Tuesday, September 18, 2018
The Great American Beer Festival Alphabetical Challenge
The routine for many at the Great American Beer Festival is simple: Scout out the breweries you absolutely have to hit, get a few more recommendations on the floor, leave satisfied that you've sampled from the hippest and best breweries in the country. I've done it for many years, and it's produced a wealth of valuable tasting experiences.
What I've never done in the 17 years I've attended the festival, however, is to acknowledge that every brewery at the Colorado Convention Center has some story, some effort that has drawn them to compete in this wonderful science fair of beer-making - and to give myself over to truly letting chance determine which beers I sample and discover. That, however, changes this year.
On Friday, I'm opening myself to what I call the GABF Alphabetical Challenge - a self-made opportunity to discover the beer that I've never discovered before and the breweries that I never thought to glance at a second time while I was running to get in line at New Glarus or Bell's. And in some ways, I feel like I'll get to experience America's best beer festival for the first time.
The rules are thus: I plan to start at one end of the floor plan that lays out 4,000 beers from 800 breweries and try the first beer that I find that begins with the letter A. Then I'll wander until I find a beer that begins with the letter B - and so on, down the alphabet. Realizing that even the seemingly boundless creativity in brewers' naming games has limits, I'll allow myself to drink beers that have any of the Scrabble 8- or 10-point letters (J, Q, X, Z) anywhere in their names. And I'll do this, stopping only for food, throughout the night until the Brewers Association rings last call.
Why would I handcuff myself in this way, you might say, potentially passing over star breweries and star beers that no one should walk by? In short, it's an acknowledgment that too much about the GABF and the week before it has become a pull to the known beer makers and the hot styles without opening myself up to the chance of finding that brewery I love by searching beyond a short list. I can still remember randomly discovering Six Rivers Brewery of California - maker of the best chili beer in America and a host of other brilliant offerings - some 12 or 13 years ago when I just happened to stop by its booth out of curiosity. I've gone back every year since, but the number of "secret treasure" breweries in my stash hasn't expanded much.
I also tend to spend the vast majority of my time seeking sours and barrel-aged beers, big hop bombs and concoctions with strange ingredients - to the point where I try to list my favorite lager at the end of the festival and find that there's only two or three that I even tried. The array of American beer styles continues to grow and widen, and GABF is one of the few festivals in the world where you can dive thoroughly into all of them in one place - an opportunity that shouldn't be squandered.
Finally, I realize that people who have just one 4-1/2-hour session to see the show won't want to leave up to chance what they will find there. But as a member of the media, I get entry to three separate sessions (and access to photos like the one I have at the top of this blog). Thursday night is always spent chasing the hottest beers and trends out there, and Saturday afternoon is typically awash with my chasing award winners and trying to interview them. But I have the true privilege of getting the chance to cover the festival and to learn from it, and I want to make sure I'm doing so without blinders as to what may be out there.
So, how will this turn out? I don't know. I could find the next hidden gem in America. I also could find a rack of imbalanced IPAs or uninspired amber ales (assuming someone still makes those). But the most important thing is that I will discover, and that discovery will include flavors and breweries I haven't known before.
If this all bores you, I'm not offended. But if you're curious how it turns out, check back to this blog after the festival, or follow my Twitter account at @MtnBrewBook, as I'll try to post updates throughout the night.
As for me, I may be more excited about Friday night's session than I've been about attending a GABF session since my very first one back in 2001. There are no expectations and no checklist that I have to knock off for the first time in a long, long time. And in there lies freedom to find out in a new way what makes the American beer scene so special. Cheers.
The routine for many at the Great American Beer Festival is simple: Scout out the breweries you absolutely have to hit, get a few more recommendations on the floor, leave satisfied that you've sampled from the hippest and best breweries in the country. I've done it for many years, and it's produced a wealth of valuable tasting experiences.
What I've never done in the 17 years I've attended the festival, however, is to acknowledge that every brewery at the Colorado Convention Center has some story, some effort that has drawn them to compete in this wonderful science fair of beer-making - and to give myself over to truly letting chance determine which beers I sample and discover. That, however, changes this year.
On Friday, I'm opening myself to what I call the GABF Alphabetical Challenge - a self-made opportunity to discover the beer that I've never discovered before and the breweries that I never thought to glance at a second time while I was running to get in line at New Glarus or Bell's. And in some ways, I feel like I'll get to experience America's best beer festival for the first time.
Why would I handcuff myself in this way, you might say, potentially passing over star breweries and star beers that no one should walk by? In short, it's an acknowledgment that too much about the GABF and the week before it has become a pull to the known beer makers and the hot styles without opening myself up to the chance of finding that brewery I love by searching beyond a short list. I can still remember randomly discovering Six Rivers Brewery of California - maker of the best chili beer in America and a host of other brilliant offerings - some 12 or 13 years ago when I just happened to stop by its booth out of curiosity. I've gone back every year since, but the number of "secret treasure" breweries in my stash hasn't expanded much.
I also tend to spend the vast majority of my time seeking sours and barrel-aged beers, big hop bombs and concoctions with strange ingredients - to the point where I try to list my favorite lager at the end of the festival and find that there's only two or three that I even tried. The array of American beer styles continues to grow and widen, and GABF is one of the few festivals in the world where you can dive thoroughly into all of them in one place - an opportunity that shouldn't be squandered.
Finally, I realize that people who have just one 4-1/2-hour session to see the show won't want to leave up to chance what they will find there. But as a member of the media, I get entry to three separate sessions (and access to photos like the one I have at the top of this blog). Thursday night is always spent chasing the hottest beers and trends out there, and Saturday afternoon is typically awash with my chasing award winners and trying to interview them. But I have the true privilege of getting the chance to cover the festival and to learn from it, and I want to make sure I'm doing so without blinders as to what may be out there.
So, how will this turn out? I don't know. I could find the next hidden gem in America. I also could find a rack of imbalanced IPAs or uninspired amber ales (assuming someone still makes those). But the most important thing is that I will discover, and that discovery will include flavors and breweries I haven't known before.
If this all bores you, I'm not offended. But if you're curious how it turns out, check back to this blog after the festival, or follow my Twitter account at @MtnBrewBook, as I'll try to post updates throughout the night.
As for me, I may be more excited about Friday night's session than I've been about attending a GABF session since my very first one back in 2001. There are no expectations and no checklist that I have to knock off for the first time in a long, long time. And in there lies freedom to find out in a new way what makes the American beer scene so special. Cheers.
Labels: Bell's Brewing, Brewers Association, Great American Beer Festival, New Glarus, Six Rivers Brewery
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Mr. Sealover Challenge Accepted! I look forward to seeing how your A-Z turns out so I can compare it to mine.
Love it, Chris. And I'm sure we'll continue our annual run-into-each-other-at-GABF tradition in the coming days. Looking forward to it.
Thanks for sharing this wonderful blog..
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Table Tap is the first company to launch and market self service beer taps in the United States, empowering you to pour your own beer! Self service beer is the future of the restaurant and hospitality industry.
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