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GABF

GABF Spotlight | The Best Chicagoland Beers

September 26, 2019 |

There will be more than 4,000 beers poured at this year’s Great American Beer Festival. It is impossible to try every beer there, it would even be a feat if you tried 3% of all the beers being poured at the event.

I went through the pour list of every Illinois brewery pouring at GABF this year and picked out a handful of beers that if you’re not from the state, should be on your list to try. Keep in mind that pour lists do change and so I’m going off of what is available on the festival’s website. I’ll also give you an honorable mention beer from each brewery that may not be the most hyped up beer they have, but it’s still worth trying.

Also, know that a lot of breweries submit beer for judging but don’t make the trip out to Denver to pour their beer. So if you saw that your favorite brewery sent beer to GABF, it doesn’t mean that they are actually going to be there for you to try. Read More

GABF State Spotlight | The Best Ohio Beers

September 24, 2019 |

I’m just going to cut to the chase: We make some really good beers in Ohio, and if you’re going to the Great American Beer Festival in Denver on October 3-5, you’ll get to taste quite a few of them. To help you plan your tasting tour, here are some of my favorite Ohio beers that will be poured at GABF.

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2019 GABF Out-of-State Beer Drops Available in Denver

September 19, 2019 |

This is a sponsored post from Molly’s Spirits, your go-to stop for some of the best local and national beer drops throughout GABF week and beyond. | Header Photo by Miguel Rivas

As we’ve all come to know, the Great American Beer Festival has far greater implications for Colorado beer fans that extend beyond the four-day festival itself. One of those external benefits is the growing practice of out-of-state breweries utilizing the week to make a special limited drop of beers either as a means to test the market, or just to make a splash to help grow their brands.

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Fiction Beer Company | Electrum Bronze

September 19, 2019 |

Last year, the Brewers Association introduced Juicy or Hazy Pale Ale category at the 2018 Great American Beer Festival, becoming the first national competition to recognize the category. It was one of the highest entered categories of 2018, with 132 entries from across the United States. Only three breweries won medals, Fiction Beer Company in Denver, Colorado was among the winners, earning a Bronze Medal for Madame Psychosis.

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The Complete 2019 GABF Week Events Guide

September 16, 2019 |

For one week a year, Denver and the surrounding metro area turn upside down for the Great American Beer Festival. While the festival floor is a great place to sample thousands of beers from all across, the events happening outside of the festival have become equally as impressive and formidable. From tap take-overs to beer dinners, special release to actual full-blown separate beer festivals all together have broken off of GABF. So, to help provide some perspective and frothy guidance, we have made that navigation a bit easier with a 2019 GABF Week Events Guide. Too much to sort through and choose? Don’t worry, chuggernaut, we got you covered.

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The World Lupulin Challenge | A New Hop-Forward Beer Competition Calls for Entries

September 12, 2019 |

The World Lupulin Challenge is a new competition born out of the desire to identify and recognize the best commercially brewed IPAs and Pale Ales. The Challenge will award gold, … Read More

2019 GABF Pour List | Here’s What Every Brewery is Pouring at GABF

July 31, 2019 | 2

For years, the folks at the Brewers Association have tightly guarded their pour list for the Great American Beer Festival, opting not to release that list until the week of … Read More

Breaking Down 2019 GABF Newcomers & Missing Breweries

July 30, 2019 |

Each year one of the most exciting aspects of the Great American Beer Festival is the ability to explore and sample some of the country’s best new breweries that have emerged on the scene. Additionally, it can be equally as rewarding to revisit some familiar faces you may only get to try once each year at the country’s largest beer showcase. However, with the evolving landscape of craft beer, and varying priorities, we also tend to lose some familiar friends. As we’ve done each year, we’ve broken down the new / returning breweries as well as those who sadly aren’t coming back for this year’s Great American Beer Festival.

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BREAKING | Preliminary 2019 GABF Brewery List Announced

July 30, 2019 |

Over 700 Breweries. 4 Sessions. 3 Days. More than 4000 beers. 62,000 attendees. Spanning over 584,000 square feet. This year’s Great American Beer Festival is back and primed for its 38th Anniversary. The preliminary field has finally been set, and we now know which breweries will be part of the world’s largest beer festival. It is time once again to begin planning your routes. Which breweries are your can’t miss? And which are your must tries?

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2019 Denver Rare Beer Tasting Pour List Has Arrived

July 15, 2019 |

As we’ve articulated a few times, GABF week’s multitude of events have lately grown to the point of overshadowing the event itself. And while many of these periphery activities … Read More

One of Denver’s Best Beer Fests Announces New Format & Brewery List

June 10, 2019 |

As we’ve articulated a few times, GABF week’s multitude of events have lately grown to the point of overshadowing the event itself. And while many of these periphery activities offer a host of rare or limited distribution beers, Pints for Prostates’ Denver Rare Beer Tasting offers one of the most impressive lineups collectively in one place, that you’ll find all weekend.

One of the many reasons the Rare Beer Tasting has been able to attract stellar beer lineups and brewery celebrities like Garret Oliver and Sam Calagione, is that Pints for Prostates has made such a relevant impact.

