GABF 2017

Deets on the barf puddles?

 

Last time I went was a Saturday afternoon session. It was last call and my friend an I were on the way out when my buddy starts yelling at me to look out. I look at him and he's pointing at my feet, so I look down and I find myself standing in a puke puddle that had to be five feet in diameter. So I tiptoe my way out, but the guy behind me wasn't so lucky. Before I could warn him he hit that puddle and went ass over tea kettle. So awful.

 

To elaborate, my strategy is to wait in the long lines for the first 2-2.5 hours. This keeps me relatively sober while I'm tasting the "rare" stuff. And also a lot of the rarer beers run out early, so that helps too. The last 30-60 minutes I'm kind of scrambling around without much of a plan.

A couple years ago my buddy decided that he wasn't going to wait in line. So they just went around to every brewery that had a short / no line. In the first hour he got drunk. I think he puked several times, but not on the concrete floor at least.

GABF is really fun. In addition to the regular beers, the "Meet the brewers" section is really cool, esp if you hit a place that has very little line, so you can actually talk to them. The Pro/Am homebrewer section is cool. You can go to the brewer's guild section and taste some great beers and meet people from a state you are familiar with or not.

I'm always looking for stuff that 1) I've never had 2) doesn't get distributed to my area. But there are exceptions. I will probably hit Weldwerks and Black Project just to see who's there and what beers they have.

There are going to be 800 breweries at GABF. There will be at least 50 "hidden gems" that get very little attention but are pouring excellent beer. There will be a few places pouring crappy beer. Never ever drink something you don't like. Dump it, rinse, move on. Drink a "pour" of water every 3 samples or so. Some of the cool lists that people make can help you find the diamonds in the rough. If a brewery has a big national reputation, the lines can be really long. it's up to you to determine whether it's worth it. Last year we spent 20 min in the Jester King line, and it was definitely not worth it. And some places it varies. We saw Lost Abbey at times had a decent line, other times there was no line at all.

For people who are out of state and haven't had a ton of Colorado beer (other than Avery, Oskar Blues, Left Hand, Great Divide), here are my local picks. These are beers that you can buy here but don't make it out very far.
Odd 13, Dry Dock, Weldwerks, Black Project, Funkwerks, 4 Noses, AC Golden, Cannonball Creek, Comrade, Eddyline, City Star, Verboten, Equinox

 

Went to GABF for my my first time last year. Went with no strategy other than not willing to wait in lines. Didn't focus on any brewery, any beer, etc. Not a good strategy if you have a specific need to check something, or someone, specifically out because if that beer/brewery is a popular one, you could very well miss out. Last year I remember walking by Jester King and Wicked Weed (might not be the case with them this year though...should be an interesting litmus test to see how selling affects popularity with the general drinker) relatively early on in the night, it was Thursday, and them already being out and closed down.When there I ended up focusing more on the breweries in Colorado, California, Oregon, and Washington, though not exclusively. Worked well for me.I am a controlled drinker so while I left in no shape to drive, I also wasn't a wasted mess. If you want to place value on my experience based on amount of beers drank, I didn't get my money's worth. If you want to place value on my experiences based on overall enjoyment and satisfaction with my experience, I definitely got my money's worth.

Would I go again? Yes. That said, if I still lived in Denver I would probably just focus on the surrounding events and special tappings instead.

 

My only plan is to go back to the hotey and maybe take a little nap after Rare Beer, then see how little I can pay a scalper for a Friday evening ticket... last year my brother and I paid $20 each. F**k scalpers.

 

Other than the puke incident I spent my evening enjoying Colorado beers. I got to taste some rare locals I seem to miss, as well as check out some breweries that didn't distribute. I was perfectly happy with that.

 

Do y'all use the GABF app? I've tried it, but 1) I rarely remember to look at it, 2) I have other things to carry, 3) don't wanna spend time looking at my phone. But maybe I'm missing something....

 

The convention center is nearly a total AT&T dead zone, so the app is borderline useless for about 1/3 of attendees.

 

I just downloaded it. Any clue when we would get an update on the beers for this year?

I am going for the first time and will like just have a list of five wet hopped beers and follow the veterans.

 

The update doesn't usually come out until the week of GABF. There will still be time to make a plan. The app is pretty good and thorough.

 

According to the GABF website, the main update is coming on September 23rd. If it's consistent with last year, this should include the breweries and their locations. I didn't use the app much last year, but pinning my target breweries on the map was pretty helpful.

Beers are supposed to be published by October 4th.

In addition to the above advice, I'd recommend checking out the brewers guild booths. Last year, there were some real finds from breweries that didn't attend themselves (e.g., Lawson's Sip of Sunshine at the Vermont booth, Bale Breaker's Topcutter IPA at the Washington booth, etc.). Some guilds rotate beers from session to session, so it's a little hard to pin down exactly what's available in advance. But well worth a short walk through to see what's being poured.

 

I stumbled into what I think is a great strategy last year:

-hit up 5-6 specific beers I knew I wanted (Jester King, Black Project, Fremont, Bottle Logic, etc)

-avoid big lines for a while and hit up "new to me" breweries

-seek out some nostalgic favorites that don't distribute here (Live Oak had no line - incredible beers)

-stand in a couple more lines that are forming around booths you didn't anticipate or know much about but hype is building (this is how I got in the Weldwerks line for Barrel-Aged Mexican Achromatic, which rode a wave of good press last year and was my favorite sample of the festival)

-got some beers from states I'd never had a beer from before (North Dakota!)

-round it out by wandering around and just trying anything that jumps out as interesting (hit up Oakshire around this time and their big

You might as well stand in a few lines, in my opinion. If you're just pumping ounce after ounce of samples without waiting, you will be useless incredibly quickly. If you are building in some hydration and waiting time in between samples anyway, might as well spend some of that time in a line.

 

I do not live in Denver but this is exactly what me and my friends have done every year for the past 5 years (and are doing again this year). Most of the guys in my group have never been to the "Big Beer Fest" as we call it. We just go to side events and tappings and have an absolute blast. You cannot help but run into excellent and rare beer pretty much everywhere in Denver that has tap handles during GABF week.

 

If you just wander around downtown (or even just camp out at the FRTH and Freshcraft) you're going to run into tons of good beer that week. Probably the week after, too.
If you're willing to catch a ride to Hops & Pie, the Bull & Bush, Crafty Fox, Two Penguins, etc. then you're going to probably be overwhelmed with options.
The main GABF fest is just stupid fun as far as I'm concerned. I wouldn't miss it, but it's not the end all be all. If you like waiting in lines for beer (like so many people do!) it might be heaven on earth, though.

 

Just a tip: I know nobody here would ever do this, but don't stand in the same spot after receiving your 1oz pour. Step to the side and get out da way!

 

But I wanna talk to the Brewers. Haha. It's called etiquette. Everyone have fun out there and take a lot of vitamin B.
McGirt
Melvin Brewing

 

Have not seen it mentioned, but don't sleep on the state brewer's guild booths at GABF. They typically will pour beers that run out nearly instantly elsewhere; case in point, Michigan pouring KBS nightly from start to finish. There are basically never lines, and they all definitely bring the heat from personal experience.

 

Yeah dude I think its been mentioned, but I totally agree and also know from experience that this area has zero lines what always seems to be the best of the best from each state represented. Certainly worth being emphasized again!