CBR: Great American Beer Fest Wrapup
Wed, 2009-10-14 10:03 — jbearer
- Artist: Craft Beer Radio
- Title: CBR: Great American Beer Fest Wrapup
- Album: Craft Beer Radio
- Year: 2009
- Length: 45:19 minutes (15.56 MB)
- Format: MP3 Mono 44kHz 48Kbps (CBR)
The beers have been stored, the glasses have been washed and the hangovers are a distant memory. We share our thoughts on the Big Daddy of American beer fests, the GABF.
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Comments
Great wrap up
Good job on the wrap up. I do have a question about something you went into briefly in the show, but didn't get too in depth about.
How are the categories decided? I saw that Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter, which is an awesome beer, won the gold medal in the imperial stout category. I have had the beer and I feel it is much more of a porter than a stout. How was it entered into the stout category?
I also wonder about American IPAs. Category 47 was the American IPA category and was won by Firestone Walker's Union Jack. I had this beer this summer and was very impressed so I don't doubt that it is gold medal quality. The issue I have is with Category 46, American-Style Strong Pale Ale. It was won by Racer 5 and all three of the medalists were American IPAs. What is the difference in Category 46 and 47 since all six medalists were American, hop-forward IPAs?
I have questions about several other categories but I think the examples above are enough evidence that the categories are a little bit strange.
Blind Judging
From what I understand of the GABF judging, it's all done blind. So that's how weird ones occasionally sneak in. Sometimes the judges' pallets will just be into one particular beer over another, or they will get an excellent example of one beer and a poor example of another. You never know.
As for why certain ales go in certain categories, it's the brewer's discretion. For instance, Maybe Bear Republic thought the IPA category was too crowded and decided to go for American Strong Ale instead. They could haev gon for berlinner-weiss if they wanted to, but I don't think they would have won.
Thanks
The American IPA category was the most crowded, I just wonder why there is a need to have two separate categories for American IPA and American Strong Pale Ale, since a strong pale ale is an IPA and vise versa. It doesn't really matter, it just doesn't make much sense to me to have two identical categories. It would make more sense if you somehow broke it down to West Coast IPA (by flavor, not brewery location) and other American IPAs, since all the winners appear to be West Coast-style hop bombs. But even then you would probably have much hoppier IPAs sneak into and take over the less-hoppy category since the WC one would be so crowded. Oh well, it doesn't really matter.
Also, I wasn't saying the Gonzo was a bad beer, I actually love the beer. I was just surprised that it won in the imperial stout category since I think it is a great porter, but if I had to judge it based on the style guidelines of imperial stouts I don't think it would do very well.
Good wrapup
Guys,
Good wrapup. Could not agree with you more about attending outside events. The best time we had was at Avery in Boulder, many, many sour special keg beers on tap all week, worth a trip every day. Sorry I missed the breakfast.
We made the mistake at the fest itself of going on Saturday eve session, alot of the beers were out by that time, would go Thurs or Friday next time or even for the Sat afternoon session as a member, much shorter lines. Big line at the fest I saw was New Glarus, no surprise, I cross the border regularly to get some from IL.
Avoided the big endcaps mostly, but nice display by Dogfish. Food was pretty good.
Sounds like many of the outside sessions you attended were for press only, so what good does that do me (other than your reviews of course which I always enjoy).
Overall I was disappointed with the Denver scene, not surprised it didn't make the Men's Journal top 5 cities (they were San Diego, NY, Portland, Philadelphia, Chicago).
Rob Cannon
http://mawpeg838.blogspot.com.