If you’re a craft beer lover like me, then you already know the Disney California Adventure Food & Wine Festival that takes over the Anaheim theme park for the next six weeks leaves the most important part of the annual event out of the name: Beer.

Fortunately for beer nuts, the foodie festival that runs through April 26 has plenty on tap for those who prefer hops over grapes with a little something for every type of beer drinker and every taste in between.

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I sat down with festival beverage manager Matt Woods and festival event programming manager Michelle Harker via an online video interview to get the run-down on this year’s beer line-up and their tips on what to try at the festival.

“Whether you are new to it or you are a full-blown sommelier or brewmaster, there’s a little bit of something for everybody,” Harker said. “If you don’t like beer, we have seltzers or ciders. That’s what it’s all about.”

As they select beers for the festival, Woods and Harker look for a range of styles and geography as well as a compelling backstory that includes a commitment to diversity and inclusion at each brewery.

“We want to tell a story with our food and our drinks, so why not do that with the beer and wine that we do as well?” Woods said. “Is there any inspiration behind why you wanted to do this? Does it connect with the community or you personally? We ask a lot about that.”

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The festival includes beer makers from Anaheim and Placentia to Walnut Creek and San Diego.

“San Diego was the main heavy hitter for craft beers forever and they still really are the heavy hitters,” Woods said. “Not that I’m being biased, but Orange County is really coming up hot with the craft beer industry and we’re kind of taking over. Orange County is really making a name for itself.”

From a diversity and inclusion standpoint, the festival features a black-owned brewery (Crowns and Hops in Inglewood), female-owned brewery (Golden Road in Los Angeles), female head brewer (Trademark in Long Beach) and LGBTQ community supporter (Ballast Point).

“Storytelling is truly at the heart of it,” Harker said. “Crowns and Hops have a fantastic community story. That was one of the biggest things that drew us.”

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What’s missing from this year’s festival are any Disney-affiliated beers.

The list of Disney-affiliated wineries is long — including Skywalker Vineyards (George Lucas), GoGi Wines (Kurt Russell), ​​MacMurray Ranch (Fred MacMurray), Fess Parker Winery (Fess Parker) and Lasseter Family Winery (John Lasseter).

But the list of Disney-affiliated breweries is so far non-existent.

“That’s the next big adventure,” Woods said. “I’m hoping one day that there’s a brewery that gets associated with Disney in some way somehow.”

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What should craft beer lovers drink at DCA’s Food & Wine Festival?

Woods recommends three of his favorites from a list of more than two dozen beers, seltzers and ciders.

The Crowns and Hops hazy double IPA is called BPLB — which stands for Black People Love Beer and Brown People Love Beer. It’s the number one or two bestseller at the festival so far.

“It’s ridiculous,” Woods said. “That’s the best way to describe it. It’s so good and smooth for a double hazy. It’s just a glass of citrus, dank deliciousness.”

Bottle Logic’s Tropical Hideaway sour smoothie has a name and taste that should be instantly recognizable to Disneylanders.

“Bottle Logic are really big Disney people and they love doing anything and everything Disney,” Woods said. “So the beer we have is the Tropical Hideaway that’s very Disney Dole Whip-ish.”

The Yonderhop cider from Long Beach’s Ficklewood is made with Mosaic hops.

“It hits all the points for cider people and you get a little bit of that wine taste to it,” Woods said. “Plus it has the Mosaic hops in it, so the beer lovers are going to like it, too. It has that hoppy, floral smell and taste to it.”

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Beer can be found at three main booths at DCA’s Food & Wine Festival — California Craft Brews, Cluck-A-Doodle Moo and Paradise Gardens Beer Garden. The festival focuses on California craft beers — with a few West Coast brewers thrown in here and there from outside the state.

There’s certainly no shortage of IPAs at the festival — including Aloha Sculpin from Ballast Point, Tangible from Karl Strauss, Ride On from Golden Road and Weekend Vibes from Coronado Brewing. The best of the bunch on the menu: Perfect Day IPA from Placentia’s Stereo Brewing. But, come on, you can drink an India Pale Ale anytime. Disney’s Food & Wine Festival is about expanding your palate and taste buds.

The most adventurous beers on the festival menu are Goses Are Red from The Bruery in Placentia, Pink Lemonade Lager from San Luis Obispo’s Slow Brew and Tuupash Blueberry Saison from the Rincon Reservation Road Brewery run by the Rincon Band of the Luiseno Indians.

Ready to go really big? Try the Robot Imperial Red IPA from Placentia’s Stereo Brewing or the Wreck Alley Imperial stout from San Diego’s Karl Strauss. Both of them clock in at a whopping 9.5% alcohol by volume.

“Robot Red Ale just won gold in the Great American Beer Festival competition,” Woods said. “So we have the best red ale in the country on tap.”

If you’re feeling truly bold, go for the Abyss Imperial stout from Oregon’s Deschutes. The 11.4% alcohol-by-volume barrel-aged beast garners a 99 out of 100 world-class score on Beer Advocate. You may want to be sitting down for this one.

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For those with a sweet tooth, the festival features Lilko’I Kepolo Passionfruit White Ale from Avery and Wild Little Thing guava-strawberry sour ale from Sierra Nevada.

More of a Bud Light guy or a Corona gal? Expand your horizons with a Mic Czech pilsner from L.A.’s Boomtown, Dig My Earth Hellas lager from San Pedro’s Brouwerij West or A La Playa Mexican lager from Trademark in Long Beach.

There are also a few Belgian-style wheats on the menu for those who are a bit more daring — including a Blank Slate from Anaheim’s Radiant, Tiki Time from Walnut Creek’s Calicraft and White Rabbit from Temecula’s Wild Barrel.

Drinking with a friend who is really not that into beer? Then you probably need to find some new friends. But if you’re stuck with them for now, there are a few veto votes on the festival’s beer menu. Tell them to try El Chavo mango-habanero-apple cider from Blake’s Hard Cider, Boysenberry Lemonade Seltzer from Anaheim’s Brewery X or if they’re really adventurous the Raven’s Claw mead from Vista’s Twisted Horn.

If none of that works, then point this “friend” of yours toward the wine bar. There are plenty of good chardonnays, cabernets and pinot noirs at DCA’s Food & Wine Festival.

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On the flip side, if two dozen brews are not enough to satisfy your curiosity, the festival offers a series of seminars to enhance your beer IQ.

DCA’s Sonoma Terrace will host $25 beer seminars with Santa Barbara’s Calidad Beer on Friday, March 18 and San Diego’s Karl Strauss on April 1 and 15.

Golden Road Brewing will host a $95 beer education and tasting seminar on Tuesday, March 22 at the GCH Craftsman Bar in Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel.

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What’s next on the beer front for DCA’s Food & Wine Fest?

“We’re looking into getting another really big name for Food & Wine 2023,” Woods said. “We’re already starting to partner with them and once that gets set in stone, I think it’s going to be amazing.”

Which brewery could it be?

The “set in stone” reference can’t be referring to Stone Brewing. The San Diego brewery’s Buenaveza Salt and Lime lager is already on tap at the festival.

Here’s hoping that “big name” is Russian River — the makers of Pliny the Younger, widely considered to be one of the best beers in the world. Club 33 serves Pliny the Elder in bottles — but you’ll need to know someone or be someone to drink the legendary double IPA at Disneyland’s secret members-only club right now.

How awesome would it be to have the hard-to-come-by Pliny the Younger served on tap during the springtime festival at Disney California Adventure? If you think the lines for Rise of the Resistance are long, wait until you see the queue for Younger at DCA. Keep your fingers crossed.