Snallygaster 2024: A World-Class Beer Festival

(Courtesy NRG Group)

Two of the absolute best beer festivals in the nation took place over the weekend, the Great American Beer Festival out in Denver, and Snallygaster in Washington, DC, which the American crew attended.

And while the Great American Beer Festival, or the GABF as it’s called in the biz, may be more widely known, Snallygaster has become a force of its own that now stands as one of the best beer festivals in the world.

Named after a mythical dragon-like beast, rumored to have once inhabited the mid-Atlantic’s backwoods around the turn of the century, Snallygaster is one of the region’s most anticipated beer events.

You see, unlike so many craft beer festivals that offer a predictable roster of standards, (along with an occasional seasonal thrown in) this popular beer fest takes a road less travelled.

Snallygaster is all about showcasing the unique and less common… beers not normally offered at even the most upscale beer festivals.

Now in its twelfth year, Snallygaster is presented annually by The Neighborhood Restaurant Group (NRG) an award winning collection of idiosyncratic independent businesses devoted to the culinary arts in Metro Washington DC that under the tutelage of beer director and partner Greg Engert has become a force in the craft beer biz.

And on Saturday, October 12, Snallygaster 2024 rocked, with 75+ brewers and 450 artisan beverage offerings, artisan food trucks, two music stages lining  a long stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue which had been shut down for the event, and the regal Capital building in the background.

(Courtesy Neighborhood Restaurant Group)

Last year’s Snally was limited by sometimes torrential rains, but this year the Gods were good, it was a picture perfect sunlight early fall day.

As always Engert handpicked all the breweries attending…some of brightest and most interesting in not just the nation, but the world.

And this year’s rollout featured classic seasonal brews alongside little-known imports, rare exotic ales, ciders as well as artisan wines, seltzers, cocktail mixes and a whole array of non-alcoholic offerings.

For media folks like us it was great hang, lots of old friends in the biz, and brewers we’d respected but never met. We had too many beers with the Hop Butcher crew out of Chicago and caught up with one of our favorite brewers, Shilling Beer Co. who are doing uber-exciting things in Littleton, New Hampshire.

All the beers we tried were at least very good, but more times than not, they bordered on spectacular.

And while buzzy names like Trillium understandably attracted long lines, there were less frequented spots, brewers we’d never heard of that blew us away. Coniston Brewery, based in Coniston, England offered Bluebird Bitter a 3.6% ABV refresher that in a sea of bee, we ended up returning to several times.

And like the craft beer industry, Snallygaster has been evolving.

When Snallygaster first debuted near Nationals Ball Park back in 2011, it was big, but not nearly the all-encompassing presentation it is today.

In 2018 the festival moved from that Navy Yards location to Pennsylvania Avenue, where it continued to add new breweries, food options, bands, and other activities and become the beer extravaganza it is today.

And Snallygaster isn’t just good drinking…It’s drinking for good. Snallygaster serves as the largest annual fundraiser for the Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food and Agriculture, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a more equitable and sustainable local food system in the DC area.

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