Loveland Aleworks Fourth Annual IPA Fest Spotlights Small-Batch Experimental Brews

Loveland Aleworks ran its Fourth Annual IPA Fest on Saturday, March 14, at 118 West 4th Street in downtown Loveland, drawing hop enthusiasts to a four-hour celebration of small-batch, festival-exclusive India pale ales that existed for exactly one afternoon.

The brewery's approach is the whole point: each IPA on the lineup was brewed specifically for the fest and served from a single keg. When that keg kicked, the beer was finished permanently. No canning it later, no second batch. The Loveland Aleworks brewing team uses the event each year to push into experimental territory, working with new hop varieties, unconventional flavor combinations and techniques that wouldn't survive a standard production schedule. The result is a collection of one-off IPAs that can't be replicated once the festival closes.

Admission was free, and tasters could approach the pour options a few different ways. A single 16-oz pint ran $7.50. A punchcard covering five 5-oz tasters of your choosing cost $25. For anyone committed to working through the full lineup, unlimited 5-oz pours went for $40. All options were available online until noon on the day of the event, with day-of taproom purchases open through the full run. Given the first-come, first-served format and the hard keg limits, arriving early carried real consequences for anyone chasing the more experimental offerings.

The Square Peg handled live music from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m., delivering a set of rock and blues covers in the middle of the afternoon session. The event ran indoors, which kept the IPA Fest squarely in taproom territory rather than the outdoor festival format common at larger Colorado beer events.

Loveland Aleworks has operated out of downtown Loveland since 2012, building its reputation on small-batch work and community-anchored taproom programming. IPA Fest falls during St. Patrick's Day weekend, which gave the event a natural boost in foot traffic from the surrounding downtown area. The festival has grown into a reliable fixture for Northern Colorado craft beer drinkers who want access to beers that exist outside the normal rotation, brewed by a team specifically given room to experiment with the knowledge that a single keg is the entire run.