This year’s Untapped Beer & Music Festival broke some unprecedented ground for the festival in its fourth installment.  From its humble beginnings in a parking lot across from Trinity Groves (before it was really Trinity Groves), the Dallas Untapped Beer & Music Festival was held at Fair Park.  With the grater space, festival planners were able to add a third music stage and allowed plenty of room for people to mill about with out being too far crammed among the crowds.  In the future, this hopefully leads to more breweries and bands.  The extra space also allowed for events put on by the breweries, including a Silent Disco put on by Deep Ellum Brewing.

As far as the beers go, there was an increase in one-off beers aged with various kinds of liquors and spirits, including: Community’s Rum Soaked Cinnamon Legion Russian Imperial Stout, Deep Ellum Brewing’s Bourbon Barrel Coffee Ale (one of my favorites from the festival), and 903’s Balcones Barrel Aged Sasquatch Imperial Stout, and FireWheel’s Whiskey Barrel Midnight Ninja.  Along the same lines as these boozy creations, Dogfish Head Brewery was celebrating their 20th anniversary with their yet-to-be-released golden strong ale, Higher Math, which included a blend of sour cherry juice and cocoa nibs during fermentation.  The beer has a strong malty foundation with loads of caramel and toffee flavors, and comes in at a whopping 17% ABV.

With the increased space and an ever increasing number of quality bands and booze, Untapped Festival has a bright future ahead of itself.  Also keep an eye out for its sister festival, Canned Festival (featuring canned beers, of course), in Austin on December 5th.