Saturday, January 05, 2019
Big Beers Has Become the Festival for the Beer Aficionados Who Truly Want to Learn
The Big Beers Belgians & Barleywines Festival has gone through some very noticeable changes in recent years (like moving from Vail to Breckenridge in 2017) and some very subtle ones. But it's those seemingly minor tweaks that this year have added up to making this officially the festival for people who don't just want to drink a lot of beer but who want to sponge up knowledge about the craft at the same rate their liver is processing alcohol.
That's not to say the nationally lauded annual event, now celebrating its 19th year from Jan. 10-12, hasn't always gone the extra yard to imbue knowledge upon its participants. It's always been marked by early-morning seminars on experimental brewing styles, multiple events pairing beer with food and cigars and brewers who are omnipresent at the commercial tasting to explain just how they incorporated an experimental yeast or ingredient.
But those seminars (pictured below) are getting more technical as they are getting more popular - a reason that organizers Laura and Bill Lodge decided for the first time this year to sell $15-$20 tickets to each of the gatherings, since the tracks grew so crowded last year that crowds couldn't fit into the rooms. And this year's slate of 12 talks goes to depths beyond even many of the great seminars in the past, including the start-of-the-morning gathering on Saturday in which Crooked Stave, Mad Fritz and Sierra Nevada delve into the impacts of water on beer by making the same brew with three different water sources.
Laura also wanted to take the welcome reception to a new level - this time without adding the cost of tickets to a beer-and-food pairing that had grown costly to the overall event. So, the 2019 reception (noon to 1 p.m. on Friday at Beaver Run Resort) upped its number of brewer participants to four serving two beers each and replaced the high-end pairings with a nacho bar, so that beer geeks have time to savor new flavors and talk to the men and women who create them.
"I really wanted to do a formal, you've-arrived entrance," Laura told me. "We're really looking to, I guess, polish it up."
To be sure, Big Beers didn't need much polishing. The commercial event alone puts this among the best beer festivals nationally, with the likes of Adam Avery or Sam Calagione pouring rarities and barrel-aged beauties and explaining their qualities to lines of people that stretch sometimes 10 long instead of the around-the-corner queues that can mark the best breweries at Great American Beer Festival.
But as more breweries have tried to get into the event - which, mindbogglingly, still has tickets available - more brewers have agreed to share their table with friends in order to increase the sheer variety of beers that are being poured. This year there will be more than 150 beer makers pouring beer at just 118 tables.
"It's a really great feeling to see the community coming together in that way," Laura said.
What's really begun to separate this festival from others in recent years is the affiliate events happening around Breckenridge as it occurs. Yes, those include special tappings and food pairings.
But there's also a workshop on Belgian beers, an educational discussion on hazy beers and informational pourings and tappings focused on fermentation, blending and randalls. Hell, there's even a special event on low-gravity beers, which is the equivalent of the NFL directing a seminar on the grace and beauty of soccer.
I'm not saying that you'll be so steeped in learning that you won't get drunk at Big Beers. You're at 9,600 feet above sea level, the first seminar on Saturday begins at 9 a.m. and you're drinking beers no less than 7 percent ABV, with the exception of a few lower-alcohol Belgian styles. You're going to feel it, even if the drunkenness is just a byproduct of your activities rather than a goal.
But this festival has gone well beyond a little bit of learning and a lot of beer. It's like an upper-level college course on what makes great beer as great as it is, with the benefits of your being able to taste every bit of that as you are steeping yourself in knowledge. And that's why it's become, in some ways, the absolute must-hit beer event of the year in Colorado.
The Big Beers Belgians & Barleywines Festival has gone through some very noticeable changes in recent years (like moving from Vail to Breckenridge in 2017) and some very subtle ones. But it's those seemingly minor tweaks that this year have added up to making this officially the festival for people who don't just want to drink a lot of beer but who want to sponge up knowledge about the craft at the same rate their liver is processing alcohol.
That's not to say the nationally lauded annual event, now celebrating its 19th year from Jan. 10-12, hasn't always gone the extra yard to imbue knowledge upon its participants. It's always been marked by early-morning seminars on experimental brewing styles, multiple events pairing beer with food and cigars and brewers who are omnipresent at the commercial tasting to explain just how they incorporated an experimental yeast or ingredient.
But those seminars (pictured below) are getting more technical as they are getting more popular - a reason that organizers Laura and Bill Lodge decided for the first time this year to sell $15-$20 tickets to each of the gatherings, since the tracks grew so crowded last year that crowds couldn't fit into the rooms. And this year's slate of 12 talks goes to depths beyond even many of the great seminars in the past, including the start-of-the-morning gathering on Saturday in which Crooked Stave, Mad Fritz and Sierra Nevada delve into the impacts of water on beer by making the same brew with three different water sources.
Laura also wanted to take the welcome reception to a new level - this time without adding the cost of tickets to a beer-and-food pairing that had grown costly to the overall event. So, the 2019 reception (noon to 1 p.m. on Friday at Beaver Run Resort) upped its number of brewer participants to four serving two beers each and replaced the high-end pairings with a nacho bar, so that beer geeks have time to savor new flavors and talk to the men and women who create them.
"I really wanted to do a formal, you've-arrived entrance," Laura told me. "We're really looking to, I guess, polish it up."
To be sure, Big Beers didn't need much polishing. The commercial event alone puts this among the best beer festivals nationally, with the likes of Adam Avery or Sam Calagione pouring rarities and barrel-aged beauties and explaining their qualities to lines of people that stretch sometimes 10 long instead of the around-the-corner queues that can mark the best breweries at Great American Beer Festival.
"It's a really great feeling to see the community coming together in that way," Laura said.
What's really begun to separate this festival from others in recent years is the affiliate events happening around Breckenridge as it occurs. Yes, those include special tappings and food pairings.
But there's also a workshop on Belgian beers, an educational discussion on hazy beers and informational pourings and tappings focused on fermentation, blending and randalls. Hell, there's even a special event on low-gravity beers, which is the equivalent of the NFL directing a seminar on the grace and beauty of soccer.
I'm not saying that you'll be so steeped in learning that you won't get drunk at Big Beers. You're at 9,600 feet above sea level, the first seminar on Saturday begins at 9 a.m. and you're drinking beers no less than 7 percent ABV, with the exception of a few lower-alcohol Belgian styles. You're going to feel it, even if the drunkenness is just a byproduct of your activities rather than a goal.
But this festival has gone well beyond a little bit of learning and a lot of beer. It's like an upper-level college course on what makes great beer as great as it is, with the benefits of your being able to taste every bit of that as you are steeping yourself in knowledge. And that's why it's become, in some ways, the absolute must-hit beer event of the year in Colorado.
Labels: Avery Brewing, Big Beers, Boston Beer Co., Breckenridge, Crooked Stave, Laura Lodge, Mad Fritz Brewing, Sierra Nevada Brewing
