Blogging GABF

I didn’t.

(But I’ve got a story or two after I explain.)

I thought about it going in, even took my notebook computer and connections to move photos from my camera to the computer. Didn’t happen. When you spend all your time a) sampling, b) socializing and c) collecting information for stories or that will somehow improve the quality of what appears here or elsewhere then connecting at 2 o’clock in the morning doesn’t seem like such a great idea.

And no way I would have done as complete as job as Rick Lyke or Jay Brooks.

To read Lyke’s work, start with GABF After Thoughts and work your way backwards. Lots of pictures and lots of interviews/commentary.

Brooks has even more pictures. Start with GABF 2006: The Awards and work your way backwards. There are so many photos that you’ll have to click on the gallery links to see them all.

I also recommend Lew Bryson’s commentary on judging. I’m always a little worried when people call for balance – yes, they are correct there is nothing pleasant about overhopped and out-of-balance high alcohol beers – because I’d rather accept some occasional missteps in the name of innovation than discourage it altogether. But Lew finds the right, uhmm, balance.

Now back to the story I promised. If you check out Jay’s gallery from the awards ceremony and scroll about 80 percent of the way down you’ll see a big brewer in checked pants carrying another brewer on his shoulders.

No, Jeff Bagby (the big guy and lead brewer for Pizza Port Carlsbad) and Noah Regnery (his assistant) weren’t just giddy because they’d won their fourth medal of the day.

While they were bottling the beer they call Sticky Stout to send it to the competitition Regnery was so excited about how it tasted he predicted it would win a gold medal.

“I told him that he’d never been here, he didn’t understand what it was like, how hard it is,” said Bagby.

Regnery insisted Sticky Stout would win.

“I said, ‘If we win I will carry you to the stage on my shoulders,'” Bagby said.

They did, and he did.

GABF has come a long way, baby

GABF then

The Brewers Association provided the picture above from the Hilton Harvest House in Boulder, Colo., where 20 breweries offered about 35 beers at the first Great American Beer Festival in 1982.

The photo below is opening night line at the at the Colorado Convention Center (half an hour before the doors opened), where 383 breweries offered festival goers a choice of 1,668 beers Thursday through Saturday.

GABF now

The festival sold out the Friday evening session (two hours before the doors were to open), the Saturday afternoon session and the Saturday evening session. Although some breweries started rationing beer on Thursday they still ran out of many choices before the Saturday afternoon session ended.

Great American beer and pizzas

Headed to Denver for the Great American Beer Festival (tomorrow through Saturday)?

The Rocky Mountain News has some beer and pizza tips for you. The Rocky asked chef Jorge de la Torre, dean of culinary education at Johnson & Wales University, to recommend a beer style and brand best suited for complementing the taste of eight local pizzas.

“Beer is forgiving to any type of pizza. It’s nice and cooling, it cuts through the fat of the cheese and provides a great contrast. It can hold up to the powerful taste of tomato sauce, garlic, anchovies – things that are sometimes hard to pair with other drinks,” de la Torre said.

His picks.

Another tale of dumbed down beer

Today’s Wall Street Journal (sorry, the story is in the subscriber only part of the site) examines the ongoing cutbacks at InBev.

The “hook” is that InBev is closing its brewery in Hoegaarden, which has been widely reported. You wouldn’t run out and buy WSJ to learn that, but there’s more to the story:

– How has InBev responded to cultural shifts are leading increasing numbers of drinkers to wine? “We don’t think it is going to reverse,” said InBev regional director Stefan Descheemaeker. “We have nicknamed Western Europe as the ‘mother of all challenges.’ ”

One initiative has been to close about a dozen breweries. “How many breweries do we need? It’s an ongoing study. “Technically speaking, we don’t need many,” Descheemaeker said. So much for the days when Interbrew liked to bill itself as the “World’s Local Brewer.”

– The company has launched Hoegaarden Citrons, flavored with lemon and lime.

– In Hoegaarden, David Duerinckx, a worker at the brewery, says the traditional the white beer has lost its original flavor. “Twenty years ago it was more acidic,” he said. “You used to be able to compare different batches. Now it is sweeter and it is standardized. This is our tradition that is going away.”

But the last word goes to Iain Lowe, a spokesman for CAMRA (Britain’s Campaign for Real Ale, but a defender of other traditions as well):

“InBev is debasing beer. By all means, come out with new beers but don’t abandon existing ones, [simplifying] the taste so no one dislikes it but no one really likes it, either.”

Will blog for beer

Not everybody likes the “Will Blog for Beer” feature in the StatesmanJournal in Salem, Oregon.

The blogs author, Dan de Carbonel and Tim Akimoff, found themselves getting a little bit of heat this week. Here’s a letter their editors received:

“The promotion of the use of beer and wine, etc., by the newspaper is a disappointment. Please do discontinue the beer blog. These articles, in effect, encourage alcoholism. Note the media accounts of traffic accidents, drug abuse, etc., causing injuries, deaths and other problems to society (broken marriages, erratic driving of vehicles, thefts, robberies, etc.)”

All the responses are worth reading, but this is my favorite:

Who knows, mabye some of us might like beer.
Not too many of us like death, but they continue to run those dang obits.

Quick aside: Their blog does not have an rss feed and can be a little tricky to find. The easiest way to browse through the entries is to start with one – such at The Tao of Beer – and use the navigation on the lower right.