Great article from the Denver Post on the first night of the Great American Beer Festival 2013 Check out the Links to find out more about these brewers.
GABF 2013: Best of the Thursday night session
By Eric Gorski
The Denver Post
Eric Gorski
Topics
AC Golden, Almanac Beer Co., Avery Brewing, Beachwood BBQ, Dads and Dudes, Freetail Brewing, Funky Buddha Brewery, Great American Beer Festival, New Glarus, Pinthouse Pizza, Port Brewing, Russian River, Scratch Brewing, Shmaltz Brewing, Six Rivers Brewing, Smog City Brewing, The Commons
Here are our favorites from Thursday’s opening session of the 32nd Great American Beer Festival – and one place where the beer ran out early.
The fest can be a strange place. There were long lines at Russian River and Port Brewing/Lost Abbey – and their beers are worth waiting for – but none at all at the Pizza Port booths, pouring some of the finest beers in the land.
Maybe it was just luck, but at no point did we feel squeezed or crowded in the festival hall. On to the picks …
New Glarus Brewing’s Strawberry Rhubarb: We started the session here because New Glarus’s fantastic fruit and sour beers don’t last long. The reward: one of the best beers, if not the best, of the night. Sweet strawberries, tart rhubarb and wild fermentation result in a perfectly balanced sour, fizzy beer. Hoping to try New Glarus’s American Blackberry Sour at other sessions, since it wasn’t pouring when we visited Thursday.
Beachwood BBQ and Brewing’s Amalgamator IPA: One of the best IPAs we tried last night, from Long Beach, Calif. Owner/brewer Gabe Gordon’s described the Amalgamator as almost entirely hopped with Mosaic hops, “really dry really clean, and tropical fruit, endless. The best IPA we’ve ever made in our 2.5 years of existence Gabe Gordon.”
Everything from AC Golden: Attention people at MillerCoors: package the IPL now. If you haven’t had the courage to plop down the cash for the Peche in bottles, here is your chance to try that, too.
Avery Brewing’s Uncle Jacob’s Stout: Adam Avery is pouring this huge 17.42 imperial stout – named for his great grand uncle who ran a Kentucky distillery – straight from the bourbon barrel. He’ll be doing it again Friday.
Dads & Dudes’ Rum Barrel Rum Stout: Delicious coconut-flavored stout from the small Aurora brewery.
The Commons Brewery‘s Maybelle. One of the sleeper picks of our GABF fantasy team, The Commons out of Portland, Oregon, has a winner in Maybelle, a dry, citrusy Brett-fermented farmhouse with white grape and tropical notes. We sadly learned that the brewery only entered seven beers in the competition instead of the maximum 10, denting our dreams of fantasy glory.
Almanac Beer Co.‘s Farmer’s Reserve No. 3: Two of our contributors recommended this new San Francisco brewery in their regional previews, so we were eager to check them out. The “farm to barrel brewery” uses ingredients from local farms to bring a sense of terroir to their beers. Check out the No. 3, which is brewed with strawberries and nectarines.
Funky Buddha‘s booth: By the time we got there a couple of hours into the session, it was all gone. So the Oakland Park, Fla., brewery is creating some buzz. We’ll be back to try the Passion Fruit Berliner, Maple Bacon Coffee Porter and more.
Smog City Brewing Hoptonic IPA: This brewery was a pick of our SoCal correspondent Randy Clemens. Excellent IPA. Also check out the Groundwork Coffee Porter, which won gold last year in the coffee beer category when the Smog City brewer brewed it for Tustin Brewing Co.
Several from Schmaltz Brewing: We randomly stopped at Schmaltz’s endcap booth and ended up lingering, impressed with the Funky Jewbelation, RIPA on RYE and St. Lenny’s: The Immaculate Collaboration, the result of a holy union with Cathedral Square Brewery of St. Louis.
Pinthouse Pizza’s Man O’War IPA and IPA Fallen Cask: Batch #84 West Coast IPA: It should come as no surprise that former Odell head brewer Joe Mohrfeld is cranking out excellent beers at this new-ish Austin, Texas, brewpub. Excellent, balanced, clean IPAs.
Freetail Brewing‘s Salado Kriek: A very nice American wild ale from Texas.
Six Rivers Brewing’s Chili Pepper Ale mixed with Raspberry Lambic: The pourer at the booth of the McKinleyville, Calif., brewery said the brewer urged blending these two. Boy, was he right. Hot mixed with sweet for a perfect balance.
Scratch Brewing‘s Chanterelle Saison. Thanks to veteran beer writer Stan Hieronymus for tipping us to this rural Illinois brewery that looks to the woods for inspiration and ingredients. You can find beers made with dandelions, roots and mushrooms.
