Friday, October 19, 2012

GABF and SDBW: Two of My Favorite Acronyms...

The Great American Beer Festival. Such a grandiose name for a beer festival; and it should be, considering there are over 2,700 beers, 666 breweries, 49,000 attendees and endless amounts of pretzel necklaces all within the confines of the Denver Convention Center. This past weekend marked the 31st year of the festival and it was nothing short of amazing, minus all the cropdusters walking around the convention floor. I was fortunate enough to make it out to the Mile High City and even though I wasn’t able to taste all 2,700 beers, I am proud to say that San Diego breweries took home 17 medals this year. That’s right, San Diego’s finest breweries got their taste of the gold, silver and bronze medals that were awarded to 84 different categories of beer. For your reading pleasure, here is a list of the local winners:

AleSmith Brewing Co. - Alesmith Decadence ‘10 Old Ale - Old Ale or Strong Ale - Bronze Medal
AleSmith Brewing Co. - AleSmith Grand Cru - Belgian Style Stong Specialty Ale - Bronze Medal
Alpine Beer Co. - Duet - American-Style India Pale Ale - Bronze Medal
Green Flash Brewing - Silva Stout - Wood and BarrelAged Strong Stout - Silver Medal
Green Flash Brewing - Green Flash Trippel - Belgian Style Abbey Ale - Gold Medal
Green Flash Brewing - Le Freak - American-Belgo-Style Ale - Gold Medal
Port Brewing Co. - Hot Rocks Lager - Indigenous Beer - Bronze Medal
Pizza Port Solana Beach - Oats - Oatmeal Stout - Gold Medal
Pizza Port Solana Beach - Seaside Stout - Classic Irish-Style Dry Stout - Gold Medal
Pizza Port Carlsbad - Twerp - Session Beer - Gold Medal
Pizza Port Carlsbad - 547 Haight - Imperial Red Ale - Bronze Medal
Pizza Port San Clemente - Way Heavy - Scotch Ale - Gold Medal
Pizza Port San Clemente - Order in the Port - American Style Stout - Gold Medal
The Beer Co. - The Manhattan Project - Wood and Barrel Aged Strong Beer - Gold Medal
The Lost Abbey - Track #8 - Experimental Beer - Bronze Medal
The Lost Abbey - Saint’s Devotion - Belgian and French Style Ale - Gold Medal
The Lost Abbey - Red Poppy - American Style Sour Ale - Silver Medal

Now that you’ve seen the winners, it wouldn’t hurt to pay them a visit and see if they have some of their award winning beers on tap! I’m particularly proud to see Alpine’s Duet amongst the winners.

You would think that after a Great American Beer Fest weekend, I would decide to take a break, right? Wrong! This weekend I’m heading up to the Santa Barbara Beer Festival where a whole lineup of central and southern California breweries will be pouring their finest brews. My band, The Green Almighty, is going to be playing a set at the fest, which I am extremely excited about, but I’ll make sure to keep an eye out for some of the San Diego breweries.

Also, don’t forget that San Diego Beer Week is coming up soon. Nov. 2nd - Nov. 11th to be exact. If you haven’t already, cruise on over to their events page here and start planning now because there are already some amazing events lined up! Are you gonna’ skip out of work early for some the events? I know I am!

Cheers,
Charles Eck

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