9 best beers I drank at the Great Taste of the Midwest 2025

USA Today

13 hours ago

Madison, Wisconsin -- A blue sky turned grey. The clouds opened up. At an outdoor beer festival hosting thousands, no one left.
A brief downpour may have kept people inside the open-sided tents at the Great Taste of the Midwest, but no one headed for the exit. The bands unlucky enough to be playing under trees -- in my case, a trio doing nothing but beer-themed Beatles parodies -- hastily waterproofed their equipment under plastic before grabbing their glasses and headed to drier, boozier ground. Half an hour later, when the sun once again shined on the Great Taste of the Midwest, it was like nothing had even happened.
That's the beauty of the Great Taste, a festival that celebrates beer as well as the prevailing notion that people united in their quest for it will be good to each other. There was no mad dash for cover when the storm rolled in, November Rain-style (why does that one guy dive through the cake? What problem did that solve??). Folks made space for their suddenly sopping brethren. Lines continued to move quickly, with polite recommendations, nods and an eye on the rest of the line. Folks got drunk, undoubtedly. They never got surly (unless, of course, they were hanging out by the massive outlay of tents run by Minnesota's Surly Brewing).
Maybe I haven't lived in the Midwest long enough to take this for granted. My New England roots suggest five hours of drinking a dense lineup of beers that range up to 15 percent alcohol by volume (ABV) suggests you're gonna have to deal with some jerks. But in this, my fourth go-round at the Great Taste, I continue to solely be confronted by warm faces, friendly smiles and, importantly, people who know the hell out of their beer and want to share that with you.
This is all to say the Great Taste of the Midwest is a bucket list event for any beer drinker out there. I had a friend arrive from Columbus, Ohio for seven total hours in Wisconsin -- five of which neatly overlapped with about 30 beers worth of tastings. He flew out of Dane County slightly damp, a little drunk and ultimately content (until his flight got delayed at O'Hare for 12 hours. O'Hare Airport: America's not-so-secret hellmouth since 1944).
Now let's talk about those beers. 2025 saw a minor downturn in vendors thanks to the enforcement of a Wisconsin law that effectively taxed brewers north of $1,000 to pour beers in Madison. While that thinned the herd, there were still more than 1,400 brews to sample Saturday. The vast majority were absolutely delightful.
Let's talk about those. But first, let's talk about the beers that just missed the cut. About 80 percent of what I tried at the 2025 Great Taste clocked in at four stars or higher. Was some of that the product of a warm, humid day or the fatigue of seven hours of a beer festival? Almost certainly. But it also underlines the undeniable quality of one of the best beer events in the world. The ones that just missed the cut include:
Now, onto the nine standouts from a crowded field. These are presented in alphabetical order by brewery. Please note that I tried about 40 beers out of a possible 1,400, so there was so, so much good stuff I missed. Not on purpose, but because my liver was already working overtime. And since there were a bunch of great barrel-aged imperial stouts, I decided to spin that off to its own column later in the week. Stay tuned for that one.
4 Hands' Octohaze New England IPA
Well, this is fortunate -- I was down in Saint Louis last week and mildly bummed I couldn't find the Octohaze on tap (in what was, admittedly, a limited scope of bars/restaurants for a family weekend). But here it is, poured by a pair of delightful reps happy to talk about their home base.
The smell off the top was light hops for a beer than clocks in a higher than seven percent ABV alongside some vague, sweet citrus. The taste itself was clean and crisp. Those hops cast off a slight bitterness that builds toward the end to snap off each sip cleanly. In between, you get lush fruit notes that braid through the hop count to create a complex beer.
Barn Town Brewing's PBJ Strawberry gluten-free sour
My notes consisted of a single sentence. "Holy [expletive], it tastes like like a PBJ." Did I fall for the peanut butter/jelly gimmick? Yes. Will this be the last time I get sucked in by a weird, doesn't-taste-like-beer-beer at the Great Taste? Friends, it is not.
Eagle Park Brewing's Spekto Kooler and Watermelon Lime Soft Serve seltzers
Eagle Park makes very good traditional beers. But they also make absolutely bonkers seltzers that, while not the calorie-conscious offerings of a White Claw or Vizzy, deliver about 3,000 percent more flavor in each sip.
And, you guys, what flavors they are.
The Watermelon Lime pours like strawberry milk and smells like straight-up sherbet. It's awesome, and the taste backs that up. It's thicker than a traditional seltzer, but enough carbonation pokes through to keep you from feeling too milkshake-y about it. It's not a crushable seltzer, but a rich, indulgent one. The lime brings just enough tart flavor to keep things from getting cloyingly sweet. With this soft serve, Eagle Park took a standard seltzer trope and subverted it to give you something a little weird but undeniably special.
The Spekto Kooler was such an easy win for me and my dad friends. It pours the appropriate Hi-C green and brings sweet citrus that lingers through each gulp before being snapped up by a steady current of rising carbonation. This isn't just for 90s kids. It rules.
