A Great American Beer Festival?

This past weekend I crossed off a bucket list item by attending the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colorado. GABF, as it’s most often referred, celebrated it’s 30th anniversary this year, featuring over 1900 beers from over 400 U.S. breweries, making it the largest beer festival in the country. The annual tasting event runs for three days offering four session options each 5 hours in length. I chose to attend the last session on Saturday in order to be able to come in just for the weekend.

GABF has turned into more than just a festival. The days before, during and after the festival are filled with various beer drinking/tasting activities throughout the Denver/Boulder area. I was able to partake in a few of these events Friday night and enjoyed sampling some brews from local spots Avery Brewing Company and Great Divide Brewing.

On Saturday we arrived at the convention center at 4:00pm in order to stand in line before the doors opened at 5:30pm. I’m not one for standing in line, but I was uber excited to get inside and try some beers I had only heard about. The timing put us in a great position, and we were one of the first inside the building. The line moved extremely quickly and without issue. We were greeted by a ring of bagpipers playing just outside the festival doors which only fueled the anticipation. Once inside we grabbed a cup (no tokens as is the norm at our Michigan festivals), and we rushed to the first booth.

This is when things became disappointing. At the very first booth, being one of the first people in line, they were already out of what I wanted to try. What? How can that be? After a few more trips to other booths, I discovered much of the same. My heart sank. I traveled all that way, paid a lot of money, and hadn’t been advised by anyone not to attend the Saturday night session because of supply. After 30 years, you would think that either the session would be cheaper than the others, or brewers would know to bring more beer.

I tried to make the best of the situation, and started to explore new breweries. I sampled some amazing craft beers from Russian River, Full Sail, Captain Lawrence, Lost Abby, Cigar City, Shipyard, New Belgium and my new favorite Firestone -Walker. The lines were actually not bad at all. I couldn’t believe the event was sold out, as there was a lot of space, and it didn’t take long to sample anything that was left.

There were ten or eleven Michigan breweries at the festival, and I stopped by a few to say hello. Short’s Brewery has been the talk of GABF the past few years. The lines at their beautifully crafted booth were longer than most, but still shorter than they are at our Michigan festivals. They took home the prize for best booth, but surprisingly none for their beer.

Another negative I noticed at the festival was the lack of brewery representation at the booths. They were mostly staffed with volunteers, who seemed pretty knowledgeable for the most part, but several times I caught myself asking, “Where are you from?” only to remember that those serving were not from the actual brewery. I learned that most of the brewery staff attend the first session on Thursday, and then either go home or visit all the local breweries to do their own networking and exploring. I’ve read a few other GABF followups and have seen similar observations which have led to some debates on whether brewery reps should be in the booth during festivals. This has been my second national festival, and it seems that this has been the norm for both. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a booth at a Michigan festival hosted by the Brewers Guild where a brewery rep wasn’t present.

A positive of the event is that we made some new friends, and even got some ideas for accessories for our next festival. I never waited in line for the bathroom and the facilities were always clean. There was ample time to try many different beers from around the country, and the event seemed to happen without incident. Denver is a great city, and we had much fun adventuring around during the short time we were in town.

Jet packs filled with cheese balls

Things I learned from the experience? GO THURSDAY! Unless you live near the venue, it isn’t worth it to go to the other sessions. But if you want to go to the opening night session, purchase the tickets the minute they go on sale, because they sell out ridiculously fast. If you like the attention and information you get by having brewery representatives at the booth, attend a local festival instead of a national one. Like the Detroit Fall Beer Festival for example.

Author: Audrey

Designer/Developer @AMBRDetroit - Co-Founder of @DrinkMichigan. Michigan State Grad, Professional Traveler, Craft Beer Drinker, Euchre Dominator