Monday, September 13, 2010
This Week in Colorado Beer: GABF/Denver Beer Fest editionThere's a little event coming up this weekend called the Great American Beer Festival. If you're a beer geek enough to read this blog, I assume I don't need to say a lot more. But then, even if you are a beer geek but you don't have tickets, you're pretty S.O.L., as it sold out a record five weeks in advance this year.
But don't despair. There's a couple of places that rumor has it may be serving good beer this week, even if you're not going to the festival.
Denver Beer Fest: This isn't actually one place serving good beer. It's about 35 of them, putting on something like 150 beer tastings, meet-the-brewer events, pairing dinners and even offering beer ice cream. I wrote in my day job about one place that's even making beer cupcakes. And the idea, in its second year of organizing by the Visit Denver convention and visitors bureau, is a wonderful one to get people excited leading into the GABF. In fact, you can see a full schedule of the events here.But as much information as that website contains, it doesn't capture everything that's going on this week. And neither, frankly, will this blog. But I wanted to list just a few of the highlights for those who are hoping to cash in on all the beer rock stars who will be in town this week.
Tuesday
*Upslope Brewing begins five days of breaking out barrel-aged beers at its Boulder home.
*Jeremy Cowan, founder of New York's Shmaltz Brewing Co., holds a beer dinner/book release at Choice City Butcher & Deli in Fort Collins.
Wednesday
*Great Divide extends its tap room hours from 11 a.m. to midnight, hauls in food from Appaloosa Grill and taps a variety of unique and rare beers for the next four days.
* Gordon Biersch taps its Festbier Oktoberfest beer in Broomfield
Thursday
*Breckenridge Brewery continues its rare beer tapping that is running from Sept. 11-19, with 12 specially made beers on tap at 12 different restaurants around town. Use this map like it was a treasure map.
Falling Rock
Yes, these guys deserve their own section because of the depth and breadth of events they are offering this week. Here are a few of the highlights:
*5 p.m. Wednesday: Longmont's Left Hand Brewing and Terrapin Brewing of Athens, Ga. release their third collaboration beer: Oxymoron, an India pale lager.
*10 p.m. Thursday: Chris at Falling Rock promises to break out a stash of aged and rare Stone Brewing beers.
*Noon Friday: The annual contest to kill a keg of Sierra Nevada's Estate Harvest Ale in record time takes place again. Hide the squeamish livers.
*10 p.m. Saturday: Still standing after three days of GABF? New Belgium breaks out its rarities. This is a great way to finish the festival, as these often involve a slew of Belgian sours that are the only beers that can revive overused taste buds.
Labels: Denver Beer Fest, Great American Beer Festival
