GABF Winners: Rants n Raves

I enjoy seeing my local win a medal, but I am surprised they have never one with one of their sours. Not sure what they enter every year either.

 

yazoo hefe got a bronze, which i'm happy about. also, the isle of sky took silver for a red ale. both are locals for me and well liked

 

I remember trying Red Hook Treblehook because it took a medal at GABF. Figured I would hate it, but it was pretty good.

I know these awards are big for the brewers. I was at Fat Head's yesterday when Alpenglow won Silver and you would have thought the Browns won a superbowl by the way the owners and head brewer reacted.

 

Really? You've never tried to track down a beer after you heard it won an award and never heard of it?

 

I have tracked down some and wondered how they won an award

 

I may have at some point in my younger days, if so I cannot recall. After having enough "award winning beers" you realize that it has nothing to do with comparative "quality" or your own tastes. I see little reason to use medals as my basis for purchase.

 

The Alstrom Bros. did stop at Yak and Yeti on this trip to CO. I think it may really help the WAY smaller breweries/pubs.

 

Never. It's one contest with one set of judges tasting samples. Any result can come out of that type of scenario, and it often leaves one scratching their head.

 

the categoriesstyles are kind of a joke, i mean a pale ale(zombie dust) was awarded in a IPA

 

Medals are great for advertising and publicity. Notable people visiting a brewery or drinking a beer can be useful as well. If you have a good understanding of breweries, styles and your own tastes than medals really do not have any importance to you.

 

Zombie Dust won as an APA, though style guidelines place it in an IPA category.

 

If they use the BJCP standards, every part of Zombie Dust fits in as an IPA

Vital Statistics:
OG: 1.056 – 1.075
IBUs: 40 – 70 FG: 1.010 – 1.018
SRM: 6 – 15 ABV: 5.5 – 7.5%

 

so what does that say about the categories?

 

The only rant I'd like to offer that hasn't already been mentioned is Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy winning a silver for Fruit Wheat Beer. Gimme a break.

 

Maybe because it's entered into a category, and the judges are supposed to score it based on the style guidelines of the category it's entered into. The first beer I brewed was a pale ale recipe, but because of several "mistakes" it ended up almost 6.5%, almost orange, and very IPA like. When I had Jay at Weasel Boy try it, he told me "Whatever you do, if you enter that recipe into any competitions, don't enter it as a Pale Ale. They'll rip your score apart if you do. Enter it as an IPA, and it won't be docked as much." Maybe Three Floyds entered it as an APA and just didn't give a shit that it didn't fit the style guidelines, who knows? Obviously the judges liked it...

 

They don't use BJCP guidelines, as those are for homebrewing competitions. Can't blame the BJCP for these styles.

The GABF uses guidelines from the brewers association. You can download the pdf from this page. The brewery can enter where they think they can do best.
http://www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com/brewers/beer-styles/

 

does zombie dust fit in the GABF of apa?

 

No, at 6.4% it fits into the IPA category, but just barely. GABF=6.3–7.5% ABV.

 

Food is excellent, beer is good but not noteworthy.

 

There is nothing less meaningful than winning a GABF medal