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(The first half of this article is written on 8/17/23 before attending the GABF, with the second half to be written after attending.)
Before Attending GABF 2023
The Great American Beer Festival this year is from September 21-23, 2023 in Denver, CO at the Colorado Convention Center. There are (4) different sessions you can attend – Thursday Sept.21, Friday Sept.22, and Saturday Sept.23 from 5:30PM to 10:00PM. There is also an earlier session on Saturday Sept.23 from 12:00PM to 4:00PM. Tickets are still available at $95.00EA for general admission and $199.00EA for VIP at this link: Great American Beer Festival September 21-23, 2023. The link will also give you every other detail about the festival.
I will be attending again this year and am looking forward to it. I went for the first time in 2022 and swore I would never miss it again. This is the largest beer festival in the country and you don’t want to miss it. The website doesn’t have the list of breweries or beers yet but they say they are coming soon so check back with them.
Not only do you get to sample as many pours as you want during your session, but there is an actual beer competition that brewers can enter from around the world, that are judged by the GABF Judge Panel. Brewers enter 3 styles of beer as described and adopted by the GABF for the chance to win a bronze, silver or gold medal. You can actually sample the beers that are entered in the competition during your session. The results come out sometime after the GABF ( I don’t recall when), it’s interesting to see the results to see if any of your favorites placed in the competition.
I will report back and add to this article after attending on September 22.
After Attending GABF 2023
Well, another GABF in the books and it was stellar. We attended the 9-22-23 session at 5:30 PM and it did not disappoint. At last check there were 1907 beers (plus 12 non beer items) listed on the GABF menu on Untappd. I managed to get 56 pours in 4-1/2 hours (although I swear it was more) drinking just about every beer style there was. Overall, I had a total of 135 new beers between all of the breweries, liquor and grocery stores, car beers, sports bars and GABF itself from Denver to Boulder to Fort Collins to Greeley and back to Denver.
As a bonus we randomly came across Pliny the Elder (along with some other Russian River beers) at multiple liquor stores. Apparently, Colorado is one of the few states Russian River distributes to regularly and it was not expensive. I managed to bring back a few bottles but I’m bringing a bigger suitcase next year to bring back even more. We even came across a bottle of Eagle Rare for $45.99 at a local liquor store. (We needed a break from beer)
These were the actual breweries we visited (in order of timeline):
Great Divide Brewing Company (Denver Airport)
I want to give a shout out to the TN brewers who won medals.
Balter Beer Works out of Knoxville, TN won Silver for their Vecino in the American Amber Lager category and won a Gold for their Sunsphere in the American Wheet Beer category.
Barrique Brewing & Blending out of Nashville, TN won Gold for their Wet Hop Strata in the Wood and Barrel Aged Sour Beer category.
Blackstone Brewing Company out of Nashville, TN won Gold for their Pumpkin Ale in the Pumpkin Beer category.
Half Batch Brewing out of Hendersonville, TN won Bronze for their Contemplation Time in the Strong Red Ale category.
Hutton & Smith Brewing Company won a Bronze for their Basecamp Blonde in the Golden or Blonde Ale category.
Nashville Brewing Company won a Gold medal for their Nashville Light in the Light Lager category.
Orange Hat Brewing Company won a Bronze medal for their Engine 402 beer in the Irish-Style Red Ale category.
Congratulations to these breweries. These medals are well earned.
GABF 2024
The GABF dates for 2024 have already been announced and they are October 10-12, 2024. Early Bird tickets should go on sale sometime in the summer of 2024. I will try to report back here when those dates are available. In the meantime, visit Cheers & Save the Date – Great American Beer Festival to sign up for their email updates for all of their latest news. I’m sure it’ll be bigger and better than ever.
