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Despite much news to the contrary, the beer festival as we know it is not dead. While your mom and pop fest featuring a couple local breweries\u2019 standard pours is indeed not doing well in the current climate, there is still room for a top notch festival featuring the best breweries and their best beers to thrive. To that latter end, the 2025 WeldWerks Invitational Festival<\/a> was a roaring success.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Kristin Popcheff, Director of Experience for WeldWerks, reiterated how well the festival went. \u201cAfter a three year hiatus, our team was extremely eager to welcome back our brewery friends and guests to share in the WeldWerks Invitational Festival experience! It was extremely humbling to see people coming from literally all over the world to experience our Invitational Festival, and we were thrilled to see how engaged and enthusiastic everyone was to be in Greeley.\u201d Those brewing compatriots totaled 45 who poured over 130 beers during the festival\u2019s two sessions.<\/p>\n This year\u2019s festival iteration moved from June to February, a potentially fraught decision considering the unpredictability of winter in Colorado and the event\u2019s occurrence on Super Bowl weekend. Despite this, more tickets were sold compared to 2022 with Session 1 selling out and Session 2 nearly doing so. All in, just shy of 1,200 tickets were sold for both sessions combined. While 600 attendees per session seems like a lot to fit in a DoubleTree ballroom, the festival never felt overly crowded. Some of the most hype breweries and beers occasionally had long lines, but there were always less crowded booths and empty areas to be found.<\/span><\/p>\n PorchDrinking set out to try as many beers as possible at the festival, but time and reasonable sobriety constraints naturally limited our intake. Of what we did sample, these are some of our favorite pours, listed in rough order from lightest to heaviest.<\/span><\/p>\n A pleasant surprise, this Czech Lager from Montreal, Canada was very true to style, accentuated by a lovely breadiness.<\/span><\/p>\n This collab with <\/span>Other Half<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Highland Park<\/span><\/a>, and <\/span>Breakside<\/span><\/a> nailed the sweet spot of low ABV and big hop punch.<\/span><\/p>\n Amalgam\u2019s first ever New Zealand Pils highlighted their ability to blend easy drinking Lagers with a bold hop profile.<\/span><\/p>\n Using malt from <\/span>Troubadour Maltings<\/span><\/a> that featured a new wood variety, this Smoked Czech Lager hit on the campfire sensation from initial sniff all the way through multiple tastings while still maintaining Cohesion\u2019s legendary drinkability.<\/span><\/p>\n A surprise collab drop with Casey<\/a> had a long line forming, and patient patrons were rewarded with a lovely Saison balancing stone fruit funk with strong tartness.<\/span><\/p>\n These San Diego masters unleashed the Double Dry Hopped version of their flagship IPA, packing even more juicy hop goodness into an already great West Coast IPA.<\/span><\/p>\n The legend made its 2025 Colorado debut at the WeldWerks Invitational and appropriately garnered one of the longest lines of the day. Long live the OG king of Triple West Coast IPAs.<\/span><\/p>\n This 16.9% double barrel aged Barleywine packed a figgy oaky caramel punch capped off with spirit forward assertiveness.<\/span><\/p>\n Beers are always extra sexy when poured from a magnum, and this Florida big boy was no exception.<\/span><\/p>\n Voodoo brought the heat with this 50 month bourbon BA Stout that oozed with barrel character.<\/span><\/p>\n This collab used <\/span>North Park<\/span><\/a>\u2019s adjunct blend to lend further depth to the base Medianoche, creating a decadent liquid Mounds bar.<\/span><\/p>\n There were so many incredible hype BA Stouts that we could not narrow them down. In no particular order, all these were world class beers PorchDrinking could have written separate articles on. There was <\/span>Toppling Goliath Brewing<\/b><\/a> Assassin with Coconut, Pecan and Vanilla<\/b>, <\/span>Side Project Brewing<\/b><\/a> 11 Candles<\/b>, <\/span>Xul Beer<\/b><\/a> Double Barrel Das Cake<\/b>, <\/span>Phase Three Brewing<\/b><\/a> Eunoia 18<\/b>, and <\/span>Mortalis Brewing<\/b><\/a> Thanatos<\/b>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Last but not least, perhaps the most unique beer we tried was this gluten free dessert beer aged in rum barrels and then conditioned on cream soda, butterscotch, and vanilla soft serve. A flavor explosion that narrowly avoided being overly sweet, this beer truly lacks classification.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\n![\"CohesionWIF\"](\"https:\/\/www.porchdrinking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/DSCF0258.jpg\")
Messorem Bracitorium<\/b><\/a> La Mort Premium<\/b><\/h3>\n
Pinthouse Pizza<\/b><\/a> Buddy\u2019s Lager<\/b><\/h3>\n
Amalgam Brewing<\/b><\/a> Uncharted Paths<\/b><\/h3>\n
Cohesion Brewing<\/b><\/a> Naku\u0159ovan\u00e9<\/b><\/h3>\n
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Phase Three Brewing<\/b><\/a> Apres: Peach<\/b><\/h3>\n
North Park Beer<\/b><\/a> DDH Hop-Fu<\/b><\/h3>\n
Russian River Brewing<\/b><\/a> Pliny the Younger<\/b><\/h3>\n
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Mikerphone Brewing<\/b><\/a> Yakety Yak Barleywine<\/b><\/h3>\n
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3 Sons Brewing<\/b><\/a> Double Barrel SXXXY Select Barleywine<\/b><\/h3>\n
Voodoo Brewing<\/b><\/a> Dolk<\/b><\/h3>\n
![\"Voodoo](\"https:\/\/www.porchdrinking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/DSCF0285.jpg\")
WeldWerks Brewing<\/b><\/a> Macaroon Medianoche<\/b><\/h3>\n
Barrel Aged Stouts<\/h3>\n
Corporate Ladder Brewing<\/b><\/a> Dessert Station: Rum BA Butter Beer<\/b><\/h3>\n