Great American Beer Festival 2010

The 29th annual Great American Beer Festival took place in Denver the weekend of September 16th -18th, the largest gathering of craft beer brewers and beer aficionados in the country. Over 49,000 people attended, and were offered over 2200 flavors of beer to sample from. What an event! Being a newcomer to the festival, my expectations were guided by accounts of past festivals from friends and co-workers. Get there early, have a plan for what you want to taste, hold on tight to your tasting cup and enjoy the ride. And what a ride it was! I was fortunate to attend the festival with my brother, who had acquired media passes for the weekend for a documentary he is working on. This allowed me to get a great feel for the festival and what goes on behind the scenes throughout the entire weekend.

It's a good thing that they hold it in the Convention Center, because they sure need the space. The room held food booths and tables, a huge t-shirt sales area, a book store, a large stage area with seating for the awards ceremony and multiple displays on kegerators, beer glasses, hops, brewing maps and just about anything else beer related, all surrounding 16 gigantic islands that each housed tasting tables for about 30 breweries, each of which offering anywhere from 2-6 samples of suds. The islands were arranged by region, which helped put the myriad of brewers in perspective. The tasting sessions ran Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings from 5:30-10 p.m., along with a Saturday afternoon tasting. Participants are given a 4oz. plastic tasting cup upon entry. At first I wondered “why plastic?” But that question was answered early and often. The sound of the cup hitting the hard floor is quite distinctive, and is always followed by a huge “OH!” from the surrounding crowd. The Saturday afternoon session is a members only session for the Brewers Association and American Homebrewers Association. A real glass tasting cup is provided, and yes, I saw some of those hit the floor as well, with an even louder “OH!” to follow. Each pour was about an ounce of beer, which at first seemed small, but made sense by the end of the weekend with so many different flavors to try.

For the most part, the attendees are beer geeks, and this is their Super Bowl. Almost everyone was wearing a t-shirt or outfit promoting their favorite beer, brewery or style. Costumes, hats and beads all contributed to the festive nature of the event. These folks sure know their beer and breweries! Lines grew quickly for some of the more fabled breweries and brews. The folks at Dogfish Head probably hosted the most consistent line, averaging around 50 people or so throughout the weekend. Charlie Papazian, the author of the Complete Joy of Home Brewing and current president of the Brewer's Association was treated like the Godfather of Beer, as folks approached him left and right for photos and autographs. He also presented the awards to each of the 240 plus medal winners. Bronze, Silver and Gold medals are given out in each of 79 different categories of beer styles. I thought wine was the more complicated beverage with all of its regions and varietals, but I now have my doubts! There were awards for fruit beer, rye beer, bitters, extra special bitters, wheat beer, Scotch ales, smoked beer, barrel aged beer, sour beer, stouts, German style this and British style that, and…well you get the idea. The individual names of the beers are often fun and colorful: Smokey the Beer, Skidmark Brown Ale, Oil Change Stout, Hop Crisis!, Key Lime Pie and What in the Helles? were among my favorite monikers.

And the myriad of flavors did not disappoint! I am a big fan of IPA's, so I devoted Thursday evening to sampling that style, tasting such familiar favorites as Pliney the Elder, O'Dell's IPA and Pizza Port's Hop 15, as well as previously untried offerings such as Russian River's Hopfather, 21st Amendment's Hop Crisis! and Pizza Port's Doheny Double IPA. All were so good and unique, it was hard to pick a favorite. I devoted most of Friday's session to stouts and porters. Maui Brewing's Coconut Porter, Fade to Black from Left Hand Brewery in Longmont and the Night Rider Imperial Stout from Pizza Port Carlsbad were among my favorites. I made several trips back for the coconut porter over the weekend. Saturday's afternoon session was a bit more serious than the previous sessions, as it was a members only session for Brewer's Association and American Homebrewer's cardholders. I saw lots of folks taking notes and acting more like judges than swillers Saturday afternoon. The awards took place during this session, and there was a huge standing room only crowd around the stage. Boisterous cheers popped up around the crowd as various winners were announced. I devoted most of this session to tasting some of the winning beers, as did many others. Lines were long for Short's Brewing's Key Lime Pie, New Glarus' Raspberry Tart, Pizza Port's Revelations and Firestone Walker's Red Nectar. Winners in the Brewery of the Year categories were Blue Moon for large Brewer, Utah Brewers Cooperative for mid-sized brewery and Mad River Brewing out of Blue Lake, California for small brewery. TAPS Fish House out of Brea, California won the Brewpub Group award, and Pizza Port Carlsbad and Pizza Port San Clemente won large and small Brewpub of the year awards, respectively. Colorado was well represented on the podium, with breweries such as Pagosa Springs Brewing Company, Blue Moon, New Belgium, New Planet, Denver's Sandlot, AC Golden, Steamworks Brewing Company from Durango, Dry Dock Brewing from Aurora, Twisted Pine from Boulder, Del Norte Brewing from Denver, CB Potts from Fort Collins, Pug Ryan's from Dillon, Glenwood Canyon Brewing, Ska Brewing from Durango, Mountain Sun from Boulder, Yak and Yeti from Arvada, Boulder Beer Company, Rock Bottom from Louisville, Bristol Brewing from Colorado Springs, Equinox Brewing from Fort Collins, Great Divide from Denver, Dillon Dam Brewery and Lefthand Brewing from Longmont all winning awards. Great showing Colorado!

Saturday evening's session was the most raucous and crowded. I had already done a ton of tasting by then, so I spent my time tasting the few things that slipped through the cracks, but mostly just enjoying the scene. We started by checking out the line, one of the longest I have ever scene at any type of event I have attended. It ran the width of a city sidewalk and stretched beyond the 4 blocks that I could see from standing on a barricade. Our media passes allowed us to bypass this line so we could get inside to shoot film of the eager crowd entering the hall. We also spent some time in the Farm to Table room, tasting beer that had been paired with delicious appetizers prepared by local chefs. The media passes also allowed us to join a tour of the Breckenridge Brewery and Stranahan's Whiskey Distillery, and important side trip as Stranahan's only uses a barrel once when aging whiskey. The used barrels are then snapped up by brewers from around the country for aging beer. Yes, there is a waiting list.

Denver was the perfect host for this event. The weather was sunny and perfect for late summer, and the friendly downtown area allowed us to walk everywhere in the evenings, from breweries to pubs and restaurants, most of which offered specials and promotions to all of the beer devotees in town. My brother and his buddy are very savvy city dwellers from New York, and aren't easily impressed. But both said that Denver and its brewing culture blew them away. Where are all of the people? (compared to over-packed New York), and Is it always this nice here? were common comments, and they were impressed with how easy it was to walk from place to place. Coming from the other end of the spectrum, I was happy to be in such urban surroundings without having to deal with driving and the traffic. Denver is truly a special city for beer lovers, and we are lucky to have it so close by. My first G.A.B.F was a smashing success, and I look forward to many happy returns.

Chip Bartsch

West Vail Liquor Mart