Check out the videos at http://blogs.denverpost.com/beer/2013/10/11/gabf-2013-best-of-opening-night/11968/#more-11968
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Posted October 10, 2013, 11:57 am MT
Scouting GABF 2013: Emily Hutto on Rocky Mountain breweries
By Eric Gorski
The Denver Post
Eric Gorski
Emily Hutto (provided by the author)
This is the seventh installment in a series of previews of breweries pouring at the 2013 Great American Beer Festival, which opens tonight. We’ve invited beer writers from across the country to recommend breweries from their respective regions. Next up is Colorado native (and current resident) Emily Hutto, who is on a mission to visit every brewery in the state. Her new book, Colorado’s Top Brewers, documents beer and food pairings and is now available at Tattered Cover and Amazon. During the festival, you can find Emily hanging around the Colorado Brewers Guild booth. On to Emily’s picks for GABF 2013 …
Lost Highway Brewing
If anyone is going to hit the nail on the head when it comes to authentic Belgian-style beers, it’s undoubtedly going to be James and Tina Pachorek and crew at the brand new new Lost Highway Brewing Company next to their pub The Cheeky Monk. James was knighted by the Belgian Brewers Guild in recognition of his advocacy for the Belgian beer community in 2011, and his wife Tina is excited to bring a community hub back to Colfax street. Lost Highway is named after its home on Colfax Avenue, the longest continuous highway in America.
Hogshead Brewery
Arguably Colorado’s best cask ale, Hogshead Brewery serves impeccable English-style cask ale. Their beers, like the shite-talkin’ Chin Wag ESB and the extra dry Boys Bitter, a summer ale that’s brewed year round, quickly became Denver staples when the brewery opened in the Highland neighborhood last year.
Black Bottle Brewery
This brewery gets a lot of attention for its ridiculous YouTube videos and witty, self-deprecating beer names, but not enough recognition for its exceptional beers, especially its rare sour beers. When it comes to saisons and IPAs, Black Bottle’s ever-changing batches strike a balance of malt and hop-forwardness, and often defy style guidelines. On purpose.
Epic Brewing
The Salt Lake City-based Epic Brewing has permanently set up shop in Denver. Coloradoans rejoice. No one can accuse this brewery of boring beers. Their huge lineup includes surprising flavors like the Utah Utah Sage Saison and the Smoked & Oaked Belgian-Style Ale. Big props to Epic for making connections in the RiNo neighborhood before they moved in— one of its first locally brewed beers was the RiNo Pale Ale with a label design that featured artwork from a local graffiti artist, and its Big Bad Baptist Imperial Stout is brewed with coffee beans from local Novo Coffee Roasters.
West Flanders
This newer Boulder brewery is the brainchild of Brian Lutz, whose many years of experience in the beer industry shows with some exceptional Belgian-style beers like the Daisy Cutter and the Trippel Lutz.
Wit’s End Brewing Company
It’s amazing what one little barrel can do with an artful brewer behind it. Scott Witsoe is making West Coast-inspired hop-forward IPA, Belgian-style beer with rock candy sugar, and rye porter that wows, among many other small batches at his nanobrewery on West 2nd Avenue.
Funkwerks
Last year’s Small Brewery of The Year is still slinging some of the country’s best saison, and other inventive Belgian styles like the Pilsner malted, tart and citrusy Deceit and another version of the same beer aged in rum barrels.
Santa Fe Brewing
This brewery is hitting Colorado liquor store shelves hard with its approachable beers in cans like the Freestyle Pilsner and the Happy Camper I.P.A, perfect for packing into a hiking bag. The brewery in New Mexico taps strange and unusual beers every weekend— here’s hoping they bring some of those to Denver this weekend.
Madison River Brewing Company
This underrated brewery in Belgrade, Montana doesn’t distribute in Colorado, and it’s a shame. Get the Black Ghost Oatmeal Stout and the Salmon Fly Honey Rye before they’re gone.
Must-hit destination booths:
Jolly Pumpkin, for sour beer that always surprises and never disappoints.
Brewery Ommegang, because I’m recently obsessed with the Belgian-style amber ale Rare Vos.
Ninkasi Brewing Company, for a taste of my college years as an Oregon duck. And because I can’t get enough Total Domination IPA.
Selkirk Abbey, because rumor has it that their Belgian-style beers are pretty damn good. Have I mentioned that I like Belgian-style beer?
25 years as adult beverage wholesaler. Sold beer to over 2500 off-premise retailers of alcohol beverages in IL, MO, and CO. Managed Liquor Stores while going to college to pay for education. Have over 30 years as a customer, supplier,and retail.
The Liquor Store Channel blog 