Every year we send some of our best beer out to Denver to compete in the Great American Beer Fest.  We’ve been sending beer to it since we started as a company and have done pretty well there over the years.  We always try to send out a variety of styles and make sure that every restaurant and every brewer in the company is represented.  Usually we’ll each get to pick a couple of beers that are particularly close to our hearts to send out.  We also send out most of our house beers.  Deciding who gets the honor of sending Iron Hill’s representation of our house beers involves another competition all together.  Our own, in-house GABF tasting.  We’ll get together and do a blind tasting of all of our house beers and decide which one to send.  Now we try pretty hard and are pretty successful at, keeping our house beers pretty consistent from location to location.  So deciding which is the best at competition time can come down to splitting hairs.  But at the GABF judges table you often have 6 judges pitting 50 or 100 excellent beers against each other in just one category.  Splitting hairs is what it’s all about.  We’ll also do this with some of our seasonals.  If a few of our brewers all brew a certain style that we want to send we’ll usually throw those in the panel as well.  It’s all about making sure the judges taste the best we have to offer.  I leave Friday for Denver.  A little outdoor R&R first then off to the convention center to taste hundreds of the best beers in the planet.  Please don’t drink all of my beer while I’m gone.  And wish us luck!