GABF 2015 Discussion & Info

Nice work CO!

 

One of the biggest surprises/hidden "secrets" for me was Churchills Finest Hour. If you got there somewhat early there was hardly a line, yet Lost Abbey (right next door, literally) was swamped. They eventaully ran out but IIRC it was quite a bit later in the evening compared to most other "hyped" up beers.

 

I think it's pretty amazing Left Hand medaled with both Sawtooth and Black Jack Porter, two of their original beers that they've won medals with since the early 90's. I guess DuClaw didn't manage to take the names from Left Hand (I'm sure they wish they could steal the medals as well).

 

A GABF where Left Hand didn't medal should be considered a sign of the apocalypse.

 

Left Hand is sometimes under appreciated. They don't necessarily need to come out with new beers every few months. Between their own English flagships, Warner's German stuff that carried over from Tabernash, and their newer beers like F2B - they're built to succeed. Especially in competitions like this one. Dry Dock's a little similar. They have a fleet of flagships built to sell and medal year after year. It might not = geeky excitement, but it's successful and damn good.

 

I'll never forget Tabernash Weiss. I think I still have a tap handle in the shed. That was damn good.

 

Jesus. GABF destroyed What The Fu(n)ck this year in every way shape or form. Kudos to GABF. Awesome time. And once again, Fuck you CSA. Especially for failing to respond after I know (for a fact) that you guys have been reading that other thread. Not doing WTF next year. Rare Beer and GABF instead.

GABF rocks.

End transmission

 

Having gone to Friday and Saturday afternoon session last year and Thursday and Saturday night session this year, I've officially decided the Saturday member session is the worst of all 4 sessions. it seems more crowded than all other sessions and the most revered beers seemed to kick fastest. Thursday and Friday night sessions seem to be the best. The crowd is far more casual, causing great beers to last hours longer.

 

I had a fun time at my first GABF, can't wait to go back again. Well I scrapped my whole itinerary and here are the breweries that I did get to visit: Comrade, Our Mutual Friend, Wynkoop, Great Divide, Jagged Mountain, River North, Spangalang, Ratio Beerworks and Zephyr. Comrade was my favorite brewery that I visited. Zephyr sucked imo, only went there cause I had a Groupon. Loved Falling Rock, Lowry Biergarten and First Draft. Props to local at First Draft that recommended Euclid Hall for food. The chicken schnitzel sandwich was the best food I had there, even better than the steak I had at Denver Chophouse. Beers Made By Walking was pretty cool and so was Firkin Fiasco. Coors Field was a nice ballpark, loved the rooftop. Denver Museum of Nature and Science was really cool and so was Wings over the Rockies. Next time I'll definitely book my hotel room in downtown instead of tech center area. And as far as the GABF I had to strategy and just walked around and mostly hit up the smaller breweries and a few of the bigger ones. Cheers!

 

I'm just going to go ahead and say it. This was the best GABF I've ever been to.
My first one was in 2004 and I've only missed 2 between '04 and '15. This one felt like the old ones, but there were 3x as many beers and a lot more space.
Looking forward to next year already!

 

My first GABF.
I thought the festival was really well run. Yes, it was a little expensive, but it really puts so many other festivals to shame in terms of quality and quantity of beers available.
So many AMAZING beers to be sampled from top breweries all over the country. I honestly felt like 4.5 hours was not enough time for me. Next year I hope to attend 2 sessions and also to get in line earlier so I can try a few more.

My strategy this year was I plotted out beers I wanted to try from all over the country that didn't have distribution here. I ended up trying 3 Colorado beers as well and I was not dissapoint. I think overall I had about 50 samples, with 5 repeat samples. I ended up dumping 3 beers all night. I logged about 2/3 of them on Untappd. Because I was going after some big name beers, I ended up waiting in line quite a bit. This was actually just fine. It allowed me to stay relatively sober for the first 3 hours and I feel like I was able to appreciate the beers more. I tried to drink water fairly often and also rinse my glass.

