Tag: GABF

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Beer Search Party at GABF – Facts & photos

I am now back in Los Angeles and I am looking back on my second Great American Beer Festival visit. My first trip a couple years back was overwhelming. It only took two days and one session for me to say “no mas!”. But I was also new to the beer blogging scene. I didn’t know anybody and quietly drank some beer and left. Also the scene was different in Denver then too.

This year, thanks to expanded access and to pacing myself, I was able to really enjoy not only the beer but also all the people that come out every year too.

The Brewer’s Association always puts out fun tidbits from the festival. Data like how much ice is used and how many beers are judged in the IPA category. So here are some of my Beer Search Party facts. With breaks for some of my favorite photos from my visit.

By rough estimate, I tasted 87 different beers. Most in 1 ounce pours.

I had three sampler trays from three new Denver breweries – Prost, Renegade and Strange. And re-visited three “older” Denver breweries – Great Divide, Wynkoop and Breckenridge.

My top three beers were Fiat Luxe from Brooklyn Brewery, Monk’s Indiscretion from Sound Brewing and Kaffir Lime Wheat from Denver Beer Co.

There were 49 California medalists at the the awards ceremony. You can search the medal database for GABF HERE.

I FINALLY tasted an Alabama beer. Freckly Belly IPA from Back Forty. Then I tasted a Peanut Butter beer from another Beer Engineers! Now I only have North Dakota to complete my 50 beers!

GABF is just a beer lovers paradise. Even if you don’t go to the main festival, there are enough breweries to visit, special events and beer tappings to find and hidden gems (like the Beerliner) that you find yourself having to decide between so many different places to go and beers to try.

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Beer Search Party at GABF – Part 3

Today dawned bright and early for awards day!

Brewdad Mike (recent winner of the CanFest blogger contest) and I headed back towards the convention center to learn which beers were deemed the best for 2012.

This years ceremony was held in a much bigger space which was well filled despite the early hour and the fact that it overlapped with the Saturday morning session.

And the L.A. scene saw some awards come our way…..

First to win was Smog City!

Beachwood snared two medals.

TAPS grabbed two medals too!

And that was not all that was won. Figueroa Mountain picked up some hardware as did Pizza Port locations and Firestone-Walker too. California did good but the big winner was Devil’s Backbone from Virginia who won medal after medal and will set off many a metal detector on the way home.

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Beer Search Party at GABF – Part 1

Quick and easy (though very early) flight out of LAX. And all of a sudden we are in Colorado airspace.

Beer buddy Richard and I started at Great Divide. I picked up a fresh hop ale. Not to be confused with a Colorado fresh hop ale which was also on tap. It was a clean and crisp and medium hopped pale (in my opinion) that I really enjoyed. Great first beer to take the edge of the travel day.

Then it was on to Wynkoop for lunch. I missed the ‘Koop the first Denver visit and probably should have skipped it again. All three beers were sub-par to me and I can’t blame it on palate fatigue because it was still early in the trip. Though the Mac and Cheese was nice and much needed to balance out all of the drinking ahead.

Then (many then’s in this story), we stopped by the Beerliner. An old Bluebird bus that had been spiffily painted and retrofitted with big TV’s and four taps on the side that was parked near the Falling Rock Tap Room that was pouring only Texas beers through the weekend. Plus you got hillbilly music!

I had the English pale ale and the kolsch from Peticolas Brewing. I was quite taken by both offerings but didn’t linger because more beer beckoned (though I may return to that bus).

Now it is time for a brief rest. Followed by the Thursday session and getting a media badge. Exciting times ahead.

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GABF Brewery # 1 – Back Forty Beer

Since I will be making my triumphant return to Denver for the Great American Beer Festival, I thought that this month, I would focus on three little known breweries that I will attempt to sample from while I am there.

First up is Back Forty Beer from Gadsden, Alabama.

Per their website, they have four offerings currently Naked Pig Pale, Truck Stop Honey (which is a brown ale), Freckle Belly IPA and Kudzu porter. The artwork for the labels is simple but very effective especially for the Naked Pig which is described as “German malts provide a perfect balance to the five hop additions that go into every batch we make.”

Sounds good to me! I will add a review below if I get the chance to taste it!

