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Although, we suppose we can settle for an absolutely gorgeous fall Saturday in San Diego... we're willing to make that sacrifice.
The Great American Beer Festival is going down this weekend in Denver where judges will be tasked with sampling 3,594 beers from 522 U.S. breweries in 79 different categories. Foreign breweries need not apply.
As we've stated before, although craft beers only make up about 4% of the overall beer market, once you go craft beer, you never go back. Proving that is the fact that during this economic slump we're in, overall beer sales in America fell 2.7% by volume, however, craft beer sales rose by 9%.
“In good times, beer is good,” said Vince Marsaglia, vice president of Grain to Green, a Carlsbad company that operates the Pizza Port brew pubs and the Port/Lost Abbey brewery in San Marcos. “In bad times, well, it’s still a good thing.”
When the results get posted, we'll update with how the San Diego beers fared.
P.S. Go to the link above for some fun facts and addresses of some of San Diego's prominent breweries.
(UPDATE #1): San Diego breweries did themselves proud by winning 15 medals with Pizza Port responsible for 7 of those medals. Pizza Port also won Large Brewpub and Large Brewpub Brewer of the Year (Carlsbad) as well as Small Brewpub and Small Brewpub Brewer of the Year (San Clemente).
And congrats to Karl Strauss, who ironically, won their very first medal (Gold) with their Red Trolley Ale in the Irish-Style Red Ale category.
Full results, here.
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5 comments:
I'm thinking San Diego beers have a better chance of being the medals leader at the Beer Festival than the Padres or Chargers do in their respective categories.
Alas, I doubt we will have such a fine selection at Beer Summit. Although I am wondering what it is like to be in a convention all with thousands of people who are not-quite-sober (or very-not-sober).
Sarah, I will attempt to remedy that. Anything in particular, let me know.
I had the privilege of going to the GABF once (was on a business trip so Colorado Springs). It was an amazing event, and I highly recommend it. Everybody was well-behaved. The biggest disappointment is that most of the workers are just hired labor, and can't answer questions about the beers. Sometimes you can get a brewmaster, but usually not.
When someone drops and breaks their sampling glass, a great roar starts at their location and spreads across the hall. It's a blast.
Anon, I have not been to the GABF but have attended several other smaller yet similar events and they have been glorious... the grossest offenders to common public aesthetics being the happy drunk.
Shame about the hired labor. Always nice to talk about the beer with the person who had a personal hand in its fashioning.
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