sunset Amber Ale
  • American Pilsner

Horse & Dragon Brewing Company

  • Regular Tasting Sessions - New England Style IPA, Off-Script - Pilsner, Neko — Yuzu & Red Chili Blonde Rice Ale
  • High ABV Session - Malice and Darkness Barrel Aged Russian Imperial Stout

Jagged Mountain Brewing

  • Regular Tasting Sessions - Four Pass - Pilsner, Let’s Go Girls - Dry Hopped Pale Ale, Wolfpack - Hazy IPA, Grouse Mountain - Blood Orange Gose
  • High ABV Session - Double Vision - Hazy Double IPA

Oskar Blues Brewery

  • Regular Tasting Sessions - Dales Pale Ale, Dales Light Lager, Hazy Blues
  • High ABV Session - Double Dales Pale Ale

Melvin Brewing Company

  • Regular Tasting Sessions - • Miss Defy Kolsch, Killer Bees, Melvin IPA
  • High ABV Session - Back in the Haze Hazy IPA

Palisade Brewing Company

  • Regular Tasting Sessions - Let it Grow IPA, Mexican Lager, Pilsner
  • High ABV Session - Imperial Stout, imperial Porter

Roadhouse Brewing

  • Regular Tasting Sessions - Phlow, HighwayMan, Mountain Jam
  • High ABV Session - Walrus Hazy IPA

Smugglers Brew Pub

  • Regular Tasting Sessions - Palmyra Pils, Chanterelle Ale - Belgian Golden, Citra - West Coast IPA, Oktoberfest, Chilly Goat - Wet Hopped Cold IPA, Pumpkin Plunge - Spiced Belgian
  • High ABV Session - Simcoe - DIPA, Farewell Spaceman - Dessert Stout

Stronghouse Brewpub

  • Regular Tasting Sessions - Leaf-Peeper Lager Oktoberfest, Coconut Porter, ColdFire Pale
  • High ABV Session - Wet Hop Dream Fresh hop

Athletic Brewing Co.

  • Regular Tasting Sessions - Upside Dawn Golden Ale, Free Wave Hazy IPA, Run Wild IPA

Big B's Hard Cider

  • Regular Tasting Sessions - Peach Pickin Time, Orchard Original, Cherry Daze, Lazy Daze, Harvest Apple, Sangria Spritz
  • High ABV Session - Tepache Fuerte (Spiced Pineapple)

Strainge Beast Hard Kombucha

  • Regular Tasting Sessions - Mimosa

White Claw

  • Regular Tasting Sessions - Black Cherry Hard Seltzer, Mango Hard Seltzer, Vodka + Soda Peach, Vodka + Soda Pineapple
Best of Colorado

Best of Colorado

A partnership with the Colorado Brewers Guild! Stay Tuned For 2024 InfO!

2023 Collaboration

The Telluride Blues & Brews Festival is excited to partner with the Colorado Brewers Guild for another year! The Colorado Brewers Guild (CBG) is a nonprofit trade association with the mission to promote, protect, and propel independent craft breweries in the State of Craft Beer (Colorado) through advocacy, community, education, and public awareness. The majority of the state’s 400+ licensed breweries are members.

New for this year, the Colorado Brews Guild will join attending breweries to showcase fresh hop beers with local hops from Montrose based Billy Goat Hop Farm, Oktoberfest style beers and more during the Brewer Showcase Tasting Sessions. Stop by the Colorado Brewers Guild Tent to meet folks from the guild and to try some craft beers that represent some of the state’s best breweries not in attendance at the event.

FRIDAY TASTING SESSIONS 1 & 2

Fresh Side Story | Base Camp Brewing & Ramblebine Brewing - A fresh take on a classic Cold IPA style. Utilizing Billy Goat Hops Farm Cascade & Chinook Hops, fermented on a lager yeast, and cold dry hopped.

Fresh Hop IPA | 6 and 40 Brewery - 10lbs of wet hops Chinook and Multihead hops from Billy Goat Hop Farm went into creating this Fresh Hop IPA.

Oktoberfest | WestFax Brewing Co - Rich in malt with a balance of clean, hop bitterness, this collaboration was brewed by the entire WestFax staff.

Oktoberfest | Odyssey Beerwerks - Märzen, a traditional German-style amber lager with slight toasted malt sweetness and a dry, crisp finish.

