Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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GABF Winners Announced

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The winner were announced for the 2006 Great American Beer Festival earlier today. California won a total of 39 medals, more than any other state. California brewers won 11 gold medals, 15 silver and 13 bronze. Next was Colorado with 28 medals followed by Wisconsin with 18. Oregon came in 4th with 14 medals and Washington was in 6th place with nine medals. The BA has a full list of the winners available.

Healdsburg, California’s Bear Republic Brewing won Brewery & Brewer of the Year in the Small Brewing Company category.

GABF: Sam Adams Media Brunch

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Each year, Boston beer Co. has a brunch for the media Saturday morning before the connoisseur tasting and GABF awards ceremony. Jim Koch certainly knows that if you want to get the media to show up, brunch at a nice restaurant will do the trick as his event is usually very well-attended and this year was no exception. Several years ago, Boston Beer sponsored a contest for homebrewers and then made commercial versions of the winning beers and sold them in six-packs under the brand name “Longshot” for a limited period of time. It was a pretty fun idea and I recall they sold reasonably well, at least at Beverages & more, when I worked there as the beer buyer for the chain.

So this year part of the hoopla of the event was Jim announcing the two winners from the five regional finals whose beer would be commercially made by the Boson Beer Co. The winners were Donald Oliver of Hilmar, California, who brewed an Old Ale, and Bruce Stott of East Harwich, Massachusetts, whose winning entry was a Dortmunder Export. The two grand prize winners will have two bottles each available in a sampler six-pack under the Longshot brand. The rest of the regional winners can be found on the Longshot website.

The third beer in the Longshot six-pack sampler will be a homebrew from a Boston Beer employee and the three finalists’ creations were available at the brunch for us to try and to vote for our favorite. There was a pale ale, a cherry stout and a boysenberry wheat. As aways, this was very enjoyable event.

After stuffing ourselves, clockwise from bottom left: me, Tom Dalldorf, Lew Bryson and Banjo from Real Beer.

Jim Koch fields questions after the winners of the Longshot contest are announced.

Daniel Bradford, of All About Beer, Jim Koch, Amy (also with All About Beer) and drinks writer Rick Lyke.

Jim Koch and me.

GABF 2006: Friday Night

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Friday night was the second of four sessions at this year’s Great American Beer Festival. They added another 40,000 square feet to the hall and sold out every session, which is 13,000 tickets times four or 52,000 vistors to the festival this year.

Shaun O’Sullivan of 21st Amendment Brewery in San Francisco, California, giving me attitude.

Me and Sam Calagione from Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in Milton and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware along with their new alehouse location in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

The girls of 21st Amendment Brewery in San Francisco, California.

Garret Oliver of Brooklyn Brewery and Vinnie Cilruzo of Russian River Brewing in Santa Rosa, California. Vinnie won a bronze medal for his Aud Blonde in the Golden or Blonde Ale category, which was named for his mother Audre who was in the audience along with his father Vince. Vinnie also won a silver medal for his Beatification in the Belgian-Style Sour Ale category and a gold medal for Pliny the Elder in the Imperial or Double India Pale Ale category.

For many more photos from Friday Night at GABF, visit the photo gallery.

GABF 2006: Thursday Night

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Thursday at 5:30 marked the beginning of the 25th Great American Beer Festival and my 14th festival in 15 years.

The entrance to the hall this year featured five endcaps each with five years worth of photographic memories from the previous 25 years of GABF. The brewers and media entrance was greeted by a bigger-than-life-size photo of me and Greg Koch from Stone Brewing. Apparently we were the face of 1997-2001. It was a little disconcerting seeing myself so large every time I entered the festival and I didn’t know my chins could get that big, but it was also very flattering and pretty cool.

Rich Norgrove of Bear Republic Brewing in Healdsburg, California. Rich won a bronze medal for Peter Brown Tribute Ale in the Brown Porter category, another Bronze for XP Pale Ale in the American-Style Pale Ale category, a Silver for Racer 5 in the American-Style Strong Pale Ale category, another Silver for Apex Ale in the American-Style India Pale Ale category, and most importantly Rich was named Small Brewery Company and Small Brewing Company Brewer of the Year, a well-deserved honor. Congratulations, Rich!

For many more photos from Thursday Night at GABF, visit the photo gallery.

GABF: Wednesday Night at Falling Rock

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After the Brewers Reception, everybody adjourned, as usual, to the Falling Rock, unofficial HQ during festival week.

Falling Rock co-owner Chris Black jumped up on the bar to announce the evening’s festivities.

Chris showing off that he’s only having “one” beer all night.

Shaun O’Sullivan (21st Amendment), Judy Ashworth (Publican Emeritus) and Chris Black.

Jeremy Cowan (He’Brew) and Rich Norgrove (Bear Republic)

Tomme Arthur (Lost Abbey, Port Brewing), Eric Rose (Santa Barbara Brewing) and Vinnie Cilurzo (Russian River)

Self-portrait with Natalie Cilurzo and Judy Ashworth.

Melissa Myers samples Chris Black’s one beer.

Then passes it to me for a sip.

Me with Chris’ big glass (it has its own undertow).

