GABF - Great American Beer Fest

I went to the GABF on Friday evening. It was the first time I had been in the new convention center downtown. The space for the tasting is now quite a bit larger than the old space that some of you may have been to. The tasting was inside on the second floor which meant that smokers had a much further hike to leave the room, go downstairs, and out the building in order to take a smoke. The huge space had actual restrooms for folks to use instead of the old port-a-potty city like the old set up. The lack of port-a-pottys probably significantly reduced the use of marijuana at the event - something I definitely remember smelling in that vicinity at the last one I attended two years ago.

I am unsure how many beers I tasted, but I have been estimating around 70 or so. The list of winners is posted online. Quickly adding it up, I count that there were 2016 beers entered in 67 unique beer categories. That means I tasted fewer than 4% of the offerings. Plus, I suspect that there were many beers that were being offered for tasting that were not necessarily submitted for judging. If you've never been to the GABF, well, you're a fool.

Did I mention that the place was swarming with hot women too? I'll have you know that that was an observation I made early in the evening before the beers began to catch up with me. There seemed to be a disproportionate number of tall girls there too. I kept bumping into girls that were my height. I've never dated a tall girl, but I think I might like to.

Pete's was rolling out their new Wanderlust Cream Ale. It was good: very smooth and creamy. I drank their Strawberry Blonde as well which I noted is always a refreshing beer even after having drunk two dozen beers ahead of it.

Pumphouse Brewing from Longmont, Colorado served their Firestone Double White with a rocking 7.25% alcohol. I like white beers, and this was a very good example if perhaps a tad heavy on the cardamom.

The Rockbottom Restaurants from all around the country were very well represented at the fest with each different restaurant having their own booth and displaying their own crafted beers. The Denver branch was serving their Milk Stout. It is a nearly perfect stout and was probably the second best beer that I tasted during the evening. The Des Moines Rockbottom offered a Roggenbier that I thought was particularly good. My notes said that I liked it as a good Belgian style (ala Chimay), but I see in the winner's list that it took Silver for Rye Beers (Category 9). In any case, it was a good beer packed with flavor.

Coors was there too offering a number of their beers. I decided to try their low carb offering, Aspen. It's piss but without all of the flavor.

There was a bar from California called the 21st Amendment that served up another good Belgian White. They were apparently not related to the bar of the same name that was in Washington DC. The 21st Amendment in DC was a place of drinking legends. Everyone had good things to say about that place. It was torn down just a few months before I moved into the Foggy Bottom neighborhood, so I never got a chance to try it. I believe however that Stu had the chance to get liquored up there once in the summer before school started. The old barhounds that I knew in DC - Geoffrey G. Kendall, Kevin P. Delaney, John Mayer, and Big Rodney - all had fond stories of the 21st Amendment.

New Belgium from Fort Collins, Colorado was pouring their fairly new Transatlantique Kreik beer. I thought this tasted like what a cherry Altoid would taste like. By the way, I've been waiting so very patiently for Altoids to come out with a cherry flavor. The tangerine are great, but boy could I go for some cherry. I'm going to be looking for this around town. It was my third favorite beer of the evening. (Follow the New Belgium link, choose beers, and click on the label to learn all about this dual-continent, joint venture beer.)

I spent the night searching for a good Pale Ale. I never did find one that knocked my socks off or even that I one that I would buy in the store. But like I mentioned, I only tasted a very small percentage of the beers there.

The Boston Beer Company poured my favorite beer of the evening: their Chocolate Bock. I think the beer was labeled as Boston Beer Company instead of as a Samuel Adams product, but I can't find a reference to it on their website. It was like eating a piece of dark chocolate candy. I was very impressed. Another websearch makes it look like they perhaps brew this beer for Valentine's Day. I highly recommend this if you can find it at any time of the year.

After last pour, we made our way over to the Wynkoop for some nachos and more beer. The place was frickin' packed. Mick was behind the bar, but we didn't have a chance to talk for more than about two minutes. He has lost over 60 pounds and looks skinnier than I've ever seen him. I need to catch up with him to find out how he did it. We made sure we both still had each other's phone numbers and said we'd hang out sometime. Just like we always do and then never do. Perhaps now that he's so svelte he'll be willing to go snowboarding again this winter. We'll see.

Jonathan 10/05/2004 08:55:00 AM