At this year’s Great American Beer Festival (GABF) we spent time at the Thursday night session enjoying many beers from around the country. There were a lot of highlights - too many to drink! We focused mostly on beers from out of state breweries that are hard to find in Colorado, but of course couldn’t resist some of our go-to local favorites. Some of the notable highlights outside of Colorado were: Cigar City Brewing’s Good Gourd with a good mix of spices like Ceylon cinnamon, Jamaican all-spice, Zanzibar clove and nutmeg; Sweetwater Brewing’s 420 Extra Pale Ale with a very upfront hop character and crisp drinkable finish; Brewery Ommegang’s Three Philosophers is a tried and true treat with malty overtones of chocolate and cherry; and Elysian Brewing’s The Wise ESB was a very balanced beer between the malt and hop. Overall, we very much enjoyed everything that breweries from outside of Colorado had to bring to the table.
That said, we want to celebrate and bring attention to the winners from the Denver, Colorado area that won medals at this year’s GABF, and we highly recommend visiting these spots when you can. Congratulations to all who won this year, thanks for representing Denver and the surrounding metro-area cities, and you’ll be seeing us and others hopefully sooner than later.
Gold Medals
Spangalang Brewery (Denver, CO) – “Spangalang Table Beer” (Other Belgian-Style Ale)
Prost Brewing (Denver, CO) – “Weißbier” (South German-Style Hefeweizen)
AC Golden Brewing Co. (Golden, CO) – “Ctayt” (Wood- and Barrel-Aged Strong Stout)
Coors Brewing Co. (Golden, CO) – “Coors Banquet” (American-Style Lager or Light Lager)
Silver Medals
Brewery Rickoli (Wheat Ridge, CO) – “Statik” (Barley Wine-Style Ale)
CODA Brewing Co. (Aurora, CO) – “Via Chicago” (American-Style Strong Pale Ale)
Comrade Brewing Co. (Denver, CO) – “Fresh Hop Superpower IPA” (Fresh or Wet Hop Ale)
Our Mutual Friend Malt & Brew (Denver, CO) – “24 Frames Per Second” (Wood- and Barrel-Aged Sour Beer)
Bronze Medals
Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales (Denver, CO) – “Ramjet” (Experimental Beer)
Cannonball Creek Brewing Co. (Golden, CO) – “Featherweight Pale Ale” (American-Style Pale Ale)
Denver Beer Co. (Denver, CO) – “King Ink” (American-Style Black Ale)
Dry Dock Brewing Co. (Aurora, CO) – “Pilsner” (German-Style Pilsner)
Dry Dock Brewing Co. (Aurora, CO) – “Apricot Blonde” (American-Style Fruit Beer)