SATURDAY TASTING SESSION 1 & SUNDAY TASTING SESSION 1

Heather’s Ale | Strange Craft Beer Company - This Fresh Hop American IPA 75# of fresh Cascade hops from Billy Goat Farms are used in this fresh-hopped version IPAphany. Celebrating and named after our friend Heather Clarke who passed Sept 2014 from breast cancer.

Oktoberfest | Crystal Springs Brewing Company - This German-Style beer is balanced and well-attenuated. It is slightly bitter yet still malty, clean, smooth, and very drinkable.

Union Maid Oktoberfest | OCC Brewing - Classic Oktoberfest Märzen with bready malt notes, finishing dry with a hint of melanoidins.

SATURDAY TASTING SESSION 2

Méthode Traditionnelle Spontaneous Beer | Primitive Beer - Multihead is an indigenous variety of hops to New Mexico and Colorado. We're cold steeping these hops from Billy Goat Farms in 2-year mature spontaneous beer (also all ingredients grown in Colorado).

Sierra Nevada

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co

Official Craft Beer Partner

Sierra Nevada Brewing Company will return as the long-standing craft beer partner to the Telluride Blues & Brews Festival. Be sure to check out their classic styles including the iconic Pale Ale and the award-winning Hazy Little Thing IPA all weekend, along with six rare, specialty beers and a unique "festival-only" flavor in a special High Altitude Lounge bar in addition to exclusive styles at the Tasting Sessions, House of Brews and High Altitude Craft Beer Lounge!


2023 Beer Styles

Scapegoat Blonde Ale

Festival Exclusive! Brewed with hops from Montrose, CO! ABV: 4.5%

Brewed in collaboration with the 2023 Cascade Cup winning Billy Goat Hop Farm in Montrose, CO, this Blonde Ale is crisp and clean with notable hop character thanks to Nugget, Cascade, Chinook, and Columbus hops. Flavors and aromas of pine and citrus balance notes of fresh-baked bread.

Hazy Little Thing IPA

ABV: 6.7% IBU: 40

This is hazy with modest bitterness and intense hop character. Making an unfiltered hop bomb may seem crazy, but to us, it’s a hazy little thing called IPA.

Sunny Little Thing - Citrus Wheat Ale

ABV: 5% IBU: 10

Bask in the sunny little thing, a wheat ale made with citrus for radiant flavor that’s bold yet easy going, and balanced by a soft and smooth finish.

Pale Ale

ABV: 5.6% IBU: 38

Pale Ale’s unique piney and grapefruit aromas from the use of whole-cone American hops have fascinated beer drinkers for decades.

Wild Little Thing - Slightly Sour Ale

5.5% ABV IBUs: 7

This slightly sour Wild Little Thing has just the right smack of tartness for serious refreshment, while guava, hibiscus and strawberry lend fruity-sweet depth and a bright pop of color.

JUICY LITTLE THING - HAZY IPA

6.5% ABV IBU: 35

Jammed with dry hops, Juicy Little Thing uses a specialized yeast to enhance the fruity notes of guava, mango and grapefruit, while also refining the smooth mouthfeel that helps boost the juice!

OKTOBERFEST - COLLABORATION FESTBIER

ABV 6% IBU: 30

This collab is 20 years in the making, back when our brewmasters were classmates in Berlin. Today, Kehrwieder is turning German craft beer on its head — just like we did stateside — and our mutual passion is fused in this Festbier that’s bright like polished copper, rich with biscuity malt, and balanced by a punchy blend of German and American hops.

CRISP LITTLE THING - EASY DRINKING LAGER

ABV 4.7% IBU: 18

Crisp Little Thing is a crusher, combining premium malts and laid-back hops for unreal balance and pure refreshment in every crisp, clean sip. It’s lowkey complex — a dash of sweetness, a flash of citrus — for irresistible flavor that’s easy-drinking above all else.

High Altitude Craft Beer Lounge

Rare Beer Offerings

During the festival Sierra Nevada will unveil rare and sought after craft beers. Many of these beers are only available at the brewery, special events or have spent time aging deep in the brewery’s vaults.

Listen up, this year’s selection of rare beers will be unveiled from the stage in between sets each day of the festival. Once each keg is tapped, the specialty beer will be available until it’s out, don’t miss out!

