10 Bruers, 5 Days, 642 Breweries -- How we Handled Ourselves at The Great American Beer Festival

With a very full schedule and crew of 10 in tow, we had quite the trip to Colorado this year for the Great American Beer Festival!

We kicked off Day 1 without with Mr. Patrick Rue, as he had already made his trek to CO so he could judge beers. Without his majestic presence, we tearfully loaded into a limobus to visit our friends at New Belgium and Odell Brewing Company in Fort Collins.

Getting our Feet Wet. In Hops?

We love our little pilot brew system. In case we aren't doing anything crazy on our regular system (which in itself is a crazy notion) we have a strapping little 3 bbl babe system beckoning us to fill it with our weirdest, most experimental, beer dreams, fantasies, and small collabs.

For almost any brewery in So Cal, (wait, let's just go with ALL of CA) brewing with a boatload of hops is increasingly common. And that's one of the things we love about our sunshine state -- we have some of the world's best hoppy beers made right in our own backyard. All. The. Time.

That's all the more reason we made the promise years ago to leave this beautiful beer style to the numerous breweries near and far that are doing a tremendous job making world-class IPAs. And all the more reason it's really bizarre that we've been working on not one, but five hoppy beers for you to try in our Tasting Room.

Tyler has been really excited about this new project, which will ultimately let you enjoy five, single-hop, fresh hopped American pale ales side-by-side (by-side-by-side-by-side). Here's his explanation of what's going on, straight from the Sr. Director of Brewing Operations himself:

It's Barrel Aged Beer Day! Happy #BABeerDay to the World!

It's the most wonderful day of the year: the first ever Barrel Aged Beer Day to celebrate all the delicious beers that spawn from the beauty of barrel aging.

As a small craft brewery with a penchant for wood, we have quite a few barrels under our warehouse roofs so that we can make the beer we love. Whether it's one of our big spirit aged ales, a sour brew, or a beer & wine hybrid, The Bruery team is passionate about coming up with beers that defy the norms and styles of beers out there, and barrels open up endless possibilities to grow our beer program.

Given that nearly every possible thing has a holiday made up for it (relax, there is an Elephant Appreciation Day and World Beard Day), we felt a day celebrating barrels and their bugs was well overdue. And so it begins, the first Friday of every October we encourage you to raise a glass (or tulip, or snifter) to Barrel Aged Beers and toast one another across the universe.

It's already been October 4th for a while in Australia. Here's an ongoing list of where we're hearing online toasts for #BABeerDay -- where are you?