Tag: Great American Beer Festival

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GABF Winning Brewery # 3 – Uberbrew

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When you think of best use of hops, even the most knowledgeable craft beer fan doesn’t think of Billings Montana. Nor would one probably place a bet that the Small Brewing Company of the Year would hail from Big Sky country.

But Überbrew from Montana left Denver with (4) medals and bragging rights among small brewers.

Following on the heels of their Alpha King Challenge win in 2015, they bagged two golds, a silver and bronze at this year’s GABF. And those are the beers in my first taster tray paddle, if I ever find myself at their brewery.

GOLD – White Noise (American-Style Wheat Beer with Yeast)
GOLD – Humulus Insani (Imperial IPA)
SILVER – Average at Best (Double Red Ale)
Bronze – Alpha Force Double Tap (American-Style Black Ale)

Congratulations to all the winners and I look forward to seeing the surprise winners next year.

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GABF Winning Brewery # 2 – Lynwood Brewing Concern

Our second Great American Beer Festival GABF winner comes from the great state of North Carolina.
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Lynwood Brewing Concern started as The Lynnwood Grill in 2004 with the addition of a small craft brewery in the back of the restaurant in the “Triangle” in North Carolina.

Over 12 years, their reputation grew and they were forced to add space thus the move to a bigger facility in Five Points where they took over the space of a brewery that was itself moving to an even larger space. Now they have two brewing operations to produce their award winning beers. Such as Once You Go, a black ale that won gold or Drop Bear Australian Pale Ale that also snared gold.

Here is what I would order to start….
Lynnwood Light – Golden Ale
“Crisp, light-bodied, and easily approachable. This is what we call easy drinking. The pale malts and Perle hops give this ale a golden, straw color that simply begs to be enjoyed.”

Czech Yourself – pilsner
“Before you lump this in with watered-down, mass-produced pilsners, give it a try. Brewed in the German lager tradition with a pilsner malt character, it’s spicy, slightly sweet, and grainy, with a moderate bitterness to the finish.”

Mosaic Pale Ale – American Pale Ale
“There’s a reason the Mosaic hop is getting attention in the beer world. This hop-heavy ale brings aromas of mango, pineapple, citrus and tropical fruit balanced with a touch of caramel and lightly toasted bread from the malts.”

Kiss my Irish stout – Dry Stout
“This dark Irish style stout has some serious attitude. Like you’d expect, it’s hearty, rich and medium-bodied—and completely unapologetic about mixing hints of coffee and chocolate. Dry and moderately bitter.”

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GABF Winning Brewery # 1 – ZwanzigZ Brewing

Our first Great American Beer Festival GABF Winner of the Small Brewpub & Brewery award from Indiana, ZwanzigZ Brewing (which also does pizza, which is a double win for me).
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They picked up silver medals for their The Ticket Chocolate Beer and Frankenwald Eisbock. That’s a duo from two different styles which shows a nice range. This Columbus based brewery also has some other beers that I would try (after the medal winners of course):

Cucumber Lime Kolsch
“Kolsch style German Ale brewed with key limes and cucumber. Very light and refreshing making it a great summer time beer. Garnished with a cucumber wheel and rimmed with optional chili powder.”

Shh Anne D
“A summertime beer brewed with raspberry and lemonade. A sessionable beer at 3.2% ABV that won’t slow you down.”

Triple Z IPA
“Balanced with pale malt and hopped every 10 minutes for an hour. Hop lovers crave Cascade, Columbus and Centennial hops. This beer is assertively hopped with all three. A true American IPA.”

Bourbon Barrel Scotch Ale
“Balanced with pale malt and hopped every 10 minutes for an hour. Hop lovers crave Cascade, Columbus and Centennial hops. This beer is assertively hopped with all three. A true American IPA.”