Up against the wall with Stephen Beaumont and Judy Ashworth.

Pierre Celis was there tasting people on his new golden Grottenbier.

Of course, the Rolling Boil Blues Band rocked the house with Tom Dalldorf on guitar and John Harris from Full Sail on washboard.

The RB3 had them dancing on the tables.

GABF: Wednesday Night Brewer’s Reception

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Each year, the night before GABF, the Brewers Association holds a reception at Wynkoop for the brewers. It’s the first chance during the week for every one newly arrived in town to get together and say hello, drink a few beers and enjoy calm before the storm.

From left: Bob Pease (BA), Vinnie Cilurzo (Russian River), John Bryant and his wife Cindy (Odell’s), Banjo (Real Beer) and Tom McCormick (California Small Brewers Association).

Ralph Woodall (HopUnion) and the delightful Chris Crabb (OBF)

John Bryant (Odell’s) and Ray Daniels (BA)

Lucy Saunders (The Beer Cook) and Vinnie Cilurzo.

Burgundian Babble Belt Tasting

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The passionate folks from the Burgundian Babble Belt, a vocal group of Belgian beer enthusiasts, usually has a tasting of Belgian-style beers around GABF but I’ve never before had an opportunity to attend one of their events. This year, the Celebrator was a partial sponsor, and it was before the Brewers Reception, so I had a chance to go. It was held in a delightfully funky building, a three-story former synagogue in a sketchy neighborhood just outside downtown Denver. If there hadn’t been a sign on the door, I would have thought we were in the wrong place. But after a long climb, we arrived at the cavernous third floor, filled with funky decorations and terrific food and beers. It was only too bad we couldn’t have stayed all night.

Stephen Beaumont chats with our host for the evening, Logan.

Jeff and his friend Josh, who he made sure did not miss a GABF event despite being miles away from Denver for the first time this year.

We were almost out the door when Dr. Bill arrived, and enticed us back upstairs with a wheel of Chimay cheese, along with his usual assortment of fantastic beers. To be fair, he really didn’t have to twist our arms very much.

After the Beer Dinner

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After the beer dinner, we stopped by the Toronado for a nitecap and to play some washoes.

Vinnie Cilurzo pouring us each a glass of his Supplication.

Natalie Cilurzo finishing off a bottle of Chimay.

Chiles and Beer: Millennium Beer Dinner

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The night before leaving for GABF, there was one more beer dinner to attend. The Millennium Restaurant, a vegetarian eatery located in the Hotel California (f.k.a. the Savoy), put on their 3rd annual Chile and Beer Dinner with beers from Russian River Brewing and Nodding Head Brewery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

One of the desserts, a pineapple-Serrano cake with chocolate frosting, coconut-lime anglaise and chile ice cream.

A glass of Monk’s Flemish Sour contrasted by Nodding Head’s Ich Bin Ein Berliner Weisse with Woodruff syrup.

Tom Peters, Nodding Head co-owner and brewer Curt Decker, Vinnie and Natalie Cilurzo, from Russian River Brewing.

Tom Peters and Dave Keene, owners of the best two Belgian beer bars on both coasts.

Here’s to American Brew

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I knew Florentine Films, which is the Ken Burns’ documentary film production company, was working on a film on the history of craft beer but I didn’t know exactly who was doing it or what it was precisely. There are four directors at Florentine Film. In addition to Burns, there’s also Larry Hott, Roger Sherman and Buddy Squires. A PA had contacted me looking for old pictures of Bert Grant and some other very early craft brewers. My photos didn’t go back as far as they needed so I put them on to the Celebrator’s photo archive, which does. The depth and breadth of who they were looking for was very impressive and certainly inferred they had done their homework. I was eagerly anticipating a high-profile film about the history of our peculiar industry. Between that and Beer Wars, which was shot last year and is apparently being edited now, it seems like we may be on the brink of some wonderful opportunities for people to find out what craft beer is — perhaps for the first time — and maybe seek it out and drink it in, literally.

Surprisingly, I discovered when a press release via e-mail appeared in my inbox that in fact the film American Brew is being sponsored by “Here’s to Beer,” the A-B sponsored effort to educate people about beer. I have, of course, not been won over by that effort and have said some very harsh words about it. Just look at the post before this one for a flavor of my discontent. But every thing about this film that they’re sponsoring looks great. The people involved seem beyond reproach. Roger Sherman, who is directing the film, is no stranger to film-making and has several awards under his belt to prove it. And many of the people listed on the film’s teaser poster I count as my friends. So unlike, say Beerfest, everything I know about this movie is positive and I’m looking very forward to actually seeing this one.

The one niggling thing about it is that essentially Anheuser-Busch paid for what at least appears to be a film that at first blush doesn’t seem like it will do them any favors. Maybe I’m missing something here, but a film that finally shows the history of innovative, small authentic craft beer would by contast not show the big breweries in a particularly flattering light. I certainly want to believe that A-B’s influence on the project will not extend to the substance and content of the movie, but it’s hard not to speculate. The trailer will be debuting at GABF and it will be interesting to see it. Let’s hope we’ll all be able to say, without reservation, “Here’s to American Brew.”