The 31st Great American Beer Festival (GABF), held a few weeks ago at the Colorado Convention Center, stands as a testament to the intrinsic appeal of craft brewed beer … and to the vision and hard work of the people at the Brewers Association (which organizes it) and to the craft brewers that have proliferated across the country over these years.
New for 2012, the GABF added a Brewpub Pavilion, with approximately 24 breweries representing all regions of the country. The GABF decided to celebrate Brewpubs this year as they make up about half of U.S. breweries, numbering more than 1,000. There also were 110 more breweries at the festival than last year; and a new competition category (the 84th!) – Fresh Hop Ale. This category was added in recognition of brewers increasingly looking for ways to brew beers in sync with the harvest season. This new category showcases ales, which are hopped exclusively with fresh, undried, “wet” hops.
While most everything else in the American economy is contracting, it seems the craft beer world just keeps expanding. The GABF seems to more popular every year, this year selling out in just 45 minutes during the public ticket sale. The GABF remains the largest commercial beer competition in the world. Here are some stats to make the point:
- 578 breweries (over 100 more than last year) served over 2,700 beers (over 300 more than last year) and the biggest selection of American beers ever served), to 49,000 attendees (including ticketed attendees, brewers, judges, volunteers and journalists).
- The 84 beer categories covered 134 different beer styles.
- Winners were chosen from 4,338 entries from 666 breweries, from 48 states, Washington, D.C. and Guam, matching its largest field of entries to date.
- The top five entered categories were (theoretically and indication of consumer interest):
v American-Style India Pale Ale, 203 Entries
v Imperial India Pale Ale, 128 entries
v Herb and Spice Beer, 114 entries
v American-Style Strong Pale Ale, 111 entries
v American-Style Pale Ale, 109 entries
The GABF is both a public/member festival and a privately judged competition. And once again Colorado was well represented among the awards. Funkwerks of Fort Collins was named Small Brewing Company and Small Brewing Company Brewer of the Year. By my count, 28 Colorado breweries won 33 awards, as listed below:
- Fruit Beer, Gold: Apricot Blonde, Dry Dock Brewing Co., Aurora
- Coffee Beer, Bronze: Big Shot Espresso Stout, Twisted Pine Brewing Co., Boulder
- Specialty Honey Beer, Gold: West Bound Braggot, Twisted Pine Brewing, Boulder
- Fresh Hop Ale, Bronze: Colorado IPA Nouveau, Tommyknocker Brewery, Idaho Springs
- Indigenous Beer, Gold: Got Beer, BJ’s Restaurant & Brewery, Boulder
- Gluten-Free Beer, Silver: Brown, New Planet Beer Co., Boulder
- American-Style Brett Ale, Bronze: TPS Report, Trinity Brewing, Colorado Springs
- Wood- and Barrel-Aged Strong Stout, Bronze: Barrel Aged Russian Imperial Stout, AC Golden Brewing, Golden
- Wood- and Barrel-Aged Sour Beer, Silver: Sentience, Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project, Denver
- Smoke Beer, Gold: Bambastic, Fort Collins Brewery, Fort Collins
- Munich-Style Helles, Gold: 6X Helles, CB & Potts Restaurant & Brewery, Fort Collins
- Dortmunder or German-Style Oktoberfest, Gold: Move Back, The SandLot, Denver
- American-Style Lager, Light Lager or Premium Lager, Bronze: Keystone Light, Coors Brewing, Golden
- European-Style Dunkel, Gold: Knight Ryder Munich Dunkel, Equinox Brewing, Fort Collins
- Bock, Gold: Butt Head Bock, Tommyknocker Brewery, Idaho Springs
- International-Style Pale Ale, Gold: River Runners Pale Ale, Eddyline Brewing, Buena Vista
- English-Style Mild Ale, Bronze: S.S. Minnow Mild Ale, Dry Dock Brewing, Aurora
- Ordinary or Special Bitter, Bronze: Sawtooth Ale, Left Hand Brewing, Longmont
- Extra Special Bitter, Silver: The Tower E.S.B., Bull & Bush Brewery, Denver
- Irish-Style Red Ale, Gold: Irish Red, Glenwood Canyon Brewing, Glenwood Springs and Bronze: Balefire Red, Echo Brewing, Frederick
- English-Style Brown Ale, Bronze: Molly’s Titanic Brown Ale, Rock Bottom, Westminster
- American-Style Brown Ale, Gold: Face Down Brown, Telluride Brewing, Telluride and Silver: Upslope Brown Ale, Upslope Brewing, Boulder
- German-Style Altbier, Silver: Land’s End Amber, Kannah Creek Brewing, Grand Junction and Bronze: Little Red Cap, Grimm Brothers Brewhouse, Loveland
- German-Style Sour Ale, Bronze: NBB Love Felix, New Belgium Brewing Co., Fort Collins
- German-Style Wheat Ale, Gold: Wildpitch Hefeweizen, The SandLot, Denver
- Belgian-Style Witbier, Silver: White Rascal, Avery Brewing Co., Boulder
- French- and Belgian-Style Saison, Gold: Saison, Funkwerks, Fort Collins and Silver: Saison, Aspen Brewing Co., Aspen
- Belgian-Style Strong Specialty Ale, Gold: Deceit, Funkwerks, Fort Collins
- Sweet Stout, Silver: Milk Stout, Rock Bottom Westminster
- Barley Wine-Style Ale, Bronze: Dr. StrangeLove, Strange Brewing Co., Denver
I was glad to see the festival continued its emphasis on matching beer with food. This was prominently on display in the more intimate Farm-to-Table Pavilion where chefs created dishes using Colorado products to pair with selected beers from around the country.
