A uncommon opportunity to try beers from far, far away alongside beers from beloved local brewers
LAGERHEAD Brew Fest is just a couple weeks away. The event will feature beers from beloved Northwest breweries, but that aint all! With beers from nearly 50 local and not-at-all-local breweries, LAGERHEAD provides a singular chance to add some new stuff to any beer hunter’s life list. The second-annual event occurs in Snoqualmie, Washington, on Saturday, July 19th, at No Boat Brewing in an extended beer garden and within the brewery. (Tickets and info here.)
Some of the breweries rarely ship beer to Washington. Others have never shipped beer to Washington. Breweries like Pennsylvania’s Human Robot Beer, North Carolina’s Burial Beer, California’s Highland Park Brewery, Florida’s REVE Brewing, and many others. Some of the breweries have notable pedigrees. For example, Highland Park Brewing earned a Brewer of the Year title at the 2024 Great American Beer Festival. See the list of breweries below.
The event is a fundraiser for Washington Wild, with many of the beers coming from breweries that are members of the Washington Brewshed® Alliance. Washington Wild is a nonprofit organization that works to protect the state’s wild lands and rivers. The Washington Brewshed Alliance, the beer focused arm of Washington Wild, is a group of nearly 100 breweries and beer industry partners that celebrate the relationship between great water and great beer.
One of the big draws to LAGERHEAD Beer Fest is the chance to try beers from breweries you do not often, or ever, see around here. In all, LAGERHEAD will offer beers from 20 out-of-state and ultra-rare breweries.
“While we want to always feature and prioritize the incredible work of our Washington State breweries at LAGERHEAD, one area we’re especially excited about is the growth of breweries pouring from out of state,” said David Skiba, one of the event organizers and owner of No Boat Brewing. “This year, LAGERHEAD will feature over twenty breweries from states including Oregon, California, Colorado, Arizona, Florida, and Pennsylvania.”
“For many of these breweries, this festival will represent their first time ever being poured in Washington State. As we continue to organically grow this festival, we have a goal of creating an event that draws beer (and wine) fans from across the country to try all the fantastic producers on-hand and support Washington Wild’s incredible cause.”
Participating Breweries
The list below is divided into two sections. First, the rare, out-of-state breweries. Many of these breweries have never shipped beer to Washington and may never do it again. I provide a bit of information about each of those breweries. Below that, the complete list of all breweries pouring at LAGERHEAD Beer Fest.
- WiseAcre Brewing (Memphis, TN) – “Y’all ain’t from around here, are ya?” This award-winning brewery specializes in light lagers. Apparently, the water from the Memphis Sands Aquifer is especially well suited for brewing this kind of beer. Just one year after opening, WiseAcre’s Tiny Bomb American Pilsner earned a Bronze Medal at the 2014 Great American Beer Festival (GABF). According to the brewery, that beer is now the fourth best-selling craft pilsner nationwide. More recently, in 2024, WiseAcre’s Sky Dog Premium Lager struck gold at the GABF.
- Burial Beer Co (Asheville, NC) – It was probably sometime in 2011 that Tim and Doug told me they were moving away from Seattle to open a brewery. Who does that? People move to Seattle to open breweries, not the other way around. But shortly thereafter Jess, Doug, and Tim opened a brewery in Asheville, North Carolina. The brewery has earned a ton of recognition for the quality of its beers, but even more profound is how immediately its roots burrowed so deeply into the soil of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The work Burial Beer Co did supporting its neighbors in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene is inspiring stuff. These are good, good people making good, good beer. Can’t wait to see what they bring for us.
- Highland Park Brewery (Los Angeles) – At the 2024 Great American Beer Festival, this brewery earned four medals and took home a Brewer of the Year title. Do you need to know more? One of those medals was a gold medal in the American-Style India Pale Ale category, one of the most hotly contested categories out there. More important to this conversation, Highland won gold in the Contemporary American-Style Lager category.
- Human Robot Brewery (Philadelphia) – This Philadelphia-based brewery, is known for its focus on lagers and its innovative use of Czech-style Lukr faucets. These side-pull taps have become quite popular, but Human Robot used them before most American knew what they were. When it opened in 2020, it planned to specialize in IPAs, but the brewery quickly refocused on lagers, recognizing how quickly lager-style beers were gaining popularity.
- North Park Beer Co (San Diego) – Earning a reputation as a kickass brewery in kickass beer town isn’t easy. In 2022, North Park Beer Co earned four medals at the GABF and took home Brewery of the Year honors. Like many San Diego breweries, it’s widely recognized for its IPA prowess, but rest assured North Park does much more.
- Our Mutual Friend Brewing (Denver) – Among its many accolades, this power-packed little brewery has earned eight medals at the GABF. Many of its award-winning beers are of the mixed-culture and/or bret beer variety. It will be interesting to see what Our Mutual Friend will bring to Lagerheads Beer Fest.
- REVE Brewing (Atlantic Beach, FL) – I don’t know anything about this brewery, but it is almost exactly 3,000 miles away from Seattle. That’s about 45 hours of drive time. Seems easier to just try the beer at Lagerheads Beer Fest.
- Roses by the Stairs Brewing (Phoenix) – Another brewery I know nothing about except that it is in Phoenix. What I know about Phoenix-area breweries (I used to spend a fair bit of time down there) is that few of them are actually in Phoenix. Most are in the smaller cities scattered around the valley. That does not provide any insight into what Roses by the Stairs Brewing is all about, but there it is.
- Seek Beer Co (San Diego) – Seek is one of multiple breweries that operate out of a shared space–an innovative program called the Brewery Igniter. What’s that? It’s a sort of incubator for would-be breweries. It helps fledgeling breweries overcome many of the challenges involved with starting a brewery–like the financing, the lease-signing, and so on–and allows them to focus on making beer and making a name for themselves. .
Complete List of Breweries
Most of these breweries are from Washington and Oregon. I’ve noted the ones that come from elsewhere.
- Bizarre Brewing
- Block 15 Brewing
- BreakThru Brewing
- Brujos Brewing
- Burgeon Beer
- Chuckanut Brewery
- Cloudburst Brewing
- Douglas Beer
- Dru Bru
- E9 Brewing
- Fair Isle Brewing
- Five Dollar Ranch Brewing
- Formula Brewing
- Fort George Brewing
- Gasworks Brewing
- Georgetown Brewing
- Gold Dot Beer
- Good Society Brewery
- Halcyon Brewing
- Heater Allen Brewing
- Here Today Brewing
- Highland Park Brewery (San Diego)
- Holy Mountain Brewing
- Human Robot Beer (Philadelphia)
- Ilk Lodge
- Ladd and Lass Brewing
- Larrabee Lager Co
- Living Haus Beer
- Lucky Envelope Brewing
- Metier Brewing
- No Boat Brewing
- North Park Beer Co (San Diego)
- Obelisk Beer Co
- Our Mutual Friend Brewing (Denver)
- pFriem Family Brewers
- Project 9 Brewing
- Ravenna Brewing
- REVEBrewing (Atlantic Beach, FL)
- Roses by the Stairs Brewing (Phoenix)
- Ruse Brewing
- Seapine Brewing
- Seek Beer Co (San Diego)
- Sig Brewing
- Single Hill Brewing
- Stoup Brewing
- Structures Brewing
- TapRoom Beer Co (San Diego)
- Trap Door Brewing
- Varietal Beer Co
- Whistle Punk Brewing
Visit our events page and calendar to learn about all sorts of other upcoming beer events. To submit an event for inclusion on our events calendar, use our event submission form. Got more details to share, reach out to us.
