GABF Winners: Rants n Raves

All I can say is...

Told you so.

Congratulations to Jay and Lori @ Weasel Boy for their gold medal win

But don't you think that these judges are privy to more objective measure -- let alone, more beers that we can't get through distro? I mean, it might be disappointing to see your favorite IPA lose out to some little-known place in California, but perhaps they did actually make a better beer?

I like the Chicago Land sweep of American Pale Ales

Isn't row2 a few months old at this point?

I'd say CO is really that good, and that's coming from a San Diego resident. I'm very stoked to see Funkwerks win Small Brewer of the Year, it's one of my must-visit locations every time I go to Ft. Collins.

I would imagine they brewed a fresh batch for GABF.

Super happy for Chad and Crooked Stave for taking home the Silver in the very competitive category of "wood and barrel-aged sour ale" category for Sentience. Well deserved!

I think that was the one category in which they did not give out a gold. Why did they not feel NoDa's was deserving of the gold? If I had to guess, it would be because the coconut means it deviates from the style a bit. Gold medal beers are deemed more true to style than silver.

That being said, I'm proud that Charlotte's NoDa Brewing and The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery both won silver medals.

http://www.charlottebeer.com/2012/10/13/omb-noda-gabf/

All hail Troegs! And they didn't even win for Nugget Nectar or Mad Elf, their two most hyped beers....

I am always amazes how personal people take the GABF awards.

It went "off" at RR, and recently came back on-tap.... got a growler on the way

Did they enter? Just asking, in case you know.

I hope not, have a friend in San Fran, and we ship a 3 oak back and forth. Should be at my ace when u get back Monday.

Congrats to Upland, Sour Reserve kicks ass and likely just got even harder to get!

And Sun King just continues to do well.....

I love it when a brewery with no hype kills it:

One Review on BA: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/24056

Winner:
Gold - 2 X 4 (IIPA Category)
Gold - Melvin (American Strong Pale Ale Category)
Silver - ChChChCh-Cherry Bomb (Fruit Beer Category)

According to this, yes.

CO is absolutely that good. However I would bet that CO also has more entries than any other state due to sheer volume of breweries and ease of transporting beer to the event. So, yes and yes.

Well, no.

That is a list of breweries with a booth pouring beer at the GABF Festival. You will porbably not find a list of breweries that entered bottles to be judged at the GABF Competition, which is another thing.
http://www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com/the-competition/about-the-beer-competition/

One Michigan brewery that won a medal was not on the Festival list - Bastogne. I know a brewer that had beers entered and was not going, as they were not pouring beer at the Festival - they did not medal.

A few years back some high profile Michigan breweries did not medal because the missed the entry deadline for the competition.

So do you know?

Nice job Sierra Nevada in Category 15!

I see that AC Golden won a bronze for a BA RIS. I know they have some sours that get pretty good reviews on here. Do they distribute outside of Colorado?

There were 578 breweries at the festival.
666 breweries in the competition.

With > 2000 breweries in the US, not all entered.

They barely distribute the barrel-aged beers in Colorado, as far as I know. They only had 1-2 barrels of each of the sours, and sold all the bottles at one bottle shop in Lakewood. I'm not sure anyone could tell you at this point how much of the stout they made.

Bohemian Black is actually a pretty good beer in an underrepresented style.

But Shiner Bock?!

Yeah, there's a relatively fresh batch on at the brewpub now. But unless the previous poster has a growler coming, he's got some deeply over the hill bottles coming his way, which is unfortunately. I think those were bottled in June. For a super-hoppy beer, that's way too long ago.

Does anybody actually put any stock into the GABF awards? It's random as to who even submits, and even more random as to who wins. I mean, I'm up there in terms of beer geekiness, and I find these completely and utterly meaningless. Lesser beer geeks don't even know what GABF stands for. And I'm pretty sure that never in the history of beer shopping has somebody whipped out an iphone and said "ooh this brewery won a GABF silver, so let's buy their 6-pack!".

Had to quit looking at list once I saw Shriner Bock and Shriner Black Bavarian receive gold,

That's your metric?!! Sunshine's a far better German Pils than Prima or Pikeland, and considering how it's got freshness on its side, a better option than any of the comparable imports. Too bad your local shoppers don't know quality when they see it, but that stuff is legit, and then some.

Once again, I will say that Shiner Bohemian Black is a pretty good beer, and it's in a style that isn't widely done. Bock won in a category with 12 entries, Bohemian Black won in a category with 32 entries- we're not talking about heavyweights here.


Anyway, I went to college in VA and I was pleased to see Devil's Backbone win a bunch. My former roommate has said good things about them lately- makes me wish I could be there to try their beer!

NICE! They're not too much alike. You'll get a bigger flavor profile with the Dust, whereas Row Hill you could just keep drinking and drinking and drinking, almost like a Pliny "lite". Zombie Dust for me...the malt starts to overwhelm after my second.

To each their own & CHEERS!

Truly, to each their own.

I've had 3 pints on Osiris earlier, and just finished my 3rd Zombie Dust! Lol
I can drink it all night.

Gonna grab a FBS though and call it a night soon!

Cheers, anxious to try the Row2. I really like RR pales.

Coming from the heart of Tap It's base, it is not a gold medal beer. I would take any Firestone IPA over it.

i have to disagree, prima is a much better pils than sunshine

Glad to see Marble win silver for the Imperial Red. It such good beer.

I was fortunate enough to try it at a sour fest locally about two weeks ago. Such amazing stuff. It tasted like licking the inside of a virgin barrel

I was happy to see some of my old Central Coast stomping grounds get metals: Island, Telegraph and one hugely overlooked brewery being Hollister. TapIt who took a gold and Figueroa Mtn(ISO) who took several medals but I moved before they opened. I was happy to see Island get something, they had some quality issues back in the day, bugs must be worked out. Telegraph Rhino has always been my favorite "Rye Barelywine" and those guys were always super nice.

I agree they are not bad beers for their style and they were my gateway beers into craft."Don't be afraid of the Dark" is still my favorite beer slogan,but alas they are not Gold quality,Surprised there was only 12 entries in the amber catagory.

It's a good way to hear about new breweries you aren't familiar with.

I wish every taste of beer was a blind taste. This site would be way more interesting.

I don't know, I'm sure that's never hurt Stone, Great Lakes, or Sierra Nevada in their sales any.