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The PorchCast | Ep 54 Recapping GABF Week

October 5, 2018 |

The PorchCast team of Tristan, Sami, and Sam (minus Hunter) gathered last week to lend their final thoughts on the 2018 Great American Beer Festival. Hear our take on how the event went overall, some of our favorite beers and breweries to emerge from the festival, some of the crazy interactions that took place with other media members during the week, and some of the best external events that happened around GABF.

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Our Favorite Puns and Beer Names From GABF 2018

October 4, 2018 |

With more than 4000 beers being poured at GABF last weekend from approximately 800 breweries, you probably didn’t get a chance to try them all. Even if you liked beer as much as a certain Supreme Court Justice nominee, you still probably wouldn’t have been able to try every beer on site. Regardless, we did do some extensive investigating of the beers at GABF and compiled a list of our favorite beer names.

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Chicago Craft Beer | GABF 2018

October 2, 2018 |

Six years ago, only about 80 breweries operated in Illinois. Now, approximately 200 breweries create heavenly ales and lagers within the Chicago metro area alone. Coinciding with that eruption of breweries has been an ever-increasing amount of recognition, including Chicago-area breweries winning Great American Beer Festival (GABF) medals and winning them in highly competitive categories.

Granted, Chicago has consistently been able to boast about its bourbon barrel aging prowess—after all, it was conceived at Goose Island during its pre-ABI days and celebrated each year at the Festival of Barrel Aged Beer. But few people outside of Chicago seemed to notice the Chicago brewing scene until recently. However, at the 2018 GABF, Chicago definitely made its mark in the Mile High City.
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Experiencing GABF Without Attending the Fest | Recapping the External Events

October 1, 2018 |

The Great American Beer Fest is more than just the festival held inside the confines of the Colorado Convention Center; it’s a week-long celebration of beer with events held throughout the Denver metro region. In fact, there are events occurring throughout the city even as hoards roam the GABF booths. The truth is simple: one not need purchase a ticket to the main event to experience GABF, in a manner of speaking. If by some chance you can’t obtain a ticket next year, but still want to embrace the grandeur attached to GABF, there’s a way — several ways — to achieve that goal.

For example, even though I attended the main festival, I also partook in several open-to-the-public events that proved just as fun as the big party. I also had to forgo numerous other events simply because one can only be at one place at a time. Here’s a few of those events, as well as a few I missed, which demonstrate the fun one can have even if unable to grab tickets to the main show.  Read More

Recapping 2018 GABF’s Best Beers and Emerging Breweries

September 28, 2018 |

America’s largest beer festival has come to a close once again. After a week fueled by obscene amounts of beer, even greater volumes of caffeine, and the occasional Illegal Pete’s burrito, we’ve emerged once again from the clutches of the Great American Beer Festival, with an entirely new perspective on the newest crop of talent in craft beer.

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Last Minute Liquor Store Luck Leads to GABF Gold for Ska Brewing

September 28, 2018 |

It’s a week later, and if you’re still recovering from the Great American Beer Festival and its peripheral festivities, you’re in good company. But with so many Oktoberfest events coming this weekend, there’s most certainly no rest for the wicked. On the other end of the spectrum, the breweries that went home with gold, silver and bronze hardware are still basking in the warm glow of victory.

For every medal, there’s a story, and the last-minute drama that accompanied Ska Brewing and their gold medal win for Oktoberfest in the Vienna-Style Lager category this year is definitely no exception.

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Event Recap | Here’s How We Survived GABF

September 27, 2018 |

Going to the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) in Denver, Colorado is an incredibly exciting experience. However, it can also be cruel and unrelenting if you are not prepared for it. The opportunity to sample rare and specialty beer from across the country is a dream for craft beer enthusiasts. But just like any good dream, it also has the ability to turn into a nightmare. Here is my survival guide to ensure you get the best experience out of your time next year. Trust me, I survived all four sessions from September 20 -22. Read More

Event Recap | The 2018 GABF Jameson Caskmates Brewery Partner Program

September 27, 2018 |

Some argued that the Jameson Whiskey presence at GABF may at first seem almost hypocritical, given the Brewers Association stance on companies such as Anheuser Busch InBev (ABI). As a writer who full-time covers both spirits and beer, I can confidently argue that one should never confuse the two industries. As liquids, they may be similar. They are not industry siblings, however, but instead distant cousins. Moreover, whereas companies like ABI seek to confuse the marketplace, actively targeting craft beer drinkers and even paying fines for unfair practices, Jameson has never hidden from its name and the distillery consistently champions and collaborates with craft breweries, both in the U.S. and Ireland.

(For my short commentary on Jameson and the spirits industry—vs. the beer industry—see the two paragraphs at the bottom of the story.)
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GABF Awards Results | Who Won Big at the 2018 GABF

September 22, 2018 |

The 2018 Great American Beer Festival has crowned their newest batch of champions and standouts. This year, the competition portion of GABF saw 8,800 entries from 2,450 breweries across the country, not to mention an additional 105 Pro-Am entries. 

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