Your Picks for GABF 2019

Une Annee has been sneaky good for a while. I tried everything they offered and all were well above average.

Blueberry muffin was great but I may be spoiled by WW- reminded me of many of the berliners they do. Good though. Sticky bun was my favorite that they did.

The Jameson area was interesting. I had an amazing beer there. I almost got hit by flying cornhole bags a few times. There was a short irish guy yelling into a microphone that didn't make any sense. They had 2 stages set-up but one looked to be unused. It seemed like a waste of space.

>>First time trying Medianoche (got malibu variant) Did not enjoy! Way to sweet for me. I >>sincerely bow out of the Pastry Stout movement
Yeah Malibu is the sweetest one I've had from WW by far. The Vanilla Rye or Premier variants are less sweet, but possibly still too sweet for your tastes.

Also a shout out to Loveland Aleworks. Great beers and no line.

 

pFriem is quietly one of the best breweries in the NW, deft at a wide spectrum of styles and techniques. That Pilsner is an easy 6pk choice at the grocery store.

 

All my favorites have been listed (Modem Tones and B3k), but gotta toss in Chuckanut. Not normally a kolsch fan, but thought theirs was awesome, as well as their festbier which won bronze. After drinking BA stouts and sours, they were a huge breath of fresh air. Lapped them multiple times.

 

I've never been a sweet-tooth and stomached some pastry stouts in the past, but Doom Hawk and Coco Flux were dumps for me. Perhaps interesting, but 1oz was too much.

Speciation was really good. Live Oak had the best Hefe. First time I've had Kern and was impressed.

The app was useless. None of the info populated on my screen. Didn't see a search bar either (?)

Line was quick. Got there at 11:30 and didn't stop walking until in the inside pen (they caged us!!) for 10min.

I'm glad there's the Caskmates section as I stay clear of it.

 

Loved pFriem so much when I lived in Eugene. My only problem was I always seemed to only be able to find old bottles (and I mean like 6-7+ mo old at least). Maybe just a Eugene thing?

 

the peanut butter medianoche was definitely a highlight for me, as were the pure project beers. Orpheus out of ATL was the unknown awesome find for me

 

I also really enjoyed the WA wet hopped booth.

 

I wish I could remember the name of the brewery, but there was a place somewhere in the midwest (OH or MI) with a "roasted peanut ale" that tasted like an ashtray.
This is coming from someone who likes rauchbier and smoked porter, too. It literally tasted like an ashtray.
It goes down on my all time GABF worst list and is up there with that one "bacon beer" from Pennsylvania that smelled like death and tasted like vinegar.

 

My all time worst this year was at the Jameson area. Some pecan porter I almost spat out. All time was a smoked beer from neshamy creek. I also like smoked beers and it was like a tire fire. I suppose smoked beers are not all equal.

 

I was pleasantly surprised by Adroit Theory and Wild Barrel. I was doing the part of tour guide for our group of 10 and those were ones I'd never heard of that were killer.

Fremont, Lost Abbey, Speciation, Black Project, Modern Times, Weldwerks, Great Notion, More all brought fire.