The sixth annual CollaBEERation Festival, which will take place on April 25, 2026 at the Powerhouse (140 Lee St., Buffalo), has announced participating breweries, cideries and meaderies.

This year’s theme is video games.

“Put down your controllers, AFK from your PCs and GET OVER HERE to Western New York’s most unique beer festival,” festival organizers said. “Complete your mission and save the princess, all while sampling over 30 unique beers, meads & cider you’ll never taste anywhere else. Bring your gold coins to spend on food trucks, food and merch vendors, and vote on your favorite collab. It’s dangerous to go alone, so bring a friend. Whether you’re on level 6 or a n00b, come see who is the final boss of CollaBEERation 6.”

The event features craft beer, cider and mead created by members of the Buffalo Beer Geeks community, who will team up with more than 50 participating Western New York craft venues to create small batch beverages, many of which will be created exclusively for this event. They are involved in every step of the creative process, from recipe creation to brewing, and everything in-between.

Craft brewers include (more to be announced):

  • 1927 Brewhouse
  • 42 North Brewing
  • Bee Spit Meadery
  • Beer Kind Brewing
  • Big Ditch Brewing
  • Brazen Brewing
  • Brewery Ardennes
  • BriarBrothers Brewing
  • Bones and Barley Brew Co.
  • Buffalo Olde Brewing
  • Butera’s Village Brewhouse
  • Community Beer Works
  • Eli Fish Brewing
  • First Line Brewing
  • Frequentem Brewing
  • Hamburg Brewing
  • Lilly Belle Meads
  • Mortalis Brewing
  • Mystic Hills Brewing
  • New York Beer Project
  • Noble Shepherd Craft Brewery
  • Old First Ward Brewing
  • OSB Ciderworks
  • Pearl Street Brewery
  • Pod City Beer Labs
  • Queen City Meadery
  • Resurgence Brewing
  • Rising Storm Brewing
  • Shalooby Loofer Brewing
  • Southern Tier Brewing
  • South Wales Brewing
  • Steel Leaf Brewing

More breweries will be added, organizers said, and VIP breweries and an official pour will be available in the coming weeks and months.

After drinking their fill, festival goers vote for their top collaborations, with the winners taking home the Buffalo Beer Geek Championship Belt. In 2025, Frequentem Brewing and their Miami Vice Fruited Sour dethroned two-time defending champs, Bloomfield’s Noble Shepherd Craft Brewery, who  took home the crown for their Pistashio Pudding Sour in 2023 and Spanish Announce Table, a pineapple churro sour, in 2024. Frequentem will look to defend their title in 2026.

There will also be food and artisanal vendors on hand.

For more information, click here.

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, Threads and Untappd (@buffalobeerleague), and Facebook (@thebuffalobeerleague).