Beer Blogging Friday, The Session #83 – Against the Grain

The first Friday of every month, a group of beer bloggers around the globe come together to write a post for The Sessions, also known as Beer Blogging Friday.

For the month of January, Rebecca, who writes The Bake and Brew, chose the topic, "How much is our taste or opinion of a craft beer affected by what friends and the craft beer community at large thinks? What beer do you love that no one else seems to get? Or what beer do you say “no thanks” to that everyone can’t get enough of?"  

I love this topic as it is something that seems to be a topic of discussion on a fairly regular basis.  For myself, it may not be so much a specific beer that I may not like that others favor as much as a specific style.  I feel I am still quite young in my craft beer journey, having only been introduced to craft beer in the past few years.  As with many craft beer drinkers, I found IPAs as my favorite style very quickly and still tend to favor the style.  While there are beers from styles I may not usually like, I will still try them.  

I have found there are beers that I do not like upon first sip, but when given a second chance, I have fallen in love with them.  One beer that comes to mind is Beachwood BBQ & Brewing System of a Stout.  When I first tasted this GABF bronze medal winning beer, which many of my friends were raving about, I wasn't a fan.  Of course, it happens to have upon first sip been one of my boyfriend's favorite beers.  When bottles of the beer were released, I made the trek to Long Beach to get bottles for my boyfriend, not thinking I would even drink any of them.  I decided to have another try of the beer and it is now among one of my favorites.  Not because anyone told me to try it again, nor because so many people loved it, but because I found to like the beer on my own.  

For myself, my tastes and opinions of any craft beer is not affected by my friends or what the craft beer community at large thinks.  I'm thankful that I have access to such a wide variety of beers and styles of beers on a regular basis.  It is definitely an exciting time in the craft beer community and industry.

Great American Beer Festival

Last year, I had no idea what the Great American Beer Festival was all about.  Reading people's tweets and Untappd check-ins, I figured out it was a pretty epic beer event.  Breweries I had never heard of along with beers that sounded foreign.  I decided that 2012 would be my year to attend the festival.

Travelling from Orange County, CA to Denver, CO is a pretty short flight.  Arriving at the airport, I was extremely excited to hope on the plane, but the airline had different ideas.  Our flight was delayed by an hour, which at first made me sad.  Thankfully, the Jack Daniels and Coca Cola I consumed aboard the flight made the delay slip into my memory.  The first highlight of my trip to GABF was not being charged for my mixed drink.  I was pretty excited and smiled and thanked the flight attendant as we deplaned our aircraft.

Arriving in Denver, it hit me, we were here!  The land of craft beer!  But first, we had to take a shuttle to our rental car facility.  I had reserved a compact car and of course, at the rental agency the employee tried to up-sell me.  Would I like to drive a BMW for only $65 extra per day?  Would I like to upgrade to a full size car for $30 extra per day?  I politely declined all of the employees offers.  When she finally checked to see which car I would be driving, she told me they were sold out of the compact cars.  At first I thought, great, now I will HAVE to drive a BMW!  To my surprise, I was told I would be able to drive an SUV for the compact car price.  Second upgrade of my trip!

After our short drive to our hotel, which was located ten miles or so from the Convention Center, we were told that the room we had requested was no longer available.  I started to laugh as the front desk clerk told me they were going to upgrade us to a two room suite.  At this point, I was really starting to love Denver and I hadn't even been to GABF yet!

Rad table at New Belgium

The next morning, we joined the owners of Bootlegger's Brewery, where my boyfriend works, and some of the other employees for a journey to some of the local breweries.  Our first stop was New Belgium Brewing.  We were greeted by an amazing selection of food and beer to sample as we waited for our tour to begin.  The beginning of the tour started with a visit to a shiny curved slide, how many work places have a slide besides fast food restaurants?  We continued with viewing the various production areas of the brewery.  Along our tour, we had a stop at a small tasting area where we were able to re-fill our glasses.  

Grabbing a bottle of fresh Fat Tire!

My favorite part of the tour was visiting the bottling and packaging area.  This is where we were each allowed to take a bottle of freshly bottled Fat Tire off of the line.  I felt like I was in the opening credits of Laverne & Shirley!  We were also allowed to taste fresh Fat Tire directly from the fermenter.

Fresh Fat Tire from the fermenter.

Our tour guide was very patient as we snapped photos and took our time trying to take in all of the sights.  I loved seeing all of the bicycles along our tour.  After working at New Belgium for a year, every employee is given a bicycle.  What a cool idea!  The sheer magnitude of the bottling and packaging facility was a bit overwhelming.  Robotic arms were moving cases of beer with ease while we just watched in awe as they were completing their tasks.

O'Dell Brewing's Tasting Room

After our tour concluded, I was able to purchase some of my favorite beer, Super IPA.  We were then on our way to our next destination, O'Dell Brewing just a few minutes down the road.  O'Dell Brewing is not as large as New Belgium but is still an impressive facility.  While we did not go on a tour, we did spend a good amount of time sampling beers in the lovely tasting room.

Oskar Blues' Tasting Room

Instead of getting a tasting flight, I opted for a full pint of beer.  Our next stop was Oskar Blues' tasting room.  I really liked the ambience of Oskar Blues which had live music as well as a no frills environment.  Just like at O'Dells, instead of a flight of beer, I opted for a pint of beer.  We were pleasantly surprised to find different years of Ten Fidy available and tried the 2009 version.  It did not disappoint!

Upon finishing up at Oskar Blues Brewery, we headed back into downtown Denver.  This is when I had my first opportunity to visit GABF.  I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I entered the massive convention center.  My first thought after receiving my tasting glass and entering the doors of the convention center was simply, "wow!"

Live music at GABF

I've been to numerous beer events, but nothing comes close to the number of brewery booths that are set up at GABF.  I was a bit worried that I might get lost and never find my way out until I quickly realized that the layout was organized according to region.  I was happy to see that there were not any huge lines at any of the booths, as I've seen at other events for popular beers.  Since I'd had such a long day, I didn't end up staying only a few hours during my first session of GABF.  I decided that going to bed early would be better so I could enjoy my second session at GABF more fully.