MADISON, WI – I drank 42 different brews at one of the world’s best beer fests. Only three earned a rating of three stars or lower after I checked my notes the next day. Is that a sign my standards are too low, or that the Great Taste of the Midwest continues to absolutely crush it when it comes to incredible breweries?
Admittedly, it’s probably a little bit of both. I love beer, and almost every one I tried in Madison last Saturday was absolutely the kind of beer I’d drink three cans of on a warm summer day or cold winter night. Just getting this list down to something manageable was tough; after six hours, I’d amassed about 6,000 words worth of notes.
Were all those notes logical? Well, after a full day of drinking and a whole bunch of high ABV barrel-aged stouts, they certainly started better than they ended. Let’s talk about the best things I drank at the 2026 Great Taste of the Midwest, ranging from neon sours to jet black stouts. And, of course, since I could barely notch three percent of the beers available this year, consider this list incomplete. If you’ve got a beer you think is missing from this list, well, you’re probably right…