Yaaaas, these are the 58 breweries confirmed for the 2024 Rochester Real Beer Expo (so far)

This year's event takes place on Saturday, June 8, at Innovative Field

Marriage has really been a wonderful thing for me. I’ve gone from being one of the crappiest adults on the planet to a mildly functioning member of society.

Most of that is due to my amazing wife, Cassie. She rules and I am way more on top of things now than I ever have been. And that includes planning and curating for the 2024 Rochester Real Beer Expo. You should see my spreadsheet. It’s very, very detailed and impressive. Frankly, I am not sure how I ever functioned before spreadsheets and marriage.

But I managed to make it this far and it’s only going to get better.

Expo prep is going swimmingly this year. I am at least a month ahead of where I was last year. (I announced the first batch of Expo breweries last year on March 8.) That’s why I am already prepared to share the first 58 participants in the upcoming event.

Photo: This Kettlehead/Modestman collab DIPA was wonderful. Kettlehead, based in New Hampshire, is once again coming to party with us. I am working on doing the same with Modestman. (Fingers crossed.)

Keep in mind, we hope to have 75-80 participants this year. We had about 69 or 70 last year. But I am paying attention to my budget (another invaluable lesson/gift from Cass) and I am keeping the focus more regional this year (there is a lot of incredible beer within 5-6 hours of Rochester).

I have about 15 outstanding invites right now (and some really, really cool places are considering coming to Rochester). Breweries have until March 1 to fully commit. So once I get those confirmations, I’ll make sure to share the rest with you ASAP.

If you want to kick it VIP style, I suggest you move quickly. Those tickets are flying right now and will surely sell out long before the festival. (VIP tickets sold out by April last year.) I am also particularly proud of the fact that the ticket prices haven’t increased at all this year. More details here: https://www.ticketreturn.com/prod2new/BuyNew.asp?EventID=343454.

Once again I am working with the fine folks from BASWA (Business Association of the South Wedge Area). Of note, this event is the group’s biggest fundraiser of the year. So it’s a great way to support a really great group.

Local

Waiting on some paperwork to be finalized, but every local brewery you voted in has committed to hanging out with us at this year’s Expo. In total, there is an increase of seven local breweries from last year.

1. Brewery Ardennes, Geneva

2. Aurora Brewing, King Ferry and Perinton

3. Birdhouse Brewing, Honeoye

4. Eli Fish Brewing, Batavia

5. Faircraft Brauhaus, Fairport

6. Fifth Frame Brewing, Rochester

7. Frequentem Brewing, Canandaigua

8. Genesee Brewery, Rochester

9. Grow Brewing, Geneva (and points all across NYS)

10. Iron Tug Brewing, Rochester

11. Irondequoit Beer, Irondequoit

12. K2 Brothers Brewing, Penfield and Walworth

13. Knucklehead Craft Brewing, Webster

14. Laurentide Beer, Penn Yan

15. Lock 32 Brewing, Pittsford

16. Mortalis Brewing, Avon and Rochester

17. Naked Dove Brewing, Hopewell

18. Naples Brewing, Naples

19. Nine Spot Brewing, Rochester

20. Noble Shepherd Craft Brewery, Bristol

21. Okay Beer, Honeoye Falls

22. Other Half Brewing, East Bloomfield, Brooklyn, and seven or eight other places

23. Preservation Beer, Fairport

24. Rising Storm Brewing, Livonia and Penfield

25. Rohrbach Brewing, Ogden and Rochester

26. Sager Beer Works, Rochester

27. Silver Lake Brewing Project, Perry

28. Stoneyard Brewing, Brockport and Rochester

29. Strangebird Beer, Rochester

30. Strange Design Public House, Geneseo

31. Swiftwater Brewing, Rochester

32. Three Heads Brewing, Rochester

Regional

This is where things promise to get fun. I’ve got breweries in Ontario, Canada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont still considering attendance. Hopefully more on that very, very soon.

1. Wayland Brewing, Orchard Park

2. BriarBrothers Brewing, Buffalo

3. Big Ditch Brewing, Buffalo

4. Smoldered Society Beer, Buffalo

5. Underground Beer Lab, East Syracuse

6. Bullfinch Brewing, Syracuse

7. Sloop Brewing, East Fishkill

8. Trophy Brewing, Raleigh, NC

9. Fidens Brewing, Colonie and Albany

10. Prison City Brewing, Auburn

11. Human Robot Brewery, Philadelphia, PA

12. Wild East Brewing, Brooklyn

13. Counterpart Brewing, Niagara Falls, Ontario

14. Cinderlands Beer, Pittsburgh, PA

15. Eredita Beer, North Haven, CT

16. Dancing Gnome Beer, Pittsburgh, PA

17. Bright Path Brewing, Jim Thorpe, PA

18. Selection of incredible spots through One Stop Brew Shop and its distribution operation (some of the same ones from last year and some exciting newbies. Plus James and I just sat down to plot these out and you should be very, very excited)

Non-beer

1. Katboocha kombucha, Rochester

2. Happy Gut tea and coffee ferments, Rochester

3. Embark Craft Ciderworks, Williamson

4. Seed + Stone cider/Lucky Buzz mead, Rochester

5. Illumination Meadery, Buffalo

6. Athletic Brewing, Milford, CT

7. Aporia Coffee, Rochester

8. Living Roots Wine, Rochester, Hammondsport, and Adelaide, South Australia

9. Beelzebubbles hard seltzer, Brockport