My initial list had a lot of "walez" imperial stouts, and I ended up only tasting about 4 of them. It was fine. My favorite beers of the night were IPAs and Sours in the end. I liked so much of the stuff I tried. In particular I loved everything from Surly (tried all the beers) and 3 Floyds (again, tried them all). I went through the Lawson's Finest Liquids line 4 times, (3 times for Sip of Sunshine), I also went back through Deschutes to get a 2nd taste of "The Dissadent" which to me was the best beer I had all night.

One highlight for me was getting some snacks from a nice older lady when I was in line for Rare Barrel "The brewer is my son!". So yeah, the brewer's mom fed me snacks. I got a chance to shake Adam Avery's hand. He liked my Grimm Brother's shirt. I also met up with the Bull and Bush brewer and his wife again and they remembered me. In general everyone was friendly and happy and just having a great time.

Mistakes. I made a couple. First, because we were waiting for someone from our group, we ended up getting their late. We didn't get in line until 5:35 ish. I ended up being about 25 minutes "late" to the party. I want more time. Also, because of this we didn't end up eating anything before GABF. We had some huge necklaces of pretzels which kept me going though. But a full meal would have been nice.

 

I've felt that way for a while. By the time the end of the line gets in the door, that's cut to 4 hours. Last call cuts it to 3:45. And the vastness of the place requires more time just to walk (Volunteer check-in took 30secs, but walking to a from took 15 minutes ). With other activities (silent disco, eating and bathroom), it just doesn't seem that there's enough time. For ~$100 I had always felt rushed to "spend it".

I'm not sure how to help that, though. More sessions wouldn't matter b/c you'd just be rushed more often. Longer sessions might work, but I wonder how that would affect volunteers and the amount of beer needed.

By the way, what did y'all think of the Beer Geek volunteer position?

 

I didn't talk to one. I am curious to hear what the experience was like for someone there as a beer geek.
I think getting in line earlier will be the only way for me to "extend" my session. Also, I got "lost" a few times so knowing and memorizing the map will be a bigger part of my preparation next year.

 

I know I am extremely bias but in 5 years attending GABF, I believe this was the best festival the BA has ever put on. I stewarded the competition the last few years and this year, I had the privilege of pouring my own beer, so I have been on multiple sides of the event now and it seems like the expansion, beer selection, organization and overall experience was the best it has been.

We were pouring in the Meet the Brewer section and were extremely impressed with how smooth everything went. The volunteers and event staff were great to work with, the other breweries were all extremely welcoming and friendly, and nearly every person who stopped by our booth was polite and surprisingly engaging.

I know GABF has waned in popularity among the craft beer elite the last few years, but my guess is that trend will start to change after this year. With more and more breweries bringing rare and limited release beers, the selection will continue to improve and even rival some of the smaller festivals for selection. Looking forward to 2016!

 

I also poured within the meet the brewer section - great area. I would agree - was very well-organized compared to years past. Adding the extra space made it so much more manageable. In the past you could hardly walk through the aisles. I felt like the right number of tickets were sold for the space. This all comes from a Saturday experience mind you...

 

Same here pouring in the Meet the Brewer section. The area was well done, and had plenty of space. I think they were able to spread everything out a bit this year. Just a few feet more between isles and the extra few feet for booths in the MTB section makes all the difference. Plus, it was really nice not to have to deal with volunteers. No offense to them, but just let me pour the beer.

 

Congrats on the win!

 

Thanks! It's been a great week/weekend to say the least

 

FYI
2016 GABF Oct 6-8
Start planning


.....and drink water!

 

Didn't want to start a new thread and I figured this was the best place to post this due to GABF leftovers... Cheba Hut in Cap Hill has BCBS on tap. Had one last night and was charged $5/pint. Gonna go have another if anyone wants to join me...