GABF 2010 Recap

Another GABF is in the books and the verdict is in, it is a good time and a must attend event at least once.  This was my 3rd visit to the GABF and by far my most organized where I didn't walk in to the Convention Center in awe and just start drinking even with the best laid plan.  This year I had goals to try beers from breweries that I have not had before or could not get regularly.  While I did hit a few stand bys and of course the local guys I did a pretty good job sticking to a plan.  I did fail in a couple regards though, first, didn't get any interviews or talk to many brewers, they are just hard to find on Saturday afternoon with the awards ceremony starting.  Second, while I tasted Collaborative Evil from Lucky Bucket and FiftyFifty, my palate was sufficiently blown and could offer very good critiques of either beer but will comment on it in a minute.  Finally, I am terrible historian and picture taker so I didn't get many taken, thankful a friend did and I will post those pictures to Facebook in a bit. 

Here is what I did see though, Nebraska Brewing Company winning a Bronze medal for Melange a Trios!!  That is outstanding gang and well deserved.  I also took my friends to the booth for Hop God and they were impressed with it and felt it no comparison to many other Belgian IPAs on the market.  I also tried a Grand Cru from Upstream with a couple guys, our palates were in love with the sour beer from them.  It was wonderful and ranked up there as one of the best sours I had of the day for sure!!  We tried some beers from breweries that had a lot of buzz like Shorts Brewing Company.  We were not impressed with their Anniversary Ale made with blood oranges, way to complex, too much going on with no balance.  We also tried some from the big dogs like New Belgiums Eric's Ale, a wonderful beer and a Double IPA from Sierra Nevada that was fantastic.  It was a sour that won out for me though from Cascade Brewing Company called Sang Nior.  It has an A+ rating on BeerAdvocate if you follow that stuff and was just wonderfully balanced.

Bigger than a traditional Red this Double Red is a blend of several barrel aged beers. Portions of the beer were aged in Pinot Noir and Whiskey barrels. Fresh Bing Blood Cherries were added to a portion and refermented in the barrel for three months before being added to the blend.

As I said I did try Lucky Bucket's Collaborative Evil Baltic Porter and while it was in the middle of the event and amidst Sours, Dbl IPAs and a myriad of other pallet busting beers it was a very good beer and something that could be enjoyed greatly.  I remember being well balanced and not having any offensive qualities what so ever.  We walked away enjoying the beer, knowing that given a different environment, the beer would be greatly enjoyed on a cool evening with a great home cooked meal.  I look forward to the reviews of it when it is available in Omaha this week I believe.  I think it is going to be a great addition to the Lucky Bucket line up.  Sorry for the fail on note taking and lack of depth, but until you make it to the GABF, it is hard to understand how hard it is to offer a detailed description. 

All and all a great trip!  I have made due on a couple promises and contacted a few breweries about expansion to Nebraska.  I have only gotten a response back from the 21st Amendment and at this time he is not expanding to Nebraska.  I also contacted Bell's with their $54 million dollar, or whatever the number is, expansion I thought I would throw it out there, I would expect us to get that soon.  I would encourage you to all contact breweries you want in Nebraska, they need to hear your voice. 

It was also great meeting a couple readers of the blog, I forgot your names, sorry, but I felt like a rock star having someone yell my name because they saw my shirt.  Too bad they saw the shirt on my buddy or I would have felt even cooler.  Anyway, thanks!  It really does mean a lot that people follow the blog and enjoy reading it and use it. 

I will leave with one parting picture, nice banana Tyson.

PS.  I also loaded up my beer fridge with Russian River Supplication, Damnation and Temptation, and Oskar Blues Gubna and Dales Pale.  I can't wait to enjoy these beers.