Category: USA

The first session of the Great American Beer Festival is over. And I’m glad to report that Merideth and I survived our GABF baptism.

Our day in Denver began where every beer geek ends up at some time or another in Denver; Falling Rock. This epicenter of the Colorado beer scene draws people to its taps on a normal day. But during GABF, specials events and special beers ensure a large, thirsty and boisterous crowd. And when Chris, the owner, comes on the PA to announce a new special keg is being tapped, the cheers ring throughout the pub.

Not only is Falling Rock the place to see or be seen, to stalk that one brewer or blogger, it can also be home base for meeting up with friends from around the country. We spent a lazy few hours on the shaded and chilly Falling Rock patio enjoying beers with friends. The Breckenridge 471 IPA and Port Brewing’s
High Tide Fresh Hop IPA were of particular enjoyment.

After a short stop at our hotel, it was off to our very first session of the Great American Beer Festival. Here I should add a disclaimer. We have media passes so we got to enter the hall early through a special door, bypassing the immensely huge line of people waiting to get in. We heard anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour wait so note to any future attendees…. get in line early.

Similar to Great British Beer Festival, when you walk in for the first time, the sheer size of the event is overwhelming. Add in a sold out crowd and you get a pretty awe-inspiring sight.

The breweries are grouped by region and then alphabetically within the region. As expected, breweries such as Russian River, Lost Abbey and Dogfish had long lines, which we avoided. We heard a number of different strategies such as come prepared with a “hit list” or concentrate on one particular region at a time but we opted for the wander continuously and just randomly choose a beer.

With such a strategy you end up with a diverse range of breweries, from Dog Brewing in Wesminster, MD (Dog Black Stout) to Ghost River Brewing in Memphis TN (Glacial Pale Ale) to Surly Brewing in Brooklyn Center, MN (Furious). The outstanding beer of the day for me easily was Pure Hoppiness from Alpine Brewing in Alpine, CA.

For Merideth, her favorite might have been the peanut butter beer from Blue Moon. Recommended by our friend, Jay Brooks, Merideth immediately sought out this odd brew. And it was odd, at least to me.

In the end, I think I had maybe 20-25 samples in a little over four hours. At one ounce at a time, that is barely over an imperial pint. This is probably the main beauty of GABF; you can try a large number of diverse beers from around the country and leave relatively sober. That leaves plenty of beer drinking left for one of the many after parties.

 

Wednesday Chris and I survived me accidentally using his toothbrush to have another great day in the Rocky Mountains. We got an early start in order to drive the three hours from Frisco to Colorado Springs. We took the back roads, which were both beautiful and interesting. On our way, we drove through the snow dusted mountains where the temperature got down to 31 degrees according to the car. We passed through small mountain towns like Hartsel and Fairplay (formerly known as South Park). Apparently South Park didn’t like the association with the politically incorrect, wrong on so many levels, but darn funny cartoon of the same name, so it became Fairplay. We thought they gave up a big marketing opportunity, but maybe that was the point.

Coming into Colorado Springs, the first brewery we hit was Rocky Mountain Brewery. Attached to a homebrew supply shop, Rocky Mountain opened in June of this year. We then moved on to Bristol Brewing. It was somewhat of a sad day for me overall because many years ago I came to visit an old friend here in Colorado Springs…without Chris. At that time, she took me to several breweries, one of which was Bristol. Of course, I didn’t get to count it again, which meant that Chris gained a brewery on me. Bristol was a friendly place and we chatted with the bartender and another employee who was trying desperately to avoid studying his chemistry. We enjoyed our visit sampling their kolsch, Oktoberfest, small beer, and the Red Rocket Pale Ale, which we bought to take home.

After Bristol Brewing, it was on to Phantom Canyon to meet our friends Eli and Fran. Phantom Canyon was another brewery that I was not able to count because I had already been there. While I didn’t remember the place, the List doesn’t lie. Chris gained another one on me. We ate some very tasty food as we sampled the beers. I ended up with the Queen’s Blonde Ale and Chris had the IPA.

Eli was nice enough to set up a quick 20 minute visit to Arctic Craft Brewery, which is only open to the public Thursday through Saturday. They were very busy in there loading beer for Trinity Brewing’s pre-GABF party, as well as GABF. They started us out with a few samples and having finished those, co-owner John told us to help ourselves. Chris was not shy about going behind the bar to taste the milk stout. They had some interesting beers, including a vanilla porter and a peach lager. Arctic is part of the can movement and we bought the On-On American Pale Ale in cans to bring home.

Then it was on to the focus of the evening, the pre-GABF party at Trinity Brewing. With a motto of “Artisanal beer, slow food, conscious people”, Trinity is a green, eco-friendly establishment with a great atmosphere and cute wait staff. The food offerings included almond stuffed bacon wrapped dates (very yummy!), sweet potato fries and Belgian fries. Trinity has 25 taps and the pre-GABF shindig featured all Colorado beers.

The highlight for me was seeing the ‘randler’, a tube filled with fresh hops and herbs. Co-owner/brewer Jason showed us how the regular keg of IPA is filtered through the fresh ingredients, then through a second filter to clean out any bits, then out the tap into our glasses. Not a regular IPA drinker, I liked the flo IPA, but IPA lovers might find it a bit light tasting. The beer is every bit as hoppy, but the bitterness didn’t bite me in the behind. Eli, a fellow non-IPA drinker, also liked flo.

