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Samuel Adams (Boston, MA): Utopia (check out the Utopia line below – it was pretty crazy) Liquid Mechanics (Lafayette, CO): Peanut Butter Porter mixed with their Raspberry Truffle Porter – peanut butter jelly time! SingleSpeed Brewing Company (Cedar Falls, IA): Jeremy and the Giant PeachĬommonWealth Brewing Company (Virginia Beach, VA): Penthesilia & Halcyon Toppling Goliath Brewing Company (Decorah, IA): Mornin’ Delight Tin Man Brewing Company (Evansville, IN): Insane in the Mainframe Here’s a small list of some of my favorites from this year:īell’s Brewery (Kalamazoo, MI): Kiwi Club Gose, Blackbeard’s Bear Hug Imperial Stout, and Bourbon Barrel Aged Expedition Stout (which was not on their announced list, but we spotted in a tub next to the cooler box. There was an awesome variety of beers to try, with a definite trend towards sours and IPAs, with a lot of barrel aged beers to sample as well. I saw a lot more representatives present, which makes for a better experience as attendees can ask questions about the beer and where it comes from. Okay, now to the good stuff…the beer! As noted before, this was my 6th year at GABF, and things have most certainly changed, and for the better. The conference floor also features a Brewpub Pavilion, a Silent Disco, several industry vendors not pouring beer, food vendors in which there are free food samples, and paid meal options, a beer tourism section which was new this year, and several areas in which attendees can listen to talks from industry members such as Bell’s Brewery CEO, Laura Bell. ![]() To see a complete list of this year’s winners, click here. This year, there were 9 Michigan breweries that took home medals. Breweries do not have to have a booth at the festival in order to enter the contest. GABF is not only a giant beer festival, but a contest where breweries send in beers to be judged based on 98 beer categories covering 161 different beer styles. This year the Michigan Brewer’s Guild Booth was pouring: M43 – Old Nation, Raspberry Eisbock – Kuhnhenn, Lost Dune – New Holland, Plead the 5th – Dark Horse, and Grand Rabbits – Black Rocks.Īnother way to choose which beers to try, is to head to the Heavy Medal booth which features previous medal winners. This enables smaller breweries that might not have the means to attend, the ability to have a presence. These booths are awesome because a lot of the times they will be pouring some beers from breweries not at the festival. There’s also an area dedicated to the state brewers guilds, in which guild representatives are present to talk about the happenings in their state. Most booths have representatives from the brewery present, but to ensure a chat with an actual brewer, festival goers can browse the Meet the Brewer section, in which all booths are staffed entirely, exclusively, by their employees. The massive exhibition hall is divided into sections so that attendees can taste beers by the regions in which they are made. Some booths are just a standard table and sign, while others are completely decked out with things like buses, DJs, and dancing dinosaurs. ![]() There are rows, and rows, and rows of trade show booths, each featuring a brewery and several of their beers. I like to explain it as a conference for beer. ![]() If you love beer, or even like it, I highly recommend heading to Denver at least once in your life time to experience GABF. Tickets usually go on sale in late July, and sell out within minutes. The event takes place at the Colorado Convention Center, spanning three days and consisting of three public, and one members only (Brewers Association or American Homebrewers Association) sessions. beer served in a public tasting event, featuring 3,900+ beers from over 800 breweries from all across the United States. ![]() For those who aren’t familiar with the annual event, it’s the largest collection of U.S. This past weekend marked my 6th trip to Denver for the Great American Beer Festival, or as beer geeks know it, GABF.
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