Last Friday was our GABF Pre-game! I am sooooo stoked about this year. Doug and I have been strategizing for months now. For those of you who aren’t aware we take the Great American Beer Festival very seriously around here. We were Large Brewpub of the year in 2006 and have won awards every year since we started entering in 1996 (Knock on Wood) and we work very hard to stay ahead of that game. Now, there are people out there who don’t like the GABF as an indicator of quality. I agree to a certain extent…the comp tends to favor smaller brewers who make tons of brands.  But hey, THAT’s US! Yeah. The winners at GABF are always brewers of high quality beer….at least the beer that’s on the table for the particular judging sessions in Denver.  In the interest of full disclosure I routinely judge at the GABF.  THAT is an experience, let me tell you. It’s really insightful to pick the minds of other brewers and allied trade members. Style is a moving target, especially here in the U.S. where beer is changing in fast and exciting ways. Michael Jackson was once quoted saying that the U.S. is the best place in the world to drink beer. I’ve got to agree, and the GABF will show you why. I’ll put up a full post about the actual Fest later.  Today let’s talk about the PRE-GAME!

Over the years we’ve developed a program for getting the best of IHB’s beers to Denver. We use refrigerated freight, we schedule brews months in advance, we bottle condition some products and not others…and lots of other stuff that would bore you to death. At the end of all the prep we have a blind tasting to pick which beer will go. Just to give you an example, we all brew Ironbound American Pale Ale. We are only allowed to enter this category once so that means we have to taste all seven and pick the best. I hear it said over and over in our group that some of the toughest competition for a GABF medal is on the chopping block of this panel. I think that’s so true. We brew a TON of great beer and this year the Ironbound panel was a great example. The at the top is of this year’s flight and I’ve got to tell you that is was a fight to pick which was the best.  What a great problem to have!

We also invited some outside judges to be on our panel this year including Jason Harris from Keystone Homebrew, George Hummel from Home Sweet Homebrew, the Brew Loungeguys, and famed beer writer and blogernaught Lew Bryson. Jack Curtin couldn’t make it…be we did invite him (lest he carp about being left out!). We drank our way through something like 10 flights of 8 or so beers each. It is a chore, but one that’s not too hard to get done. In the end we picked a bang up panel of superb beers for the Fest, and we will eagerly await the professional judges results. Thanks again to the guest judges for their help and good luck to all of you other brewers out there involved in the GABF! Here we go…

Oh, and just for fun, here’s a photo of Vince D. (IHB Media) with his ‘Poker Face’ on….fight the fight, baby!