I hinted at ulterior motives in the last article about my long weekend in Denver. I didn’t travel all the way out there just to casually tour around. Indeed, I had a very specific purpose in mind — checking off a bucket list item in fact — attending the Great American Beer Festival.
The Biggest Weekend in Beer
GABF is the signature event of the Brewers Association, an advocacy organization representing the interests of craft brewers throughout the United States. For three days every year, thousands of breweries participate in an exhibition and competition at the Denver Convention Center (map).
Unfortunately I was never able to attend… until this year. A friend had a milestone birthday so we decided to celebrate it there. I packed my bags for Denver and checked it out.
Preparations
We got tickets for the Saturday session through the American Homebrewers Association, an specific offshoot of the Brewers Association. I’m not sure I’ve ever mentioned this on Twelve Mile Circle before, but I used to be a homebrewer quite some time ago. My brewing days ended when it was easier to buy good beer than to make it, although I’ve continued my affiliation because I like the community. Anyway, homebrewer tickets got us into GABF a half-hour before the main crowd so that was a nice bonus.
We all met at the Convention Center, walked a crazy long way to the entrance, and then waited in what can only be described as corrals. It did feel a lot like a cattle drive. But the doors opened soon enough and we all rushed in.
The Experience
It only occurred to me after the fact that I didn’t take a lot of photos, which is unusual. I guess I had other things on my mind. This photo gives an indication of the layout although this represents just one tiny corner of a much larger event.
It was a pretty typical beer festival although larger than many others by an order of magnitude or more. It even included a bunch of food trucks inside the Convention Center, spread amongst various pavilions. Notionally GABF represents the entire United States although breweries from Colorado, California, Oregon and Washington seemed to dominate. I guess that’s a proximity thing. Still, it let me sample a bunch of beers I don’t normally see on the east coast.
I did bump into someone I knew from a brewery back home, so that was a nice surprise. He was wearing a gold medal, one of two won by that particular brewery during the event, which is pretty remarkable considering the number of competitors in each category. They won a gold and a bronze.
GABF vs. Great Taste
I’m pretty selective about the beer festivals I attend because they take a lot out of me. But for more than a decade I’ve consistently enjoyed the Great Taste of the Midwest in Madison, Wisconsin. Sometimes I’ve mentioned that in my articles (here for example). I’ve heard several people who have attended both events express a preference for Great Taste. Of course I had no basis to judge that until now. So let me quickly compare:
| GABF | Great Taste | |
| Location | Denver, CO | Madison, WI |
| Venue | Convention Center | Olin Park on Lake Monona |
| Setting | Indoor | Outdoor |
| Breweries | 500 | 200 |
| Beers | 2,000 | 1,400 |
| Crowd | Squished | Spread Out |
I guess it comes down to preference. GABF has more breweries clustered together with a larger crowd. Great Taste features a lakeside spot with views of the state capitol and room to spread out. They both had their appeal and I’ve objectively enjoyed each experience. Personally I think I’d give the edge to Great Taste because I don’t like tightly packed crowds and because a concrete box (even a big one) with alcohol-fueled conversations and amplified music creates a painful echo. My ears rang into the next day.
I’m glad I attended GABF but I probably don’t need to do it again. Meanwhile I’m already making plans for Great Taste again next August.
Other Brewery Adventures
GABF wasn’t our only brewery activity. I also enjoyed padding my brewery list because we had a definite theme that weekend.
Gravity Brewing
We landed in Denver, went straight to our hotel in Broomfield to drop our bags, and then directly to Gravity Brewing. Our stomachs were on Eastern Time and we needed food. Now.
Gravity Brewing was across the county line in adjoining Boulder, in the town of Louisville. No, it wasn’t the more well-known Louisville, any more than my recent visit to the obscure Dayton. There are only so many names to go around before they have to recycle them. Still, Louisville, Colorado and Dayton, Washington sounded weird. There, I said it.
This was an interesting setup. The brewery and an American Legion post shared a building. Between them stood a kitchen, apparently owned independently of either establishment but serving patrons on both sides. So we grabbed a pizza from the brewery side and enjoyed that along with our beer flight on an outdoor patio, watching the autumn sun set.
Denver Beer Company
We went to Denver Beer Co.,’s Olde Town Arvada location for lunch the next day. Arvada is pronounced like Nevada in case you were wondering.
Laws are quirky. Apparently patrons cannot bring dogs into a brewery that has a restaurant in Colorado. However, everyone wants to bring a dog when they go casual day drinking, so a brewery has to make a choice. Do they want to attract hungry drinkers or do they want to attract dog lovers? Well, how about both? Denver Beer found a loophole.
A series of garage doors line the entire front exterior of the brewery (street view image), and that created a big enough opening to push an airstream trailer inside. It looks semi-permanent but it’s technically portable and removable. Presto! It’s not a “kitchen” (wink, wink) but it sure serves a lot of meals. So we grabbed burgers and enjoyed them with our beer flight.
Oh, by the way, I have no idea if that local law thing is true or not, but that’s what I heard. I didn’t want to spoil the fun by actually fact checking.
Westfax Brewing
We ate at the iconic Casa Bonita for dinner that evening, which absolutely did not align with the brewery theme. Reservations were tough to find so we didn’t get a slot until like 8:15 p.m., and then we had to stand in line for something like another half an hour to process through security, etc. So we were standing outside Casa Bonita and, lo and behold, we noticed Westfax Brewing practically next door. This was on West Colfax Avenue in Lakewood so apparently that’s how they named the brewery.
Anyway, this one wasn’t on our radar and we didn’t know about it ahead of time. So we decided to check it out if it was still open after we finished dinner. And that’s exactly what we did. I mean it was right there; it would be silly to not try. I wonder how much business Westfax gets from Casa Bonita castoffs? I bet it’s something non-zero. It was getting late but we had just enough time for a quick nightcap, saving most of our energy for GABF the next day.
This is the wonderful thing about Colorado — you can’t go more than a few blocks without running into a brewery.
Danico Brewing
Danico Brewing wasn’t a surprise — I mapped it out beforehand — but it is fairly new. It’s located within the big cluster of hotels along Tower Road, right near Denver International Airport.
We had a 6:30 a.m. flight the next day so it made perfect sense to stay way out there the night before. I’ve done this at Denver plenty of times, and of course I never had an easy brewery option until now. So we booked a hotel within easy walking distance of Danico, and I’ll likely do that again whenever I need to fly out of DIA at zero-dark-thirty. I’ll call that my new Denver travel tip.
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