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Rosemary Swamp Fox

I subscribe to Beer America TV which reviews some great beers and one of the on camera talents is brewer John Pinkerton who recently won gold at GABF!

“It was for his Rosemary Swamp Fox IPA in the “Herb and Spice or Chocolate Beer” category. It beat out 90 other entries for the honor.

In addition to the normal amounts of Centennial, Chinook and Brewer’s Gold hops, Pinkerton dry-hopped the Rosemary Swamp Fox IPA with fresh rosemary. The beer’s assertive citrus hoppiness was complemented by a blast of the piney, aromatic rosemary. It tasted just like it smelled.”

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Let’s Tour – Black Market Brewing

GABF medalists from Temecula, California. Say hello to the Black Market, Brewing Company that is.

I recently tasted a few of their beers at a Meet the Brewery style event at Blue Palms Brewhouse and came away with mixed feelings. The brown ale was solid and I know the Rye IPA is good but I was left a little cold by the red ale (Scary Carrie) and their Hefeweizen and dunkle which just tasted off style and too cereal grainy to me.

That said. Not all breweries have exceptional beer from top to bottom that suits my particular taste. I’m just glad that more breweries keep springing up in the Golden State.

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Great Divide in LA

If you want to get a craft beer geek salivating then just say the word Yeti. To the normal population, it is just a creature of myth. To the beer nerds it is a beer with many different spins from the Great Divide Brewery in Denver. A favored stop on the GABF tour.

Limited amounts of their beer would make it here to LA but now the bounty increases! And the place to be is Blue Palms on Hollywood. (With their new parking system). You can try out some Yeti and other delightful Divide beer.

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The results post

Everytime I hear about the Great American Beer Festival gold, silver and bronze winners, I think of all the categories that there are now. 79 plus the pro-am winner. That is a wonderful testament to the resurgence of craft beer in this country. I don’t care that 90+ percent of the country drink the industrial water lager because there is a bounty of great beer everywhere you go. And just like people now require better coffee and people refuse to eat individually sliced “American” cheese, soon craft beer will be the default.

So, check out the GABF website to see what beers you should be tracking down. And to get more number crunching check out the excellent Brookston Beer Bulletin.

….and a big congrats to my local, Eagle Rock Brewery for winning the Pro-Am competition with their wonderful Red Velvet.

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Battle Chai (Don’t be scared)

If you are heading to the crazy cool GABF (Great American Beer Festival) this year well then this may need to be put into the itinerary. Once you read the press release, you will want to drink the beer.

“Mutineer Magazine and New Holland Brewing Company are excited to announce the official release of their collaboration beer, Mutinous Battle Chai, on Friday, September 17th at 2pm at Falling Rock Taphouse in Denver, CO. The event will last until all the kegs are tapped. There is no admission fee and cost is per beer. 100% of the proceeds from Mutinous Battle Chai beer sales will benefit A Child’s Right, an organization dedicated to global water relief and bringing clean water to children in underdeveloped regions.

“We are really excited about our opportunity to work with New Holland Brewing, as we bring the craft beer community together to support A Child’s Right. We are very thankful to our partners in this project, New Holland Brewing Company and Falling Rock Taphouse, for making our vision a reality.” – Brian Kropf, Mutineer Magazine

Technically, Mutinous Battle Chai does not fit the guidelines of any individual style category. The base beer was brewed with both pale and rye malts, spiced with an original interpretation of the traditional chai tea spice blend, and fermented with a Belgian wit yeast strand. The base beer was primed with brown ale wort and then underwent a secondary fermentation with merlot yeast on oak. The end result is a dry, amber-colored, medium-bodied Belgian-style spiced and oaked ale unlike any craft beer brewed before.

Other beers from New Holland Brewing Company, including Golden Cap Saison, Imperial Hattter IPA, as well as Hatter Royale Hopquila, a distilled spirit that has been steeped in hops, will also be available during the release party. This is the first time that New Holland beer will make an appearance in Colorado outside of the Great American Beer Festival.

“This collaboration has been an opportunity to have fun exploring flavor, and techniques, while celebrating this exciting time in the beer industry.” — New Holland’s Beervangelist, Fred Bueltmann

For more information on the recipe and brewing process of Mutinous Battle Chai, check out Issue 13 of Mutineer Magazine, now on newsstands.”