Monday, September 28, 2009

GABF

We all just got back from an incredible weekend at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, CO and we're pretty much spending the day recovering. 8 people from The Bruery went up for the festival and we really had an incredible time. We had the opportunity to get some behind the scenes tours of Odell's brewery, New Belgium Brewery and Avery Brewery as well as sneak a peak at The Great Divide's Brewery located right in downtown Denver. We Spent the days meeting up with other brewers and beer lovers from around the country and had the opportunity to share our beers with people from all over, which was really a great experience. Hopefully some of the other great breweries we discovered will become partners for some collaboration efforts in the future, which would be amazing.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to take home any medals this year (there were over 3,000 beers entered in the 78 categories), but there seemed to be a great outpouring of love for our beers on the show floor, and thats where it really counts. Since many of our beers are sort of bizarre for their style, its tough to win an award up against beers that are dead on for the style, but its really about producing a product that people enjoy. We did (or shall I say Rachel did) win the award for festival booth flair! And the line for Black Tuesday was insane.

For anyone who was at the festival and stopped by, thanks! And for anyone who didn't make it out, we highly recommend you do next year as it was one of the best trips we've been on.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Insane that you didn't get some awards.

Unknown said...

Congrats guys on the best booth award! We heard the word first from Cooper's aunt who was at the GABF. Rachel...your interior design skills are totally paying off.

Elite said...

Great to see you guys in Colorado--

Hottenroth and Autumn Maple are the best breakfast beers ever!
Keep up the great work--

The Elite Brands Team