GABF 2011 – Day 1 Fallout With Pics

The Full Pint is back with a recap on Day 1 of the Great American Beer Festival.

Stay tuned as we bring more recaps, more pictures, and quite possibly the most unique coverage online you will find. Cheers!

The 1 Oz. Pour

As mentioned previously, this festival was set up like a trade show or convention, with brewers neatly separated by region.  I kept thinking to myself and telling Jonny there was no way I would be buzzed off of dainty little pours.  Well, after about an hour and a half of shooting the breeze we’ve met in California or nationwide over email and phone, I had to take a 20 minute time out.  You can get carried away when you aren’t thinking about it, and luckily I saw the big wave coming, and got out of the way. I would like to give a nod to the Danes and Swedes. You can learn a lot about a beer in 1 oz.

As far as standout brewer exhibits go, there were a handful of the larger brewers that can afford a nice tent with graphics and props and the like.Naturally that drew tons of attention.  Folks like Dogfish Head, Samuel Adams, Blue Moon/MillerCoors were way more noticeable than the regular booths the majority of the brewers got. Then there were some young breweries like Cigar City and Shorts who had huge presence with their tents.  It was quite the spectacle.

I’d like to share with you some of the standout beers, but please keep in mind, we probably tasted 0.5% of the total beer under the convention center roof. We hope to take new avenues with Day 2 and parts 1 and 2 of Day 3. I’m sure there are a zillion beers that were standouts, we just didn’t get to them, as it’s logistically impossible. Anyway, Allagash brought it strong with Coolship Resurgam and Matina Rossa.

Seriously, most people have to give up there first born for those beers, but we were able to stroll in line a few times to get to know this beer.  Cigar City’s Hunahpu might be my most favorite beer in the world at this point, Elysian Dark O’ The Moon was great, Deschutes Black Butte XXIII and Abyss 2011 were spot on. I am very removed from the home brew scene, but even a grumpy non homebrewer like myself can’t ignore the buzz around Heretic Brewing’s Jamil.  Til I die, when a beer or brewer gets astronomical hype, I come full speed ahead with a big chip on my shoulder. I dare the beer to be awesome, and am very tough on it when it’s hype doesn’t match up with reality.  Heretic Evil Cousin is LEGIT SON.  A perfect bone dry, dank Double IPA. Let’s hope the stars align, and I’m able to buy this in a bomber one day. I could go on and on, as I love craft beer.

The After Party

All the cool kids wanted us to roll down to Falling Rock. Common sense prevailed, and we didn’t go.  Nothing pisses me off more than clawing and scratching to get a waiter to get me a beer, while drunk dudes bump into me, spilling beer on my feet.

Falling Rock and friends, we will be there, just not after night 1.  We wound up checking out Cheeky Monk, had a few beers and called it a day at 11:59 PM.