Since being founded in 1982, this extravaganza has morphed into America's most prestigious beer festival. Each year, nearly 46,000 enthusiasts descend onto the mile-high city's Colorado Convention Center to sample some of the nearly 2,800 stouts, IPAs, lagers and porters poured by more than 450 breweries. But the main event is the professionally judged competition, in which breweries vie for coveted gold, silver and bronze medals that can transform a little-known brewery into a world-class powerhouse.

For more information: Great American Beer Festival

The words "craft beer" are synonymous with Portland, America's microbrew mecca. Gourmands could easily construct a vacation visiting the town's 30-odd microbreweries, but your bet is attending the palette-wowing Oregon Brewers Festivals. Now in its 21st year, the OBF (free to attend, though tokens are required to sample beers) assembles around 70 breweries at a verdant park. They range from Oregon all-stars like Full Sail and Laurelwood, to outside operations such as Michigan's Bell's and Colorado's New Belgium.

For more information: Oregon Brewers Festival

Once a year, the city of brotherly love becomes the city of heavenly suds. In 2008—its inaugural year—Philadelphia's craft-beer festival featured more than 45 brewers, focusing on Philly-area tipples from Victory, Tröegs and Dogfish Head. In 2009, the event will commandeer the Philadelphia Cruise Terminal and feature bands alongside lecture panels from beer scribes. The festival coincides with Philly Beer Week, a series of citywide events touting the town's 300-year-old brewing history and numerous pubs.

For more information: Philly Craft Beer Festival

Good luck getting one of 5,000 spots at this in-demand, 22-year-old event. "It's like getting tickets to the Final Four," says Paul Ruschmann, who co-runs Beerfestivals.org. More than 100 of the Midwest's best breweries (such as Minnesota's Surly and Cleveland's Great Lakes) dispense 500-plus carbonated creations, many likely poured by the brewers themselves. And there's no need to corral a designated driver: Cars are banned from the park, and there is plentiful public transportation.

For more information: Madison Homebrewers and Tasters Guild

Every summer, Brewery Ommegang (headquartered in the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame) hosts one of America's preeminent Belgian-beer-tasting events. Breweries both American (like Maine's Allagash and Indiana's Three Floyds) and international pour Belgian quaffs for a crowd capped at around 600. The weekend is full of festivities, including a five-course beer-paired feast, Brewer Ommegang tours and the main-event sampling session. Attendees also have the option of pitching a tent and camping.

For more information: Brewery Ommegang

Suds-loving Southerners get a double-barreled dose of beer-festival fun. Each year, All About Beer magazine produces two bashes featuring 150-plus breweries and 300-odd beers. In the spring, Raleigh plays host to the festivities, while fall finds the fest located in the Durham Bulls Athletic Park—home to the AAA minor-league baseball team. Have a couple sips, and you might be deluded enough to tackle the Blue Monster: a 32-foot-high outfield wall that takes it cues from Fenway Park's Green Monster.

For more information: All About Beer magazine

Launched in 2008 by the influential Beeradvocate.com crew, this festival is the largest celebration of American craft beer on the East Coast. Besides providing more than 300 beers (brewers often break out rarities), this event aims to educate beer drinkers. "There's more to beer than just drinking it," BeerAdvocate cofounder Todd Alström has said. "Consumers want to know everything about the beer they're drinking, from the style to ingredients to how it's brewed." To that end, there are guest speaker panels featuring writers and brewers, as well as seminars on beer-food pairing.

For more information: Beer Advocate

In all likelihood, you're drinking dead beer. Nearly all bottled and draft brews—mass-produced Budweisers and microbrews alike—are filtered to remove live yeast cultures. But leave brews unfiltered and yeasts turn ordinary beer into extraordinary cask ale, like the sort served at Pizza Port Brewing Company's 11-year-old festival. Nearly 50 flavorful, low-fizz cask-conditioned ales are available, along with the Port's weird and wonderful pizzas, such as the BBQ bacon cheeseburger.

For more information: Pizza Port Brewing Company

The Green Mountain hosts the northeast's longest-running outdoor beer festival. Nestled near the craggy Adirondack Mountains and the pristine Lake Champlain, this 16-year-old event turns Burlington's Waterfront Park into a beer paradise. Thousands flock to the family-friendly grounds for lectures on brew and cheese pairings, lessons on beer cooking and, oh yes, to sample suds from more than three dozen breweries such as Vermont's Rock Art, Otter Creek and Magic Hat.

For more information: Vermont Brewers Festival

Take the edge off icy Alaska at this mid-winter festival specializing in brews from the Great White North and barley wine: a strong, sweet ale with super-charged alcohol content. Since 1996, this judged competition has provided hearty locals and fearless travelers with tastes from Pacific Northwest standouts like Deschutes and Elysian, alongside dozens of breweries rarely glimpsed in the continental U.S. such as Alaska's Kenai River Brewing Co., the award-winning Haines Brewing Co. and Celestial Meads—the world's farthest-north mead maker.

For more information: Great Alaska Beer and Barley Wine Festival

 To sample fantastically fresh brews, trek to this Washington festival featuring beers made with hops (the bitter flowers that flavor beers) picked no more than 24 hours prior to brewing. While bands strum, try the fresh-hop wares from one of 16 breweries invited to participate in the festival, which is held the first Saturday in October. If this central-Washington location seems odd, think again: The Yakima region produces about 75 percent of all the hops grown in America.

For more information: Fresh Hop Ale Festival