A trip to the Great American Beer Fest with West Of’s Beer Snob
by Lorne Chambers | editor
Long before the “craft beer” movement hit Charleston, West Of was running a beer column in its dining section. At first many thought a beer column was an odd thing for a community newspaper to have. But as the craft beer wildfire spread throughout the Southeast and eventually made it’s way to West Ashley, the weekly Beer Snob column soon became — and remains — one of the most popular sections in the paper. For almost nine years Gene’s Haufbrau has sponsored the column and every week Jeffrey Gredlein (aka The Beer Snob) has been informing locals on the joys of zymurgy.
Despite the name of the column, Gredlein has always taken an educational rather than a snobby approach to beer. This should not be surprising as his day job is a college professor. Gredlein holds a Ph.D in psychology but has always had a passion for good beer. So last week, it was a pleasure to travel with The Beer Snob to Denver, Colo. for the “granddaddy of them all,” The Great American Beef Festival (GABF). This year all four sessions of the GABF sold out in 20 minutes of going on sale.
Things are bigger out west, and the GABF is no exception. It’s a grand festival celebrating the best in American beer. More than 3,100 beers were offered by 624 U.S. breweries — the largest selection of American beers ever assembled. More than 48,000 gallons of beer was on hand for the 49,000 attendees. Small and mid-sized breweries from all across the country break out their heavy artillery for this festival. Every every style of beer imaginable is available, from traditional lagers and ales to a Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout (yes, Colorado’s Wynkoop Brewery literally uses bull balls in the brew).
“The fact that I checked off nearly 10 of my all time ‘must-try’ breweries over the span of three sessions should say it all. The beer is unreal, it’s all there, and you just have to prepare for it,” says Gredlein. “In one afternoon, I had four of the top 10 beers on Beeradvocate.com’s list of the Top 250 Beers in the World: #3. Russian River’s Pliny the Elder; #5. Goose Island’s Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout; #6. Three Floyd’s Zombie Dust; and #9. Firestone Walker’s Parabola. Not to mention dozens more from this list and beyond. Where else can you say that?”
The foundation of the GABF is about the same as other beer festivials — rows of breweries pouring their goods. However, at the GABF it’s rows and rows and rows of breweries! And there are dozens of breweries you’ve never heard of, others you’ve never been lucky enough to try. “Strangely enough, for such a big event, I never had to wait for than 5 minutes, even for the super special pours. Can’t say the same for the smaller fests,” says Gredlein.” There is also a cheese booth, to pair with some beers, or some items made with beer. A brewpub section with some of the preeminent small scale brewed beers in the country.
Last year, Charleston’s Holy City Brewing struck gold with their delicious Pluff Mud Porter at the GABF. While they wouldn’t repeat in that category it was nice to see them and the guys from Palmetto Brewing among the sea of thousands of brewers and beer drinkers form all over the country.
Beyond the festival itself, the GABF festival goers are different than your typical ballpark or parking lot beer fest crowd. “Of course you have the trainwrecks, running from booth to booth, full glass in hand, trying to drink every beer, or at least as much as they can as fast as they can,” says Gredlein. “But the majority of GABF attendees are well informed, well drank, lovers of beer. Just from hearing conversations, you know these folks know their stuff. Yeah, it may spill over into dorkdom, but what better place to totally beer nerd out?”
The GABF is really a world-class festival and a bucket list event for any true beer enthusiast. “Hundreds of volunteers in matching garb really do an amazing job of keeping things moving, safe, and mostly clean,” says Gredlein. “Unlike some smaller festivals, the Colorado Convention Center is large enough, even with this many breweries, that passage through the space is generally easy and rarely do lines overlap or intersect.”
The city of Denver also rises to the occasion. Not unlike Jazzfest in New Orleans, some of the highlights of the weekend may occur outside of the festival itself. Denver is a great beer town 365 days of the year, but during the three days of the GABF, many bars hold special tasting and events for the throngs of beer enthusiasts who have converged upon the Mile-High City.
“There is a just festive atmosphere around town, beer nerds all over the place. Quite a few breweries had events at different bars and restaurants, releasing new or rare beer,” says Gredlein. “The town seemed quite packed to me, but I never got an aggressive or entitled sense from the fest goers.” GABF had a $7 million economic impact on the city of Denver in 2012, according to Visit Denver, the city’s convention and visitors bureau.
For more information and a list of the winners of the 2013 Great American Beer Festival, visit www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com.
