Before the second night of the Great American Beer Festival, we found ourselves at Oskar Blues. We walked in to a large tasting bustling with fellow beer enthusiasts. We got right down to business and ordered a flight of different barrel-aged Ten Fidys. We stood around and munched on shelled peanuts while we waited. I looked around at the lively bunch of people and admired huge airplane propeller-like fans cooling everyone off. Evan Kaye, the regional manager in our group, showed us a small room with two skee ball machines, and we took turns trying to best each other’s scores. 

We got the flights--five different barrel-aged stouts: Appleton Rum, Four Roses Bourbon, Breckenridge Whiskey, and Pappy Van Winkle. I really enjoyed the rum finish from the Appleton barrel. After we got skee ball playing out of our systems the tour commenced. Unfortunately, they weren’t canning at the time so we couldn’t view their massive line in action, but our guide showed us the basics of it. After looking around at all of the tanks and enormous towers of G’Kinght, Ten Fidy, Mamma’s Yella Pils and Dale’s Pale Ale cans on palates ready for filling, we came to the barrel aging section. There were mostly Bourbon barrels, an Appleton 30 year, and an Anejo tequila one, which intrigued me because I have never had a tequila-aged beer before. But that is for another day. 

We lastly saw the piles of bulging grain and malt bags before we concluded the tour and headed back to the tasting room to get ready for our second night of extreme tasting at GABF.

Adam Shugan, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits Beer Consultant

Follow him on Twitter @abcbeeradams