GABF in 23 Hours

 

From Friday at 5pm to Saturday at 4pm, my life was centered around the Colorado Convention Center for the 31st annual Great American Beer Festival.  Starting back in 1982, this festival showcases American beer at its finest.  Attendees are able to sample thousands of different beers from around the country.  This year, over 580 breweries and 2700 different beers made their way to Denver, Colorado.  Indulgence and excess?  Yes!

Friday night's session ran from 5:30-10pm.  This session was the absolute highlight of my weekend, as it was when my very own beer was being poured at the ProAm booth.  Only 94 homebrewers across the country were entered into this competition.  Each homebrewer teamed up with a professional brewer to create a commercial batch of their award winning homebrew.  The homebrewer had to have won a medal in an AHA (American Homebrewers' Association) sanctioned competition.  Also, the professional brewer had to be entering beers in the GABF competition from their brewery.  When all those stars align, you can enter the competition.  Big deal?  Heck yes!

After beelining it to my beer to have the first sip, I meandered throughout the festival.  Maybe I did some silent disco dancing, maybe I stood in an atrociously long line for a beer and cheese pairing, maybe I dressed up like a moustache wielding cowgirl, and maybe I threwdown and lost at Cornhole.  Regardless of the events, this much is true: Friday was the best session ever.

Catching some shut eye between Friday night and early Saturday morning proved to be easier said than done.  Saturday morning was the GABF award's ceremony in the Wells Fargo Theater.  After a beer toast was made, the announcements were underway.  While I didn't receive a medal for my Irish I Was Irish Red, three other very talented homebrewers did.  The brewery that I collaborated with, American Brewing, ended up winning a bronze medal for their Baltic Style Porter.  So proud seeing those guys up on stage!  

Immediately following the awards ceremony, the Saturday afternoon session began.  This session was "Members Only," which meant that only BA (Brewers' Association) and AHA members were eligible for tickets.  Besides the commarderie of the crowd, the attendees of this session also received actual tasting glasses, as opposed to plastic ones in other sessions.  While it was a classy touch, it quickly became hazardous when these glasses slipped out of beer drenched hands and crashed on the cement floor.  Dodging glass chards and trying newly awarded medal winning beers proved to be quite an afternoon adventure.

 

GABF 2012:  You have once again broadened my beer horizons.  I was exposed to thousands of new beers, dozens of new friends, and a realization that following my dream of brewing is exactly what I need to do.  See you next year, Denver!