In about an hour, Chris and I are driving up to Denver for the main event of our trip. On the way, we plan to stop in Castle Rock to visit Rockyard Brewing. Once in Denver, we are going to cruise around town to see who we can run into, pick up our media passes, and attend the first GABF session at 5:30.

So far on this trip, Chris has added 9 breweries to the List, making his total 421. I, however, have only added 7 breweries for a grand total of 418. I guess I’m falling behind.

 

I have no problem admitting that Merideth and I are Europhiles. Yesterday, when we were on a bus shuttle at LAX, we saw a Swiss Air plane taxiing to depart. I immediately turned to Merideth and commented how it would be nice to headed to the Swiss Alps. Two minutes later, we saw the Aer Lingus flight take off for Dublin.  I immediately mused that it would be nice to be heading to Dublin. But we weren’t going to our beloved Europe, rather Colorado.  But, I have to admit, Colorado is a pretty nice destination to visit especially if you like beer.

We were on I-70 early heading west early this morning as we had a beer agenda; four breweries to visit on our way to Frisco. Luckily, we were on the move early enough to be able to take a detour off the highway to visit Buffalo Bill’s grave which is perched atop Lookout Mountain. Not a planned stop, I got enticed by one of those signs along the highway. The bonus was that you could see the Coors brewery in Golden from the vantage point.

Our first ‘real’ stop was Tommyknocker Brewery in Idaho Springs, a short  drive outside of Denver. A quaint little town, Idaho Springs was where the Colorado gold rush began, so everything about the town and brewery is mining. A “Tommyknocker” is a mine fairy and they can be either mischievous or friendly.

We enjoyed a 11 beer sampler at the bar. The highlights we could agree on were the Alpine Glacier Lager and the Maple Nut Brown Ale. The Maple Nut Brown had a really subtle maple flavor that made it the perfect breakfast beer; pancakes and Maple Nut Brown Ale might be the ultimate breakfast that we have never had.

I also enjoyed the Rye Porter and Bitter Brewer, a Tommyknocker seasonal.

Then it was on to Dillon where our day took a disappointing twist. The plan was to go to Dillon Dam Brewery, but they were closed today and tomorrow for “repairs”.  This begs two questions. One, why would they close the two days before GABF when thousands of beer geeks arrived several days early to check out the Colorado beer scene. And more importantly, didn’t they read our blog and see that we were coming??????

Being the professionals we are, we quickly recovered as our final destination, Frisco, was only a few more miles. We quenched our thirst at Backcountry Brewing, elevation 9,097 feet.

I actually had some concern about the elevation as I don’t do well in the higher elevations. Several times at 11,000 feet, I have had anxiety attacks and the only cure was going down. But I must have found a new cure, beer!

At Backcountry, we had a seven beer sampler, the highlight being the Telemark IPA and another breakfast beer aptly titled Breakfast Stout. If there was ever a Stout that could be a a substitute for your morning coffee, this was it.

After two breweries, it was time for some exercise. We decided to walk back to Dillon along the reservoir trail and finish our day at Dillon’s other, and hopefully open, brewpub.

It was a two hour walk so we had developed quite a thirst by the time we found Pug Ryan’s. The highlight beers were the multiple GABF medal winning Pilsner (Silver 2007, Gold 2005) and the brewer’s first ever attempt at a Saison. It was pretty darn good for a first time out.

Now for the meaning of the blog title… After some food and a game of scrabble, the plan was to take a taxi back to our hotel. Much to our shock, they don’t have taxis in the area and we were not looking forward to a two hour walk back to Frisco in the dark. After much scrambling to figure out what to do, they ended up offering to give us a ride back to our hotel. A huge thank you to the bartender Chris for dropping us off at our hotel. Now that is customer service. If you are ever even remotely close to Dillon, Colorado, be sure to give Pug Ryan’s your business. Any business willing to go that far for a customer deserves as much business as possible.

 

The Year in Beer visits Colorado in October for our first-ever visit to the pinnacle of American beer events, the Great American Beer Festival. The 27th annual edition is a three day event featuring 400 breweries and 1,800 beers.

But before we get to GABF, we are going to do a quick Colorado brewery tour to  make some progress towards our goal of reaching 450 by the end of the year.

Our first day in Colorado will take us across the continental divide to the western slope, completely virgin territory for us. Our list for the western slope includes:

• Backcountry Brewery
• Dillon Dam Brewery
• Pug Ryan’s
• Tommyknockers

Then it is off to Colorado Springs where we will hook up with our friends Eli and Fran for a beer tour. Our list for Colorado Springs is:

• Bristol Brewing
• Judge Baldwin’s
• Phantom Canyon
• Rocky Mountain Brewery
• Trinity

With hopefully nine new breweries on our list, it is back to Denver for the Great American Beer Festival. At this point, I would usually give some insight on our expectations but as I said, this is our first time. I have an inkling we will be drinking beer – one ounce at a time – and that we will know a bunch of people.

I do know we are going to the Thursday session and Saturday AHA members session. In between there will be a bevy of beer related events we will be attending.

We are excited and look forward to our first GABF…