Chefs Kelly Whitaker of Basta Pizzeria, Alex Seidel of Fruition, Duane Walker of Lola, Joe Troupe of Lucky Pie Pizzeria, Kyle Mendenhall of The Kitchen, Lon Symensma of ChoLon Bistro, and Daniel Asher of Root Down and Linger all clearly were having a great time serving their amazing food with great beers from Alaskan Brewing, Arcadia Ales, Avery Brewing, Ballast Point Brewing, Denver Beer Co., Bevils Backbone Brewing, Firestone Walker Brewing, Ghost River Brewing, Jester King Craft Brewery, Saint Arnold Brewing, Smuttynose Brewing, and Sun King Brewing.
As a “wine guy,” I’m well versed in the affinity between wine and food. So, I have been pleased to see craft brewers in recent years put more effort into making beers that are best drunk with food. The Farm-to-Table Pavilion presented a fine opportunity to discover how much local foods rendered by skilled chefs have in common with craft beer from small and independent breweries. This innovative event is destined to become a perennial highlight of the GABF.
Beer and food pairing also was on display at a press lunch where homebrewing was the other focus. We sipped beers from Epic Brewing Company, Telegraph Brewing, 5 Rabbit Brewery, Catawba Valley Brewing, La Cumbre Brewing, Flying Fish Brewing, Maui Brewing, and Founders Brewing as we learned such facts as more than 1,000,000 people in the United States make beer or wine at home; there are 1327 home brew clubs; 761 homebrew retailers; and the average annual growth in homebrewing from 2005-2011 was twenty percent. And each of the guest brewers drew the connection with commercial craft brewing as they talked about how their passion began with home brewing.
New Samuel Adams Beers
The Boston Beer Company, makers of Samuel Adams beers, hosted a brunch during the GABF to announce the winners of its “LongShot American Homebrew Contest.” It’s really cool that Jim Koch, founder of Sam Adams, has been encouraging homebrewers with this competition for over fifteen years now. The winners – Zach Adams’ Magnificent Seven, James Schirmers’ Beerflower Wheat, and Employee Homebrew Winner Dave Anderson’s Strawberry Lager will be bottled and available nationally in the 2013 Samuel Adams LongShot Variety Six-Pack.
Even more exciting was Jim Koch getting together with Jack MAuliffe, a pioneer of the craft brewing industry and 
founder of the New Albion Brewing Company, which is considered to be the first craft brewery in the U.S. They have collaborated to brew McAuliffe’s original New Albion Ale for the first time in thirty years. It even will be brewed using its original yeast, which they told us has been preserved all these years at the University of California!
Classified as an American Pale Ale, it is brewed with Cascade hops and a 2-row malt blend. The hops contribute a mild bitterness and citrus, while the malt rounds out the palate to finish with a suggestion of sweetness. Remarkably, Koch says all profits from the sale of New Albion Ale will go to Jack McAuliffe.
Deschutes New Releases
Maybe it’s a coincidence the GABF added a new Fresh Hop Ales category and now Deschutes Brewery of Bend, Oregon has released two new examples of the style. As noted above, the style features fresh, recently harvested hops. This brewing technique adds nuances of green, almost chlorophyll-like character. As someone with a wine writing background, I think of fresh hop as the beer version of Beaujolais Nouveau, wines made from grapes harvested, fermented, bottled and released to the market all within about a two month period.
Deschutes “Hop Trip” is made with “Salmon-Safe” Crystal hops from a farm just three hours away from the brewery. Its citrus and spicy herb notes accent a, yes, fresh smelling and tasting brew. Hop Trip is a new addition to Deschutes’ Bond Street Series, experimental beers made as part of an exploration of “the many nuances and endless possibilities of the almighty hop.”
Not satisfied with that, Deschutes also has added “Chasin’ Freshies” to its experimental Bond Street line-up. A reference to the skier’s eternal pursuit of fresh powder, Deschutes presents this beer as a pursuit of the purest of fresh hops. In contrast to “Hop Trip,” this one is brewed using heirloom Cascade hops from a Salmon-Safe farm in the Willamette Valley. It also is brewed more in the style of an IPA. I liked the citrusy, slightly spicy hops and sweet malt in the nose. In the mouth, it opens with that sweet malt, which then is enlivened with those citrusy hops in the finish.
Enjoy!