G.A.B.F.

1454
Different American Beers Served to more than 28,000
Beer Lovers Can Only Be
The
Great American Beer Festival

Celebrating
its twenty-third year as America’s predominant beer event,
the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) rolled into Denver
on the last weekend in September. Promoting itself as the
“Napa Valley of beer”, Denver once again played host to the
largest selection of beers under one roof.

While the festival set a
new attendance record, the achievement is not without a
downside. With a dramatic 27-percent increase in attendance,
the GABF’s present location is nearly ready to burst at the
seams. The dark, uninviting confines of the windowless
Colorado Convention Center do not help the situation. The
experience is much like drinking beer in a crowded, loud
cave.

the
GABF’S GROWING PAINS
While growing older and stronger, the festival has not taken
steps forward in the maturity department. In the past, true
beer geeks and industry insiders have found refuge in the
Thursday evening and Saturday afternoon connoisseur
sessions. At this year’s GABF, the elements of intoxication
and rabble rousing grew to new levels. The Friday and
Saturday evening sessions were near intolerable for tasting
and enjoyment. The sound of broken glass followed by screams
and shouts filled the hall every minute or so, crowds grew
large at the pouring tables, and attendees openly spoke of
getting drunk at the festival. This year’s festival brought
front and center the problems the event will have to face in
the future lest it become an unattractive
destination.

The festival has also taken
on a circus element in its presentation. Far from
pinky-extending wine events, the sights and sounds of the
festival are its own unique draw. Many attendees treat the
event like Halloween, replete with costumes and homemade
t-shirts. One brewer dressed in a cow outfit complete with
udders, others in oversized orange overalls and big afros,
and local college students announced themselves as the
“University Drinking Team – GABF 2OO4”. To complete the
scene, gonzo artist Ralph Steadman entered the hall on the
back of a motorcycle driven by Eric Warner of Denver’s
Flying Dog Brewery. Steadman, who is famous for illustrating
the books of author Hunter S. Thompson, also contributed the
sometimes controversial artwork on Flying Dog’s beer labels.
Festivalgoers also enjoyed Coors Light dispensed from the
hood ornament of a fire truck/brewery recently forged on The
Discovery Channel’s Monster Garage television
show.

the
AWARDS CEREMONY At
the center of the annual spectacle is the festival’s medal
competition as awarded by the GABF Professional Judge Panel,
a group of 1OO brewers, judges and writers from four
countries. This year’s competition saw a record number of
entries, with 398 breweries sending 2O16 beers to compete in
67 categories for 2O1 medals.

The award winners included
some familiar names alongside many newcomers. Continuing its
complete domination of the Fruit and Vegetable Beer
category, fan favorite New Glarus Brewing Company of
Wisconsin won another gold medal for its Raspberry Tart. New
Glarus picked up another gold for its Brown Ale in the Wood
and Barrel-aged Beer category. In the Smoke-Flavored Beer
Category, the Alaskan Smoked Porter solidified its place as
one of the GABF’s most lauded beers with a bronze medal.
Brewers in one of America’s most unfriendly fermentation
states also continued their command of the German-style
Schwarzbier category – the Squatters Pub Brewery and the
Uinta Brewing Company of Utah won gold and silver
respectively in the category.

After suffering a long and
noticeable lockout from the winner’s stage, Dogfish Head won
gold in the Specialty Honey Lager or Ale category for its
Midas Touch.

While the competition’s
regional bent continued, California breweries won 37 total
medals and Colorado breweries won 21 medals, the few New
England breweries that entered the competition pulled out a
respectable showing. Local breweries pulled out six medals
in five highly contested categories.

Bay State breweries won a
total on three medals. The Amherst Brewing Company won a
silver in the Herb and Spice Beer category, which had 49
entries, for its Heather Ale. In the Experimental Beer
category, the Boston Beer Company edged out the Cambridge
Brewing Company for the gold medal for its Samuel Adams
Millennium. After suffering a frustrating drought in the
competition, the smooth, yet high octane Millennium
impressed five of six judges for the first place nod.
Cambridge’s Will Meyers sent his incredibly layered
Benevolence to the festival and went home with a silver
medal. With all the travails of long distance travel, this
beer richly deserved its accolade.