2023 RARE BEER LIST

  • Who Run Bartertown? IPA - A master blast of hop intensity. Stone fruit, berry, and citrus. From a powerful blend of concentrated hops, whose ponds-per-barrel equivalent is downright mad.

  • Otra Vez Lime & Agave Gose - We combined the classic flavors of lime and blue agave nectar in a tart gose-style ale for the ultimate answer to the heavy heat of the day. The bright lime flavor helps wake up the palate while the mild sweetness of the agave rounds out the tangy zip of the citrus fruit. Light and refreshing, this all-new Otra Vez will have you calling for another round.

  • Scotch Ale - This Scotch Ale is deep red in color possessing a strong malt flavor with a very light hop character.

  • Atomic Torpedo - This imperial hop collision fuses West Coast and Juicy IPAs, unleashing atomic flavors of lush fruit, citrus, and sticky pine. First released as a DIPA, we kicked Atomic Torpedo up from 8.2% to 9.2% ABV for bigger and bolder Imperial IPA intensity. Brace your taste buds: Damn the Torpedoes, Full Hops Ahead!

  • Narwhal Imperial Stout - Aggressive but refined, our Narwhal is a malty monster of a beer. Like the sea herself, it can’t be tamed; 10.2% ABV commands reverence. Boasting a velvety smooth body and a decadent finish, Narwhal is rich with notes of espresso, baker’s cocoa, roasted grain, and a hint of smoke. Dive into the darkness.

House Of Brews

House of Brews

Try One Or Try Them All

The House of Brews Bar is located on the North side of the festival grounds, adjacent to the Merch Store and Main Entrance.

The House Of Brews Bar returns this year with local, regional and national breweries showcasing their best suds. Located in the Main Festival grounds the House of brews gives attendees a chance to enjoy a variety of beers while catching all of the action on the Main Stage.

This year’s House Of Brews features a rotating list of styles from Sierra Nevada Brewing Company and 19 other breweries throughout the festival, with up to 10 styles available for purchase each day. With a focus on variety, each beer style will only be featured once throughout the festival and available in limited quantities. Featuring Classic IPAs, easy drinking lagers and so much more there’s plenty of beer styles to enjoy at the House of Brews Bar.

2023 Menu

2024 Menu will be announced in Summer 2024

Sierra Nevada Brewing Company

  • Pale Ale
  • Oktoberfest
  • Hazy Little Thing
  • Wild Little Thing

Ska Brewing Company

  • Hazy IPA
  • Mesa Guava IPA
  • Durango Blues Train Pilsner

Telluride Brewing Company

  • coming soon

Firestone Walker Brewing Co

  • 805 Cerveza
  • 805

Odell Brewing Company

  • Lagerado Lager
  • Oktoberfest
  • Drum Roll Hazy Pale Ale

4 Noses Brewing Company

  • Bout Damn Time IPA
  • Perfect Drift Pilsner
  • Mountain Wave American Pale Ale

Aspen Brewing Co.

  • Ajax Pilsner

Carver Brewing Company

  • Lightner Creek Lager

Crooked Stave

  • Sour Rosé

Fiction Brewing Company

  • Off-Script - Pilsner

Grand Canyon Brewing Co

  • Prickly Pear Wheat Ale

Horse & Dragon Brewing Company

  • Silver Lion Czech-style Pilsner

Oskar Blues Brewery

  • Oskar’s Lager American Lager

Melvin Brewing Company

  • Pilsgnar Pilsner

Palisade Brewing Company

  • Dirty Hippie Dark Wheat Ale

Roadhouse Brewing

  • Highwayman Pilsner

Sanitas Brewing

  • Bandito Mexican Lager

Station 26 Brewing

  • 303 Lager
Beer Dinner

Beer Pairing Dinner

Presented by the Madeline Hotel & Residences, Auberge Resorts Collection

The Brewers Showcase kicks off in spectacular fashion on Thursday, September 12 with a decadent beer pairing dinner at Black Iron Kitchen + Bar at Madeline Hotel & Residences, an Auberge Resort. 

This exciting culinary evening will feature a delicious five-course meal thoughtfully paired with craft beers from five craft breweries The event will also feature live music and an art gallery.

Attending Breweries

Attending Breweries


2023 Attending Breweries