Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

Socialize

GABF 2009

By

gabf_logo
This year’s Great American Beer Festival was another terrific event and the week flew by faster even than in previous years. Between judging, media events, the festival itself, beer dinners and other side events it was a very full week. I tasted an enormous amount of great beer, ate some terrific food with that beer. I saw many old friends and made plenty of new ones. What more could one ask for from a GABF week?

P1160328
George Wendt, Nancy Johnson, and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper at the GABF Awards Ceremony.

Jeff Bearer, Stan Hieronymus, Stephen Beaumont, me and Rick Lyke @ Great Divide
Jeff Bearer, from Craft Beer Radio, Stan Hieronymus, Stephen Beaumont, me and Rick Lyke @ Great Divide’s annual Media Reception.

Vinnie & Natalie Cilurzo, from Russian River, with Ron & Laurie Jeffrie, from Jolly Pumpkin
Vinnie & Natalie Cilurzo, from Russian River, with Ron & Laurie Jeffrie, from Jolly Pumpkin.

Nicole Erny & Matt Brynildson Toasting the End of GABF Week
Nicole Erny & Matt Brynildson Toasting the End of GABF Week at The Falling Rock

Below is a slideshow of my time at GABF this year. After clicking on the arrow in the center to start the slideshow, you can also click on the button on the bottom right with the four arrows pointing outward on it, to see the photos in glorious full screen. Once in full screen slideshow mode, click on “Show Info” to identify who’s in the photos.

For pictures of the GABF awards ceremony, see the GABF Awards 2009 gallery.

2009 Longshot Winners

By

longshot
This year’s Longshot American Homebrew Contest winners were announced this morning in Denver at a brunch hosted by the Boston Beer Co. during GABF week. Here are the winners:

  1. Michael Robinson — Old Ale
  2. Ben Miller — Barleywine
  3. Jeremy White (Sam Adams employee winner) — Saison

One More For the Cameras
The Winners Pose with Jim Koch

Below is a short slideshow of the Longshot Winners reception. If you click on the button on the bottom right with the four arrows pointing outward on it, you can see the photos in glorious full screen.

Below is a video of Jim Koch announcing the winners of the Longshot competition.

GABF 2009 Begins

By

gabf_logo
The Great American Beer Festival begins today. I’ve been here in Denver since Tuesday and spent all day yesterday judging. Today will be more of the same, but at 5:30 this afternoon, the first public session begins. Then there are all the side events. To say this is a busy week for me is to engage in gross understatement. In an effort to keep these pages from being blank the entire week, I’ll be posting photo galleries from previous events that I haven’t had a chance to post since I moved the Bulletin to its new home a few months ago (and yes, links will be coming back at some point, too).

This year, a little over 3,300 beers were entered in the competition (a 16% increase over last year) and there a record number of judges, too (129), to keep pace with the growing number of beers.

Below are photos from last year’s Great American Beer Festival.