While Rhode Island,
Connecticut and New Hampshire were all shut out of the medal
awards, two brewers in Maine and Vermont won for their
offerings. In the Irish-Style Red Ale category, the Casco
Bay Brewing Company of Portland won a bronze medal for its
Riptide Red Ale. In one of the big stories for New England
breweries, the little and relatively new Alchemist brewpub
of Waterbury, Vermont, took home two medals in two highly
contested categories. In the Imperial or Double India Pale
Ale, the brewpub proved it can brew with the big boys by
taking home the bronze medal for its Heady Topper. By way of
reference, the brewpub was beat out for the gold and silver
by Tomme Arthur and his crew of mad brewers for the Pizza
Port Brewing chain, which won its second consecutive award
for small brewpub and small brewpub brewer of the
year.

In the festival’s final
awards, several familiar names won the overall awards. The
Miller Brewing Company was named Large Brewing Company of
the Year, the Widmer Brothers Brewing Company won Mid-Size
Brewing Company of the Year, the Sprecher Brewing Company
won Small Brewing Company of the Year, and the Elysian
Brewery and Public House Large Brewpub of the
Year.

The GABF is experiencing
some growing pains and finds itself at a bit of a
crossroads. While it is by far the pre-eminent brewing
festival in America, and one of the world’s great festivals,
it needs to evolve in order to stay relevant to the small
brewing industry. Should the festival maintain its present
course, it is not unlikely that it will simply devolve into
another in a long line of well-intended events plagued by
frequent bouts of intoxication and senselessness. The
vibrance, excitement, and youth of the small brewing
community are clear assets and the craft brewing industry
deserves a festival that pushes the industry forward,
unrestricted by the darker sides of alcohol
usage.

Last year’s addition of a
food and cooking element was a welcomed complement to the
industry’s overall message of restoring beer’s place at the
American dinner table. At this year’s festival, the food
component was not as extensive and seemed scaled back. The
Association of Brewers (AOB) and the industry at large would
do well to capitalize on the growing use of beer in cooking,
and to encourage brewers and vendors to offer pairings and
thoughtful uses for beer.

A good example to follow is
being set by craft beer pioneer Pete Slosberg. Slosberg,
also known as ‘Wicked Pete’, helped start the craft brewing
movement with his popular Pete’s Wicked Brewing Company.
Several years after selling his share in the company, which
has suffered a startling decline since he left, Slosberg
decided to indulge another passion: Belgian-style chocolate.
At this year’s GABF, Slosberg, who now goes by the moniker
‘Cocoa Pete’, offered pairings of his chocolates and
American craft beers in a little booth tucked away in the
beer garden section off the festival’s main floor. His
products reflect the quality and drive he puts into all of
his projects, and his pairings at the festival demonstrate
the best this industry has to offer. His pairing of
chocolate and Russian River’s high-octane Damnation was
glorious. Cocoa Pete’s Chocolate Adventures Company sets a
good standard the festival should follow in future
events.

LEADERSHIP
for the FUTURE
During the awards ceremony, Charlie Papazian, President of
the AOB, announced that the organization would merge with
the Brewers Association of America (BAA) to form a new
organization dedicated to promoting and lobbying on behalf
of America’s small brewing industry. The new organization,
which will begin operation on January 1, 2OO5, will be named
The Brewers Association and will be based in Boulder. The
group’s leaders also hold to establish a legislative affairs
office in the Washington, DC area. The new agreement is
subject to approval by the membership of the BAA, an
organization formed during World War II to insure that small
brewers received their share rationed items, including tin
and barley.

“We believe that a combined
organization will result in a stronger voice for small
brewers in the media, in the nation’s capital and in state
legislatures,” said Gary Fish, Chairman of the BAA and
President of Deschutes Brewery, in a press release. “We are
part of a government-regulated industry, and we need to
marshal all the support we can to represent the interests of
small brewers. The goals of both organizations are to
promote and protect the industry. Together, we will do a
much better job.”

The leaders of the AOB were
also excited about the merger. “There now are more than 15OO
breweries in the United States, more than any other country
in the world, and a united voice will enable us to tell our
story to the world more effectively,” said Charlie Papazian,
founder and President of the Association of Brewers, formed
in 1979 to promote the then fledgling small brewing
industry.

BAA President Daniel
Bradford has been offered the position of Legislative
Director. The new organization’s transitional board includes
local brewers, including Rich Doyle of Harpoon Brewery and
Jim Koch of Boston Beer Company.

“No one expects this to be
an easy year as we work to integrate these two organizations
into a single, stronger and more dynamic one,” said
Papazian. “But with the energy and dedication of everyone
involved – from staff to board members to the membership as
a whole – this will be a great new day for the small brewing
industry.” to more than 28,000.