New category: American White Whale Ales Beers in this category would be judged on hype/rarity and not on taste.
All I know is that Cable Car Kriek was entered in some sort of Category, yet it didn't place. That blows my mind. Also, The Bruery should have won more.
What blows my mind is Miller lite coming in second place to PBR.. No more TV commercials from Miller on its big win at the GABF... Seriously, I cannot phathom how Schlafly's Pumpkin Ale did not place in the Pumpkin Beer category. I know Schlafly was at the GABF, saw it on facebook, they brought a boatload of the Pumpkin Beer too.. Oh well.. Congrats to all the winners.. Much love for Sun King, one of my favorite craft breweries.
Or hype to disappointment ration! Also a shout out to Yazoo for taking bronze in category 66, south German style hefeweizen
Boulevard came away with golds for Zon (Wit) and Reverb (Imperial Pilsner). Good hometown beers indeed. I have to agree that many winners are kind of random, but good breweries get them for something. For Zon it is the 4th medal in 10 years and the 3rd in the last 4. If nothing else, I just wish I could go to GABF and judge for myself
Ive had brickstones pale ale (and zombie dust of course) and I can say without a shadow of a doubt ZD should have rapes brickstones
And I would question why you are defending The Bruery like they are your firstborn child. Look, those judges go through tons of training, and have been doing it for quite a while. To basically say they are wrong just because the Bruery didn't win more medals is pretty petty at best. And The Bruery won two medals, which is pretty damned respectable, considering how many breweries are involved in GABF. But my question is, why can't you respect the other breweries who did win, because it's beer, and isn't that what we're supposed to do as advocates, respect beer? If you are so hurt, go drink a beer from the Bruery and support them in that way, instead of putting down people who have worked hard to achieve what they have.
Well, there's: Category: 48 English-Style India Pale Ale Category: 52 American-Style India Pale Ale Category: 53 Imperial India Pale Ale (aka "Double IPA") Category: 63 American-Style Black Ale (aka "Black IPA") ... as well as IPA's no doubt entered in other categories (like "Fresh Hop" "Strong Ale" "Barrel age" etc.) Can't find those stats right now, but IPA's are probably the most entered beers, as just the total number of entries under Category 52 at "203" shows.
And just because it 'doesn't sell' shouldn't necessarily mean its not good. American craft pilsners don't exactly set the world on fire in sales but their all pretty damned good (in my opinion of course). As a matter of fact, I don't think hop back or dream weaver blow up cash registers but, again, they are damned good beers. Big day for Troegs and it's well deserved. Congrats to all the winners and congrats to me for spending my entire Sunday reviewing this list, watching football and drinking damned good beers!
Literally from a one stoplight town, Eddyline Brewery wins gold in the International-Style Pale Ale category. Honestly, I'm astonished that they even placed, much less won a gold! IMO brews from Eddyline are not really worth seeking out at all. It is remarkable that they won something, and are deserving of a strong congrats for their style efforts. Other surprise is Central Waters 1414. Great win for them, quite deserving.
"Finally"? The beer's won 7 previous medals since 1990 (plus 2 for "Mickey's Ice") in various categories on the GABF's constantly changing and confusing list, according to the GABF Search function - under all three of the its recent past breweries (Heileman, Stroh and Miller), too, which might be some sort of record.
Sunshine Pils, and Hopback and Dreamweaver for that matter, are great for their style. Which is how these things are judged obviously. I'd never take a Sunshine Pils over a King Henry, but that doesn't take away the fact that Sunshine Pils is a great pilsner.
Yeah, pretty good "search" function on that GABF site now - altho' when I searched for "Busch Light" yesterday, it didn't turn up it's 2011 win --- yet it does today. (Maybe the thing was just too busy with too many users yesterday with all the geeks on the edge of their computer desk chairs - "Who Won? Who Won!? I got big bucks ridin' on the American IPA category!!" Eh, maybe not )
I found it ironic that both Point Oktoberfest and New Glarus Staghorn Oktoberfest were in/won in American-Style Amber Lager vs. German-Style Märzen....
i know it helps that they did it right this year, but it just seems like a large company won, when other deserving distributors anywhere else in the country are out there.
I'm sure someone got their ass chewed after last year's debacle. But you're right... we got FBS fairly fresh and fairly regularly this year. When's BB dropping?
LOL only 2 medals in AZ that I saw, and one is a regional chain (BJ's). The other is from Flagstaff. Sigh...
Hilarious. Do you know how many of the judges that you "question" are the very brewers of the beers that BA and RB hype? We're not talking about a few of them either. 180 of some of the finest pallates on earth convene for this every year. Walking around the judging rooms you see a who's who of GABF winners and industry insiders. Maybe they just need to enlist more of the random beer tickers that spend their weekends trying $25 bottles, knowing before they even open the beer how fantastic it is. And this is coming from a guy who didn't take home shit this year from the competition.
First year GLBC Christmas will be distributed to RTP area. Interested to try it, have heard great things.
