The date has been set for the fifth annual CollaBEERation Festival – April 5, 2025. The event will return to the Powerhouse (140 Lee St, Buffalo), the festivals home for the past few years. This year’s theme is ‘Hollywood.’
Participating venues and ticket information will be announced at a later date.
If you don’t know, here’s the premise – the event features craft beer, cider and mead created by members of the Buffalo Beer Geeks community, who team up with over 50 Western New York craft venues to create one-off, small batch creations, many created exclusively for this event. They are involved in every step of the creative process.
Festival goers vote for their top collaborations, with the winners taking home the Buffalo Beer Geek Championship Belt. Noble Shepherd Craft Brewery, from Bloomfield, are the defending champions, having won the belt the last two years, for their Pistashio Pudding Sour in 2023 and Spanish Announce Table, a pineapple churro sour, in 2024.
“CollaBEERation was created to bring together local beer enthusiasts and local breweries to create one off beers, ciders and meads that you’ll never be able to taste anywhere besides the event,” event organizer Joe Yager from the Buffalo Beer Geeks said. “You will get unlimited 4oz. pours from over 40 Buffalo and Rochester breweries. We will also have many beer and non-beer related vendors for shopping and multiple food options. The event is at The Powerhouse in Buffalo, a beautiful spot with plenty of parking and space inside.”
There will also be food and craft beer vendors on hand.
Erik Coleman, proprietor of Beer By Coleman Beer Concierge, who is presenting the event, says CollaBEERation is an event by the brewing community that’s for the community.
“CollaBEERation is a unique festival because you have a chance come and taste some unique, one-off specialty beers that you can’t get anywhere else and aren’t out of tap yet, brewed exclusive for this event,” he said. “You also get a chance to meet the actual people who are brewing the beer. The people behind the taps are the brewers, the owners and the people who can tell the story of the brewing company, the meadery, the cidery, as well as the product that they are pouring for you.”
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Brian Campbell is co-founder and Brand Manager of the Buffalo Beer League, and writes the weekly Buffalo Beer Buzz column. If you have beer news that should be included in the Beer Buzz, Brian can be reached at brian@buffalobeerleague.com, on Twitter (@buffbeerleague), Instagram (@buffalobeerleague), and Facebook (@thebuffalobeerleague).
