I am starting to get super excited, in just a few days I will be attending my first Great American Beer Festival. We have put in the research and created a game plan with the focus of tasting Wild / Sour / Brett / Farmhouse beers.Thursday Oct. 11: Night Cap
- Flying in at night on Southwest (so we can check bags with all the beer we are bringing home)
- First stop: Crooked Stave - I have been wanting to visit Chad Y for years and its fitting that this should be our first stop. Plus I'm going to be buying swag and beers so I'll need the car close by.
- Second Stop: Star bar with Odell Brewing Company's Barrel aged beers - a couple more sours beers - yeah
- Third Stop: Buy Beer near our home base at AppleJack's Wine & Spirits in Golden, CO
Friday, Oct. 12: All Day Denver Beer Crawl, GABF
- We are planning to do a walking tour of Denver starting mid morning and stopping by as many beer centric places as we fill like. We will also be meeting up with onli homebrew buddies, throughout the day. If you are reading this and want to meet up, send me an email (Jeffrey.E.Crane at gmail.com) and we'll figure it out.
- We are thinking of starting at Crooked Stave (I know twice in less than 24 hrs), which is pretty far out of the action area
- Other stops include: Avery Special Beers at Lucky Pie & Taproom : Wet Hop Pale Ale, Double Dry-Hopped Ale to the Chief, Uncle Jacob’s Stout, Oud Floris, Rumpkin, & Odio Equum. - a few sours that will never make it to San Diego
- Stop: Falling Rock for Cigar City Beers - I know this place is crazy crowded, but we have never been to GABF so we will have to brave the crowds. Plus I really want to try some Cigar City beers and would rather not wait too long once in GABF (Humidor Series IPA, Cucumber Saison, Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Brown Ale, Good Gourd Imperial Pumpkin Ale, Apple Brandy Barrel-aged Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout)
- And we are open to suggestions to fill the other time - I was referred to this Great Overview of Beer Places in Denver, which we will use to pick some other palces.
- GABF Evening Session
Saturday Oct. 13: Hike, Boulder, GABF- Morning Hike to bring us back to life: El Dorado Canyon near Boulder or Beaver Brook near Golden
- First Beer Stop: Avery Brewing Company in Boulder
- Optional: Oskar Blues and Lefthand Brewing in Longmont
- GABF Evening Session
- After Party: Boulevard Brewing Smokestack beers at Lucky Pie - Hopefully some Tank 7 Saison as I have had this one on my list for a while
Sunday Oct. 14: Hike, Brewery Visits- Morning Hike TBD
- Option 1: Either Funkwerks up in Ft. Collins + a few others
- Option 2: Trinity Brewing in CO Springs + a few others
Please feel free to email me if you want to meet-up (Jeffrey.E.Crane at gmail.com)
I'll be taking notes, so expect a full report once I recover.
You should consider attending Sours 101 at the Rackhouse Pub on Friday afternoon (that is if you haven't had enough time with Chad Y by then).
ReplyDeletehttp://www.rackhousepub.com/beer-school-2012/
I know I saw that event and thought they put it together just because I was coming to town. The only problem is the timing of that event, since we are going to the Saturday evening session.
DeleteI hope someone would record their presentation as I think it would be a great resource.
It's on Friday?
DeleteWhoops I meant we'll be at the Friday Evening Session.
DeleteIf I ever get a chance to go again I'll try to go to the Thursday and early Saturday Sessions.
Sounds like a great trip. Have fun! I'll have to get myself out to GABF one of these years.
ReplyDeleteNot quite the same, but I am geared up to attend Beervana next week. Pretty incredible lineup of beers, so I'm pretty psyched - http://www.beervanafest.com/brewers.html
Jim,
DeleteI'm pretty excited and still in disbelief that I'm going, this will be my first big beer event. Everything just came together this year, so we'll see.
That Beervanafest looks great, those Belgian beers are worth the price of admission and it looks like other breweries are bringing a bunch of special stuff. Those special beers are really what separates the good festivals from the great ones.
Jeff,
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great time. I really bummed that I am not attending this year. I feel like I have the plan down after going for 3 straight years.
The only thing I can add is that it is hard to make all the trips you have listed. Denver is such a great town and with GABF time seems to fly by quicker that you expect. With the sour focus it gets even more complicated.
The best advise is do the places around Denver's downtown Sat morning, as most of the brewers, and attendees will be at the awards or passed out from a late Friday night. We had open seating at Falling Rock and Great Divide last year which ended up the best 2 places of the trip.
Reading through your post brought a (metaphorical) tear to my eye. I had the good fortune to go for the last two years and both times were pretty amazing. Would love to hear about your experience and live vicariously.
ReplyDeleteIt was great, no unbelievable. I have half of the my re-cap post written, but I'm having a hard time finishing it. Hopefully soon.
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