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Written by Kurt Brighton
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Friday, 05 October 2007 |
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 Beer is one of those things that gives back as much as you put into it—and we’re not talking about the rancid puddles that inevitably follow any fraternity party.
You can reduce beer to the purely pedestrian—picking up a six-pack of 3.2 percent alcohol, grocery store beer on a Sunday afternoon—or you can go to the other end of the spectrum.
That’s where the Great American Beer Festival makes its sudsy home.
The festival is where beer geeks from around the world will belly up to sample the 1,800 beers that will be available on the festival floor, while discussing things like IBU’s, ABV, Cascade hops, Munich malts—and lots of other stuff you’ve probably never heard of. It’s also where brewers will bring their best creations to be judged in a competition that will see more than 2,800 entrants this year. For our home-grown yet world-renowned craft breweries of northern Colorado, the beer festival is a chance to show off for the rest of the beer-enthusiast world.
 And in light of the news that Colorado just surpassed California for largest beer-producing state in the country, all beer-goggled eyes will be (semi)-focused on the Mile High City next weekend.
“I think the real story is that, although Anheuser-Busch and Coors Brewing make up the bulk of that number, what put us over the top is all the craft beer we brew in Colorado,” said Doug Odell, founder of Odell Brewing Co. “That’s where all the interest has come from. There are almost 100 craft breweries in the state. We’re the innovators—we’re the interest-generators while they’re the volume generators. With that said, it’s great to be No. 1.”
Odells is taking 11 beers to the festival this year, including classics like 90 Shilling and Levity, as well as their three small-batch beers, Double Pilsner, Extra-Special Red and Imperial Stout. But one beer that the brewery didn’t even create has Odell particularly excited.
“We’re actually entering the pro-am competition,” Odell said. “We got together with the Cheyenne/Fort Collins home brewers’ winner last month, who made a Munich-Helles German-style lager, and we made a small batch of that to enter.”
For CooperSmith’s Pub and Brewing, 2007 will be the first time the brewers have entered the beer festival competition in several years. Although they’ve enjoyed past success at the festival—their Sigda’s Green Chili beer has twice won medals in the herb and spice beer category—having so many beer enthusiasts so close by every year means that many of them will make the trip to Fort Collins.
“There’s no real reason we haven’t gone, aside from the fact that the Great American Beer Festival is in Denver,” said Toby Osborn, one of the brewers at CooperSmith’s. “So when people come to Denver to go to the festival, they generally come up to Fort Collins to our brewpub, not to mention Odell’s and New Belgium. But we’re excited to be going, and especially about taking the chili beer because it won awards years ago. And just the hype of the chili here at the brewpub makes it fun to take that beer down.”
In addition to taking their chili beer, CooperSmith’s is also taking their Belgian Kreik, Dunkel-Weizen, Sax Saison, and Bourbon Barrel Stout, another favorite in the brewpub. And although it’s dicey relying on the flavors from various bourbon barrels to flavor the beer, an alcohol-by-volume approaching 8 percent and rich bourbon flavors mingling with their signature Horsetooth Stout practically guarantee satisfaction.
“The beer turns out different every time because the bourbon barrels we get are different every time, so it’ll be cool to see how this batch turns out,” Osborn said.
And although Colorado is the top beer producing state in terms of volume, the GABF is good opportunity to find out why we’re also known for quality.
“Colorado has a very good reputation in craft beer,” Odell said. “It’s the water,” he added with a laugh.
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TO GO
The Great American Beer Festival runs from Oct. 11-13 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver.
Tickets for individual sessions range from $40-$50, but hurry—41,000 people attended last year, and three sessions were completely sold out.
Go to beertown.org
SOME NC BREWS
- Big Horn Brewery
- Belgium Trippel, Belgian Pale Ale
- Odell Brewing
- 90 Shilling, Levity, Double Pilsner, Extra-Special Red and Imperial Stout
- CooperSmith’s
- Chili beer, Belgian Kreik, Dunkel-Weizen, Sax Saison and Bourbon Barrel Stout
- Crabtree Brewery (Greeley)
- Box Car Brown, Twisted Creek Wheat, Jeff’s Pale Ale, Ginger Bee Ale, Golden 8 Ale
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