GABF Winners: Rants n Raves

They did not award gold in that category, to resounding boo's from the crowd.

 

Weasle Boy taking gold with their RIS was pretty awesome, especially because we had a gallon jug of the barrel aged version which is phenomenal.

 

Best Name:

Bronze: TPS Report, Trinity Brewing Co., Colorado Springs, CO

 

Thank goodness GABF has Judges rather than BeerAdvocate reviewers.

Also, as an industry person, i think it's amazing how in just 3 years i've gone from knowing of every brewery that medals to knowing about half. It's so fuckin' cool to see breweries popping it everywhere in the US, not just major metropolitan areas.

Congrats to all the winners

 

Beer doesn't go 'bad', it may not taste fresh but unlike meat/cheese/bread/milk, old beer won't make you sick. Thus it doesn't have to be regulated the same as foods that spoil. If breweries were forced to recall old beer, I'd expect to see a lot go out of business. Because again: once it's sold into the distribution chain the brewery has little to no control over the product.

So drink local, and if you don't have a good local brewery for beers that have a shorter taste life span: sucks to be you. For instance: I live in San Diego, and I never ever buy hoppy beers from the east coast. Hell, I barely ever buy OR hoppy beer either, simply because you have no idea how old it is, how it was stored etc... Beers that don't sell eventually will be pulled from that market. Problem solved.

 

I'm not asking for regulation. I'm asking for brewers to care more about freshness.

Local often isn't the issue. I can count on fresher Stone products on my local store shelves than I can from many New England breweries.

 

If they can't do these simple things to keep fresh beer on the shelf, then they should not sell as much beer at one time to a distributor. Easy enough these days to keep track of turnover for each customer and if they are reordering before the lots you sold them pass your breweries "best by" date. Ultimately its the breweries reputation on the line. The stores just blame the distributor (and many times than not in my area, rightfully so) - and the distributors just seem to be immune to criticism due to lurking in the background with no transparency/relationship to the consumer.

 

I="Longstaff, post: 565116, member: 421"]If they can't do these simple things to keep fresh beer on the shelf, then they should not sell as much beer at one time to a distributor. Easy enough these days to keep track of turnover for each customer and if they are reordering before the lots you sold them pass your breweries "best by" date. Ultimately its the breweries reputation on the line. The stores just blame the distributor (and many times than not in my area, rightfully so) - and the distributors just seem to be immune to criticism due to lurking in the background with no transparency/relationship to the consumer.[/quote]
I dont know enough about how much the distributor tells either the customer/brewer. The 3 tier system in general needs to be abolished.

 

Had a Cafe Racer 15 on tap last night. A touch malty for my taste, but great hop flavor loaded with citra. Easy to see how those who prefer a little sweeter, maltier DIPA would go nuts for it.

 

This year's winners raised eyebrows, no doubt, but it was good to finally see the brewers and the names behind the brands being there. A big thanks to Garrett Oliver who urged fellow brewers to be there and pour their beers. I saw Dick Cantwell, Gary Fish, Ken Grossman, Kim Jordan, Meg Gill & Jim Koch to name a few on the floor both nights I was there. And they were all approachable and accessible.

 

Below is a reply to the post by briman:

Brian,

A nicely written article about Shiner Oktoberfest. Within your article you state: “An enduring sweetness keeps it from being as dry as I tend to like in the finish …”

I had the Shiner Oktoberfest the past few years and my take on the beer was consistent with your verbiage above: a sweetness that continued past mid-palate into the finish. In all fairness this particular characteristic is common in a number of Oktoberfest beers, for example Sam Adams Oktoberfest. I often attribute this sweetness characteristic to ‘overuse’ of crystal malts but I must admit that I have also experienced this flavor profile in Oktoberfest beers where the brewery did not use any crystal malts.

The Oktoberfest style can be a challenging style since it is a somewhat subtle beer. In the October-November 2012 edition of Ale Street News there was a nice description of the Oktoberfest style provided by Paul Sullivan:

“When brewed well this style is the epitome of balance, because although it is a malt-accented beer, the best ones have enough hops to keep a good fight going between bitterness and malt, It’s all about balance.”

So, my past experience with Shine Oktoberfest is that it lacked balance for my palate. Needless to say but each individual will have differing perceptions and opinions on this aspect.

In Paul Sullivan’s article (the Homebrew Corner column) he provided a recipe which included a grain bill of:

· 4 lbs. German Pilsner malt
· 2 lbs. German Vienna malt
· 4 lbs. light German Munich malt

There was no crystal malt in the grain bill. I have not brewed an Oktoberfest beer in a while but of find this suggested grain bill to be intriguing.

Cheers!

 

Have you ever had Hop in the Dark?

 

It's not at all surprising to me that Kirk Mchale, the brewer of the Frank's Double IPA at Pizza Port and the lesser known Maverick's Double IPA at Breakwater (up until April 2010) , can still make great hoppy beer after moving to Wyoming from San Diego.

 

Wow, 7 pages of comments and no congratualtions to Old Style getting a silver?

I guess it's up to me!

Going back to Kraeusening paid off.

 

I thought the same thing as you and then I tried Odell's Mountain Standard.

 

I like the ISO/FTa that tout a GABF medal to increase trade value.

 

Wasn't trying to point fingers or make fun man, like I said great beer can be found everywhere. The point was that just because a state like WY doesn't get much if any real beer press doesn't exclude it from the ability to win medals... and they won a ton.

 

I'm not implying that you were pointing fingers or making fun. I'm just pointing out that Thai Me Up isn't homegrown Wyoming talent. Not that it really matters.