Faklandia's Blue Magic Blueberry IPA
Blueberry beers were, oddly enough, key to my drinking development. Newport Storm was one of Rhode Island's first big craft breweries and their flagship leaned into berries. So does SweetWater Blue, which was a constant $2.50 pint at the Flying Saucer in Nashville while I was broke as hell and just trying to get a graduate degree.
Blue Magic brings back a lot of those memories, and it's possible these are just Proust's madeleines to my dumb poor brain. Still, the opening sip was crisp and packed with flavor I did not expect from a brewery I hadn't heard of before Saturday. It feels like a very experienced, lived-in beer that's taken years to perfect.
The blueberry hits you right up front before giving way to sharper hops that help keep everything in check. It's a wonderful summer drink that pairs well with a warm day but has the structure to be a winner no matter the weather.
G5 Brewing's Lack of Color West Coast Pilsner
I got clued into this a couple days before the fest when a pair of brewery owners happened to roll through the trivia night I host. Lack of Color was pitched to me as a clean-drinking West Coast Pils with unmistakable notes of cantaloupe. That's the best melon! Make more cantaloupe things!
The smell off the top was brisk and fruity. You get malt in the background, some sharp hop flavor poking through and juuuuust a little bit of that melon. The first sip follows suit. The opening is a foyer of cantaloupe, reminding me at least a little of Gatorade's Fierce Melon flavor (it was great). Then the hops kick in to crisply wash that away with a sound, dry finish. It's a flavor profile I've only had a few times in the past. There's a good chance G5 did it better than anyone else in that cohort.
North Pillar Brewing's Within Reason imperial IPA
Within Reason pours well with quite a Baby Billy amount of rich white foam on top. By the time it settles, those bubbles have cast off boatloads of juicy hops.
After properly dunking my nose into the foam (I am a doofus), I got an opening sip that was very hop forward but not aggressively, burn-your-tongue-off bitter. Instead, you get a soft landing for a double IPA. Each pull is crisp and brings a little fruit toward the end that makes this beer very, very easy to keep coming back to.
That clean finish leaves you wanting more, beckoning you to dive back into that malty, hoppy and fruity whirlpool from which you came. Combine that with a satisfying, rich-but-not-thick texture and you've got a beer that's a great running mate for a savory meal but can also stand on its own at a tailgate.
Pals Brewing's Picklepeno Bloody Mary
I love a good, spicy bloody Mary. I also love a good gimmick beer. So when Pals rolled up from Nebraska with a craft beer meant to be mixed with tomato juice (et al) and a couple trays of garnishes (pickles, cheese curds and salami), I was absolutely on board.
Fortunately, Pals lived up to the hype. Instead of feeling like you're drinking soup, combining beer with this bloody creates a thin and crushable morning drink. The spice is sharp but minor, giving a nice push-pull with the fruit base of the tomato. The pickle plays much more of a role here, but stops short of the point where it would be annoying. The malt of the beer underneath does let you know this isn't a traditional cocktail, but it's not distracting like other beer-based mixed drinks can be.
If I have one complaint it's that I'd like it to be hotter. But that's a standard bloody Mary condition for me -- one easily fixed with a bottle of Tabasco. This is a lovely eye-opener that delivers a little less hair of the dog than your typical vodka-based Mary, but brings big, soft and drinkable flavors with it each step of the way.
Sway Brewing + Blending's Longtime Friends Czech Pilsener (from the gravity cask)
This poured with a big foamy head -- not exactly a mliko pour, but one that felt true to the beer's origins. As I waited for my pour, the guy behind me in line casually mentioned everything Sway makes is great. That's high praise at an event like the Great Taste.
He's right, at least for this specific beer (it's the only one I tried at the booth). The smell off the top was crisp, clean lager. At 4.2 percent ABV you expect a crushable brew that delivers more flavor than a similarly strong light beer. Longtime Friends brings that in spades.
Each sip is bright and full-bodied, giving off a good amount of malt, some sweet honey and juuuuuust a little bit of fruit. The combination is fresh and invigorating, the kind of beer that perks you back up despite its qualities as a depressant. I could drink this all day, and I have to think that's exactly what Sway was going for.
Working Draft's Hindsight German pils
Working Draft has a special place in my heart. The local Madison-based brewer stepped up after Vox laid off a bunch of my SB Nation colleagues (and me, naturally) to make a Moon Crew IPA in honor of the side project my fellow umemployeds put together that Covid-wrecked summer. Very cool stuff.
The brewery may be best known for its pale ales, but this pils is immediately appetizing. The smell off the pour is brisk and malty, making it feel like the perfect antidote to an 85 degree day. You get a little bit of hops in the opening sip, but it floats atop that current of golden malt to be the cantilever on the other side of a beer that would otherwise be a touch too sweet. It's great in the heat, but stands up on its own to be drinkable regardless of the situation.