The 2018 Festival of Wood & Barrel-Aged Beer (FoBAB) – aka the Super Bowl of Barrel-Aged Brews 🍻🥃 – is hands-down the world’s biggest and baddest barrel-aged beer bash and showdown! Every year, the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild throws open the doors in Chicago and invites breweries from every corner of the planet to flex their rarest, wildest, wood-kissed creations.
Every single pour – beer, cider, mead, perry – has been lovingly aged in wood or at least given a flirty little wood-chip spa day. And yeah, the brewers go full gladiator mode in the National Barrel-Aged Beer Competition for ultimate bragging rights.
This year? A whopping 400+ barrel-aged beauties from 210 breweries across 30 states threw their hats (and barrels) in the ring.
Ready for the 2018 FoBAB medal winners? Let’s pop the cork on the champs!
2018 Festival of Wood & Barrel-Aged Beer Medal Winners
Category Cider, Perry, Mead
Gold: Cellarmen’s – Valentine Liberator Gin Barrel Aged Cranpus
Silver: Superstition Meadery – Aphrodisia
Bronze: 2 Towns Ciderhouse – La Mure
Category Wild Beer Sour w/Fruit
Gold: Rhinegeist Brewery – Perpetual Passion
Silver: The Rare Barrel- Playing for Keeps
Bronze: Horus Aged Ales – Goodbye to Beauty
Category Wild Beer Sour
Gold: Hopewell Brewing Company – Crudites
Silver: Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project – L’Brett D’or
Bronze: The Rare Barrel – The Search
Category: Wild Beer Brett
Gold: Off Color – Mousetrap – Wildings
Silver: Blackberry Farm Brewery – Barrel Series Brett Belgo IPA
Bronze: Funkwerks – Sauvin Serve
Category: Fruit Beer
Gold: Werk Force Brewing – Farmhouse Vultures Saison with Raspberries and Blackberries
Silver: Werk Force Brewing – The Legend of Mr. Birger Saison
Bronze: Brickstone – Barrel Aged AfterWorld with Luxardo Cherries
Category: Specialty Experimental
Gold: Fremont Brewing – B-Bomb: Coconut Edition
Silver: St. Francis Brewery – Teotwawki
Bronze: The Dayton Beer Company – Deep Sea Diving Aged in Bookers
Category: Strong Dark Beer Category
Gold: Rock Bottom Brewery(Portland) – 5th Dimension
Silver: Karetas Brewing – Colm Cille
Bronze: Half Acre Brewing – Orin
Category: Strong Pale Beer
Gold: Pollyanna Brewing – Orenda Volume 03 Aged in Apple Brandy Barrels
Silver: Karetas Brewing – Sacre Coeur
Bronze: Nebraska Brewing – Melange a Trois
Category: Classic Beer Styles
Gold: Middle Brow Beer Company – Sassafras Brut
Silver: Church Street Brewing – Holly Moly
Bronze: Black Horizon Brewing – Gin Barrel Aged Fooled Me Once
Category: Barleywine/Wheatwine
Gold: Verboten Brewing Cognac/Whiskey Grow Old with You
Silver: Goose Island Beer Company – Bourbon County Brand Wheatwine
Bronze: Revolution Brewing(Kedzie) – Straight Jacket
Category: Specialty Strong Porter/Stout
Gold: Bottle Logic Brewing – Fundamental Observation
Silver: Freemont Brewing – The Rusty Nail
Bronze: Four Fathers Brewing – Double Barrel Aged Wheelhouse
Category: Strong Porter/Stout
Gold: More Brewing – Barrel-Aged Mehndi
Silver: Saugatuck Brewing – BBA Gramanatrixxx
Bronze: Emperical Brewery – Neutronium
Best in Show: Bottle Logic Brewing – Fundamental Observation
Runner Up: The Hopewell Brewing – Crudites
FoBAB, the Festival of Wood & Barrel-Aged Beer
FoBAB, the Festival of Wood & Barrel-Aged Beer, kicked off in 2004 at Chicago’s Goose Island Wrigleyville Taproom as a cozy showcase for oaky brews, dreamed up by the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild (ICBG). Inspired by trailblazers like Goose Island’s Bourbon County Stout, it quickly grew from 50 local pours to the world’s largest barrel-aged bash, adding a pro-judged National Barrel-Aged Beer Competition in 2006. By 2010, it outgrew taprooms for bigger venues like the Logan Square Auditorium, pulling global brewers and thousands of fans to geek out over whiskey-kissed stouts and funky ferments.
Today, FoBAB draws 10,000+ attendees over two nights, pouring 500+ entries from 250+ breweries across 40 states and beyond—every beer, cider, mead, or perry required to flirt with wood (barrels or chips). Medals launch legends, trends like tequila-cask IPAs are born, and funds fuel ICBG advocacy. Fun fact: Over 100,000 samples have flowed in peak years—enough to fill a kiddie pool with boozy bliss. Grab tickets fast at fobab.com and toast Chicago’s barrel-aged empire!