Well, the winners are out: http://www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com/wp-content/uploads/12_GABF_winners.pdf, and like every year there are things that make ya go Hmmm. For me it was category 31 Munich-style Helles. Gold to CB Potts, OK. Silver and Bronze to Full Sail sessions and Kona Longboard Lager? One of my locals won a couple of Silvers, Congrats Chuckanut! What are your Rants and Raves this year?
MI won 3 medals.... total. Find that surprising. Then again, whogivesadamnbro? I'll drink what I like.
Little brewery, Island Brewing in Carpenteria won a few. The Starry Night is quite good. Nice to see little guys get some respect in such a large gathering.
well in that vein, PBR won a medal too. The WTF ws distributor of the year was Tryon in Charlotte. They put out FBS last year BEFORE Backwoods. Seriously. I was a 4 pack into Backwoods before I saw a bottle or keg of FBS. and they won distributor of the year.
Fourteen Fourteen won gold from the Central Waters in Category 23: Wood and barrel aged strong stout. Congrats Paul and company!!
That's pretty par for the course if you've seen previous years results. I would guess that many of their beers that BAs find appealing don't fit very well into the GABF categories.
I love troegs, but come on...sunshine pils? They basically give that stuff away at my go to store because it never sells.
Congrats to all! I feel I have to comment on Zombie Dust getting a bronze! WTF! There's NONE that compare!
List is a big yawn... I'm all for rooting for the local guys, but 1 medal for Sweetwater... and it's for their Porter.. which isn't as good as Red Bricks' local wise..
Yeah, Wookie Jack single-handedly saved the CDA style for me. Until WJ, the best CDA I'd had was OK, WJ blows me away. It's the only example of the style I go back to regularly.
Category: 75 Robust Porter, 62 Entries Silver: Coco Loco, NoDa Brewing Co., Charlotte, NC Bronze: Black Sand Porter, Kona Brewing Co., Kailua-Kona, HI what got gold?
Funkwerks coming away with 3 golds (1 for Deceit, 1 for their Saison, and 1 for best small brewery) was cool to see.
The fact that Sunshine Pils and Dreamweaver Wheat (both from Troegs) won gold downright baffles me. Can't really stand either of them. Hopback Amber Ale from Troegs however is fantastic, and also won gold. How in the world did Leinenkugels Summer Shandy win ANYTHING?
They generally seem to do barrel aged sours but given their resources and the fact that the the brewers have the freedom to brew the beer they want, I'd imagine this Barrel Aged RIS would be quite good. Haven't had it myself to know though.
Some thoughts....the GABF lists always amaze me. I think that a lot of the styles shouldn't even be on there or should be combined with some other style. I am always surprised at how many breweries I haven't heard of win Gold medals. I think that the beers we as Beer Advocates love/hype is not at all what professional beer judges rate beers on. "Our" list would look so much different (and better imo). Devils Backbone took home a shit ton of medals. Never had a single beer from them. Washington State is extremely overlooked (partly our fault for not putting ourselves out there). CA, VA, CO and OR are killers The American IPA list is not at all what I would choose ever.
I notice A LOT of CO winners. Is CO really that good? Or perhaps a little 'home field advantage'? Honest question.
Big Fan of RR, and have a few of the Row2/Hill56 coming any day now. I'll compare side by side and see what my palate decides! Probably, with those two Big Dogs, my palate will cry tears of joy! LOL
I've never had Zombie Dust, but its classification as a pale ale confuses me. I know the brewer can call it whatever they want to, but the GABF style guide says American pale ales are 4.5-5.6% ABV, and ZD is 6.4%--within the range of American IPAs (6.3-7.5%). So if ZD is "actually" an IPA, why is it earning a medal as a pale ale?
