Great American Beer Festival '11

So, late last year, Dawn and I were watching Art Mann Presents on HDNET, which isn't really that surprising because we like the show and watch it semi-regularly, we don't watch every episode but I'm glad we watched this one. If you haven't seen the show, amiable host Art Mann goes to different parties and/or conventions where there will be lots of people drinking and generally partying it up. This particular episode had him in Denver at the Great American Beer Festival, and damn if it didn't look like fun. So shortly after that, we made a commitment to make it to next year's event, which was pretty easy, actually. We bought tickets for the Friday and Saturday portion of the the fest, foisted the kids off on friends and family, and headed off to the foot of the Rockies for a weekend of drunkenness and debauchery. Well, drunkenness anyway for sure...

Dawn made me take a picture of the bear.

The Great American Beer Festival is an annual event held in Denver that features over 2400 beers from 465 breweries from around the country. Although companies like Budweiser and Miller had a presence, the breweries were predominantly smaller, regional types. Rather than pay to become members of the Brewers Association or the American Homebrewers Association, which got you into VIP-type of events and cost more, we just bought two tickets for both nights and didn't worry about special events.

Due to my totally justified aversion to flying, we drove out to Denver, but not without making a stop in lovely Manhattan, Kansas, to visit Mr. & Mrs. Mojo and the always charming J-Rod. Thanks to the Mojos for letting us stay at their estate for the evening. I stayed up way too late and had more fun than I should have.

We got into Denver early Friday afternoon, and after freshening up at our hotel, we hit the fest a little after 6 p.m. The convention runs from 5:30 to 10:30, but last pour is 9:45. The convention center was about two blocks from our hotel and it was a beautiful day in downtown Denver so we had a nice walk with dozens of other people headed our way. We moved quickly through the line into the event, traded our tickets for plastic cups, and stood amazed at the amount of people already there getting their drunk on. Brewers tables were lined from the front to the back of the hall, all with signs announcing the names of their beers and where they were from. The fest had them roughly joined by area, so we hit the 'local' beers of the Great Lakes area first, with some Goose Island, Leinenkugle and plenty of others to get started.

Just inside the convention hall

Over the course of the next three hours or so we sampled dozens of beers, if not hundreds. I tend to prefer lagers and darker brews, which meant that it wasn't too long before I felt like I'd swallowed several loaves of bread. Fortunately, there were several areas with tables & chairs where we could relax for a few minutes before diving back into the fray. Even though the sample size of each beer was roughly an ounce, it adds up quick. We managed to survive the night and make the walk back to our hotel where we passed out relatively quickly (hey, that drive from Manhattan, KS to Denver really wipes you out, then throw a couple cases of beer on top of that).

Let me take a moment here to warble the praises of downtown Denver; it's fantastic. The 16th Street Mall is many blocks of shops and restaurants, blocked off from regular traffic, that we spent several hours wandering through. There are free buses travelling up and down the street, lots of outdoor eating and cafes, and it's a great place to people watch. Granted, it's probably not the same in the middle of February, but for a beautiful fall Saturday it was perfect. I recommend the Rialto Cafe, great food and service, and their Farmhouse Stack on the brunch menu was awesome.

The Silent Disco

We returned Saturday night to discover that the second evening is a LOT more popular than night one. Wow, the place was packed, making it a little more difficult to maneuver from table to table. That certainly didn't stop us from enjoying ourselves, but as a result we left maybe 30 minutes earlier than the night before. Still plenty of time to drink and people watch, plus Dawn got in some karaoke, wowing the convention hall with her rendition of Pat Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot". There was no encore. I wore my Repo Man shirt on Saturday, and was pleasantly surprised how often I received comments on it. One vendor exclaimed "Repo Man! How many people know that movie?", to which I replied, "Only the cool ones." He loved it. On line to the bathroom, I got into a mutual admiration society with another guy who had on a Pork Chop Express shirt. We almost got married right there.

Bull &Bush were really the only vendors putting on a show.

Admittedly, drinking so many different beers, they tended to blend together. One Irish Red or Belgian Wheat can taste like any other after a while, but the reason you go to an event like this is to try everything. So every fruity, vegetable-y or even pepper-y beer I could find, I tried. Most of them sucked. The Chili beer was terrible, but then again, I don't like chili's, so big surprise there, right? Same for the Beet beer. But without a doubt our favorite drink of both nights was the Peanut Butter Beer, from Blue Moon Brewing Company. They tapped that keg at 7pm both nights, and we went back for more until they ran out. I would buy that beer in a heartbeat, but they informed us it was a special brew done just for the Fest, due to the prohibitive cost of making it. They put real peanut butter in the mix, and it tasted exactly like you'd think a peanut butter beer would taste. We loved it.

We had a great trip to Denver, and I'd recommend both the city and the Great American Beer Festival for anyone who likes beer. It's an awesome time, and well worth the trip. One note of caution; be sure to get your tickets early, they sell out every year. Tickets will probably go on sale late June, early July, so keep an eye on the GABF website, and always drink responsibly! I doubt we'll make it next year, we'll be saving up our cash for year two of this event. :^)

Went to GABF, got the shirt.