Great American Beer Festival Dreams

Actively seeking out new tasty beer, new and cool breweries, cool people that brew beer, and great places to drink beer is our bag at thefullpint.com.  It was our dream to make it out to Denver, for the Great American Beer Festival.

While Colorado is two states away from TheFullPint.com headquarters, time and money did not allow us to make it.  All we can do now, is to bring the news and press for this weekend, and start planning for 2009.  Here are a few things you might want to check out if you are headed to Denver this weekend for some GABF greatness!

Craft Brew Canned Revolution

Oskar Blues Brewing, Maui Brewing, Surly Brewing,Four Peaks Brewing, Steamworks Brewing, and New Belgium Brewing are bringing some tasty beer to the aluminum can.  If you haven’t gotten your hands on any or all of these, prepare yourself to be blown away.  This isn’t your grandpa’s can of Schaffer.

The West Coast Hop Bomb

Since the inception of TheFullPint.com, I have noticed that no matter where our readers live, there is mad love and loyalty to the hometown brew.  That is well and good, but even your local brewers are taking notice to the West Coast/California Hop Bomb phenomenon.  Brewers such as Stone, Ballast Point, Alesmith, Port Brewing, Alpine, Green Flash, Russian River, Lagunitas, and Bear Republic all make an incredible, mind blowing IPA or related style. If it doesn’t fall under the IPA category, it will most certainly be a memorable Double IPA or Red Ale. Your taste buds might never be the same again.

The Rock Stars

Everyone involved are more or less rockstars.  Whether it be the nice people pouring your sample, the marketing staff of the breweries, or the brewers themselves, you will be dealing with some cool people.  Take pictures, introduce yourself, profess your love for the beer, get some schwag, and spread the good word.  There is one common bond for this weekend, beer love.

Some Tips

Although thefullpint.com hasn’t been to this festival, please take these tips on how to stay safe and not sick.  You will be in beer heaven, so don’t put yourself into beer hell.

• Eat plenty of food before you even show up.  Port Brewing has the right idea, by serving breads and pork at their events.  Get something to soak up the beer in your belly.
• Try your hardest to have a glass of water in between samples.  I know it’s not fun, but it will help you in the near future, as well as the next morning.
• Unless you are a tank, save your weed smoking for another day.  I know some of you will want to go sneak a toke, but after too many samples, a hit of good bud might have you spinning in the wrong direction. Plus, you don’t want to get busted in a town you aren’t familiar with.
• Thank the volunteers who are pouring your sample.

If you are going this weekend. We encourage you to shoot us an email, and let us know how it went.  We are sad we can’t make it, but we will be there in spirit.

Cheers!