After the fun times going to Fort Collins and New Belgium breweries, it was time to go to the first night of the festival. It was located in downtown Denver inside of a giant convention center coincidently on Stout Street. When we arrived we were amazed to see rows and rows of beer vendors and an endless sea of people milling about tasting one ounce pours in their souvenir GABF shot glasses. The noise was a muddle of talking with no real discernible words.

The Colorado Convention Center (and the top of my head)

My mission was to try as many beers and breweries I could that I have read or heard great things about and would probably never get a chance to try again. The big ones were Russian River, Three Floyds, Surly, Unita, Clown Shoes and Half Acre. It was sorted by region but I, being a guy, decided to roam around and see what looked good as well as keep an eye out for these.

My ultimate quest was Russian River’s Pliny the Elder and Younger, also Three Floyds’s Dark Lord. I shuffled through the maze of bodies and looked at all of the vendors. I found Surly first and tried Furious and Coffee Bender. It was very crowded but I soon found out that this was tame compared to what was in store for the third night when they announced the medal winners. I tried a few others and located Russian River just in time to try Pliny the Elder; Younger was unavailable. Three Floyds was closed to my dismay.

Chris, Merchandising and Inventory Planning Manager for ABC was in the group and informed Meghan, one of ABC’s social media gurus, and I that we had tickets to a special beer and gourmet food pairing. Unfortunately, with only 10 minutes left, most of the food was consumed and there was very little beer left in the side room where that event was held, so we went back to hunting for more good beers.

Evan Kaye, Chris Larue and me at the fesitval.

I remembered that in the latest issue of BeerAdvocate magazine they did a nice spread on the brewery Funky Buddha located in Boca Raton, Florida. I had heard good things and decided to get some samples before the lines got too bad. It turned out their beers are fantastic! I tried their Maple Bacon Porter, No Crusts Peanut Butter and Jelly Ale and Last Snow, another American porter. After that I went on a tasting spree and tried everything I could think of that I remembered good reviews for. By the end my tongue was completely numb and we all went home to re-energize for the next day’s brewery tours and second round of the festival.  

Adam Shugan, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits Beer Consultant

Follow him on Twitter @abcbeeradams