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GABF Awards – Re-Cap

Another edition of the Great American Beer Festival is in the books. Here is a curated awards round-up with a focus on LA area based breweries.
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Imagine you had 7,227 beers in front of you. Picture that in your mind.  That is the beast that Charlie Papazian has wrought.  He pioneered this festival through 35 years and it was heartening to see Colorado Governor Hickenlooper honor him for his service and all of the many fist bumps that must make his right hand a mess on the Sunday after the awards ceremony.
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96 categories were contested this year with (7) new categories added for 2016.  Pumpkin /Squash Beer, Finnish Sahti, Swedish Gotlandsricke, Pale and Dark Breslau Schoeps, German Leichtbier and Specialty Saison.
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Let’s get into the Los Angeles winners shall we?  ABove is Bob Kunz and the Highland Park team which won GOLD with Good Green for American-Style Strong Pale Ale.  El Segundo, known for hops, won for their lager instead, Casa Azul.  The Beachwood Blendery was not in chaos but their friendly Lambic won silver.  Also winning silver was Devon Randall and Arts District Brewing in the Smoke Beer category for Cowboy Curtis.  Also, very impressively Huntington Beach’s Riip Beer Co. took silver in the highly competitive and largest group, IPA with their Super Cali IPA.  An amazing 312 beers were in that category!  Moving down to bronze we find Kinetic Brewing winning that shade in the Chocolate Beer category for 4th Gear,  newbie Iron Triangle started snared the Imperial Stout bronze for Jawbone, reliable winners Smog City got bronze for Sabre-Toothed Squirrel as well.

For reasons unknown to me, the Pabst plant of industrial beer won a pair of medals as well as another Large Brewing Company plaque.  So there is that LA connection too.
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Big Winners of the morning presentation were (4) medal winners Figueroa Mountain and  Überbrew from Billings, Montana.

Going all statistical, the best results were posted by Wyoming, Hawaii and Virginia.  California picked up 56 medals all told.  IPA’d dominated the amount of submission but coffee beer was a newcomer to the big categories so kudos to California that took silver and bronze in that caffeinated category.

(All photos screenshotted from the Brewers Network livestream of the event.)  Sorry that I again entered in late.  Damn time difference.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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In the Tap Lines for October 2016

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We have entered GABF Season. The King of Craft Beer festivals. I will cover the L.A. focused results and any other news that springs forth from the Denver Convention Center along with my regular posts, reviews and events to check out.

~ e-visits to three breweries that took home gold medals at GABF this year.
~ special featured reviews of canned beers from a variety of styles.
~ Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events
~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark
~ A Book & A Beer reads Doctor Sleep from Stephen King
~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.

Here are two events to get your October started in the Los Angeles craft beer world:
1) October 2nd – Harvest Festival at Angel City Brewery
2) October 4th – Tuesday at Tony’s Mystery Flight Night

…and here is the beer photo of the month…
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Advance Warning – GABF16

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Set your alarms for 10am on August 3rd, that is when tickets for the 35th Great American Beer Festival become available for purchase.

Just a little gathering in Denver and their Convention Center for more than 800 breweries and somewhere close to 3,800 beers. This year the fest runs from Thursday, October 6th to Saturday, October 8th.

This year the general session tickets are $80. They will go quickly.

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GABF Gold & Unknown Brewery # 3 – 7th Settlement

The last golden stop is at 7th Settlement of Dover, New Hampshire who won gold in the American Brown ale category for their 1623 Almighty Brown.

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7th Settlement Brewery is named for Dover, New Hampshire which according to the brewery is “the oldest permanent settlement in New Hampshire, and 7th in the New World.”

Their tag line of “Don’t Buy Beer from Strangers” is a succinct buy local plea that I think should be a nationwide mantra.

Now if I was tasting their beer, I would be sampling the following….(by year)

1623 Brown Ale then the 1896 wheat before moving to the Rear View Roggenbier then going on to the Amarillo Evening and their Milk Stout to round it out.

