This past weekend marked both my first visit to Denver, Colorado, as well as my first trip the Great American Beer Festival. Having been to a few beer festivals in my day, I thought I had a pretty good idea about what to expect. As it turns out, I had no idea.
Before I talk about my experience at GABF, I want to comment on the Denver beer scene (Yes I know this is Drink Michigan, but it deserves a nod!). As part of the trip, Audrey and I were treated to a brewery tour where we visited Great Divide, Mockery, and Tivoli. If these locations are indicative of the rest of the Denver breweries, the beer scene in Denver is probably the best in the nation (second to Michigan). All three of these breweries showed off creativity and passion in their beers that simply blew me away. The sheer amount of amazing bottle shops (don’t ask how much I spent at Mondo Vino) and craft beer bars (Freshcraft, Star Bar and Falling Rock to name a few) would occupy any beer lover for weeks.
First off, this festival is HUGE. Hosted in the Colorado Convention Center, more than 800 breweries made an appearance, bringing over 3,800 beers. I attended three sessions (each about 4 hours long), and there were still corners of the hall floor I never made it to! Like most festivals, I planned to hit a few specific breweries, but once I made it through my list, the wandering began! Really interesting to see the amazing beers coming out of all the 50 states, and finding the real gems that each brewery had to offer.
As an add on to the event, there’s a food and beer pairing called Paired (formerly known as Farm to Table). I highly recommend that you don’t let the price dissuade you from this, and in fact I’d recommend simply attending this event instead of one of the sessions! With 22 tables, each sporting 2 beers and food pairings, you can stay busy (and full) for hours.
Michigan breweries not only made a good showing in the competition (10 medals coming home!) but were also very popular on the showroom floor. When Bell’s is pouring Black Note and New Holland is pouring Vanilla Chai Dragon’s Milk and Incorrigible Reserve, you know Michigan brought it’s A game.
Not only am I already blocking my calendar for GABF 2017, I highly recommend that any beer lover make it to this festival at least once in their lives.
