The fifth annual Buffalo Brewers Festival, which takes place on June 23 (4-7p) at Canalside, will feature over 20 local Buffalo & WNY breweries, making for a tap list of well over 50 beers in total. That is a lot of beer to navigate through, so I wanted to try and make things a little easier on everyone by highlighting four different breweries and each beer they are planning to bring (subject to change) each week leading up until the big dance.

So make sure you check back weekly before June 23 to see what breweries you cannot afford to miss and what must-drink beers you need to grab.

Flying Bison Brewing

Erie County Fair American Pale Ale: The Erie County Fair’s first homebrew contest winner brewed with Centennial, Citra, Amarillo & Simcoe hops and dry-hopped with Mosaic & Centennial. Enjoyed this the first time around and am looking forward to it again. One of my must-drink beers.

Larkin Lager: A light golden Munich Helles lager. Clean, crisp, and refreshing take on a classic style. One of my all-time favorite Buffalo beers. So simple, yet so great. You’ll find me in line on multiple occasions for this.

Bisonberry Kolsch: Golden ale with a pinkish hue and berry aroma from blueberry puree & blackberry concentrate. One word – refreshing.

Big Ditch Brewing

FC (Fantastically Crushable) Session Wheat IPA: An extremely light and crisp summer beer, hopped with Simcoe, Amarillo, and Citra hops. A perennial favorite beer of mine when the weather turns warmer.

Beautiful River Belgian River Saison: A refreshing Belgian-style saison featuring floral, pear, and pepper notes.

Hayburner IPA: A citrusy IPA with primary notes of orange, melon and grapefruit, and a slightly earthy finish. It wouldn’t be a Buffalo beer festival without at least one pour of this. But I’m fairly sure I didn’t need to tell you that.

Steelbound Brewery

EVL DIPA Double IPA: Double dry-hopped with Simcoe, Citra, and Michigan Copper for flavors of berry, pine and mango. If you ask me, this festival needs as many DIPA’s as possible. Look for me in line multiple times for this beer.

Udderly Insane Pale Ale: Slightly sweet, creamy, light citrus, brewed with oats and lactose. You had me at lactose. I’ll see you in line.

Heff Another One Hefeweizen: Hints of citrus, banana and spice, dry-hopped with Citra. A hefe dry-hopped with Citra sounds intriguing. I won’t be missing this.

Nutty Blond Blond Ale: Bright, refreshing and lightly sweet. I love blondes, so a cold, fresh blonde ale on the waterfront sounds awesome to me.

Windy Brew

Wild Mango Pale Ale: Aromas of wild mangos with notes of vibrant, fresh mangoes that hit you at the end. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, this sounds damn refreshing.

Dim Lager IPL: An India Pale Lager with a wonderful hop aroma with fresh pine and grapefruit flavors, and a bitter sweet finish. The only IPA at the Brewers Fest, so don’t miss this.

Wild Raspberry Farmhouse Saison: Windy Brew’s farmhouse saison and added fresh raspberries giving you a refreshing taste of summer. Pretty sure that description says it all.

In addition to an all WNY brewery lineup, the Buffalo Brewers Fest will have a number of special features, including local food vendors and food trucks, local ciders, meads, and a Farm to Pint tent highlighting brews made with 100 percent local ingredients. The festival will also feature a special summer brew that each brewery will make their own version of – this year is saison.

Don’t drink and drive! Let Lyft do all of the driving for you, so all you need to focus on is having fun and celebrating all things Buffalo on the waterfront. New users can download the Lyft app and use the code ‘BNBA’ to receive special discounts off your first few rides.

Tickets can be purchased at BuffaloBrewersFestival.com and Ticketfly as well as at all 17 Consumer’s Beverages locations. For more information, please visit, https://www.facebook.com/events/992859620880355.

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Brian Campbell is a co-founder/Brand Manager of the BNBA’s enthusiast arm, 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 buffalobeerleague@aol.com, on Twitter (@buffbeerleague), Instagram (@buffalobeerleague), Facebook (@thebuffalobeerleague) and www.buffalobeerleague.com.