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GABF Gold & Unknown Brewery # 2 – BNS Brewing & Distilling

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There is one category that is incredibly hard to just medal, let alone strike gold.  That is the case for the American IPA category which had 336 competitors this year.  I would be hard pressed to drink that many IPA’s in a full year.  But BNS Brewing and Distilling from right here in California came out on top of the hop battle royale with their Revolver American IPA.

But this Santee brewery doesn’t just do hops with their Old West themed beers.  Here are my choices for a taster tray…..

Gunfighter Golden Ale,  Saloon Girl Saison, Flintlock American Pale Ale, Gatling Gun Imperial Stout.

And maybe they will have some patriotic spirits to go along with their beers in the near future.

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GABF Gold & Unknown Brewery # 1 – Melvin Brewing

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We start in Wyoming with a brewery that had roots in a much lauded restaurant and brewery, Thai Me Up.  Melvin Brewing is now moving from a 3bbl to a 30bbl system.  And that may boot them out of the category that they won this year, Small Brewpub of 2015.

They won gold for Chchchch-Cherry Bomb in the American Fruit Beer category and a bronze in the Fresh/Wet Hop Ale for their namesake IPA.

Let’s check out some other beers to try:

Killer Bees – “Clean, smooth, slow motion, easy drinkin’, honey. The palette cleanser extraordinaire. Perfect for mowing your unwatered lawn, sipping in the shower, or fishing on a Sunday. ”

Hubert MPA – “Some would just call him an IPA, but we call him an MPA. The Melvin Pale Ale. A welcomed hand shake to your taste buds.”

Clinic ISA – “This medicinal India Session Ale is perfect for drinking at work under your desk, on a deck under the sun in your skivvies, or chilling out on a chairlift. Let Melvin Clinic make it all better with this light, crisp, and fresh taste. ”

..or try their Trip Out Tripel.

 

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GABF Re-Cap

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Another year of Great American Beer and the Festival that celebrates it, is now past.  Brewers and craft beer fans are heading to the airport for flights home.  Now it is time to see what was awarded in Denver at the GABF and what I think about it.

For L.A. fans, the two big pieces of news are the brace of silvers that are coming home  Smog City nabbed their second medal since opening with their Kumquat Saison in the Belgian-Style Fruit beer category.  Julian Shrago and Beachwood added to their trophy case with Mocha Machine in the Coffee beer category.

There were a whopping 92 categories this year plus the Pro-Am beers.  The smallest category was the American style Dark Lager with only 21 entries. Fifteen of the categories had over 100 entries with IPA’s again dominating the proceedings with an astounding 336.  Followed by Imperial IPA’s with 208!  And California wrested the IPS crown back from Oregon as BNS Brewing from Santee took the gold with their Revolver IPA.

Speaking of state bragging rights, California was in the forefront again with 66 total medals (by my count).  Including a sweep of the Cream Ale category with Pabst of Los Angeles brewing Washington Iconic beers of Rainier (gold) and Olympia (silver). Dale Brothers from Upland took bronze with Nuff. Colorado parlayed its home field advantage to 35 medals including a gold in the hotly contested Wood and Barrel-Aged Strong Beer category that was won by AC Golden.  Oh and Coors Banquet struck gold as well. Oregon hauled in 19 medals and Washington State 12 and it seemed whenever the ABInBev owned 10 Barrel would win that another Bend based brewery would win the next higher medal.  A bit of karma perhaps?

Firestone Walker and TAPS were named mid-sized winners and Rip Current from San Diego was tabbed for Very Small Brewing company awards.  If you prefer your beer brewed or owned by a large corporation, the Pabst of Los Angeles should be your choice, at least the Brewer’s Association thinks so…

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Other assorted notes:

Feral One and Sour Opal picked up medals for Barrelworks in Buellton.

Ritual won big with two gold medals as did Bottle Logic.

Session IPA’s debuted this year and had the 4th highest entry count.

My college town of McMinnville was mentioned with a gold from Golden Valley .

Best beer name was in the Belgian Quadrupel category: Quad Damn It.