35 Colorado Breweries Take Home Medals With Plenty Of Other Breweries Around The Country Impressing
by Richard Colaizzi and Mark Smiley
Great American Beer Festival (GABF) celebrated its 33rd year the weekend of October 5, 2019. The Colorado Convention Center once again served as the venue sprawling 584,000 square feet of space for over 800 breweries to pour over 4,000 different types of beers.
Comrade Brewing, located at 7667 E. Iliff Ave. in Denver, was named 2019 Small Brewing Company of the Year and Small Brewing Company Brewer of the Year by the Brewers Association at the awards ceremony held on Saturday, October 5, after receiving gold medals for two of its India Pale Ales, Superpower IPA and More Dodge Less Ram. These are the fourth and fifth medals the brewery has won since opening in 2014.
“We still can’t believe what happened at the Great American Beer Festival,” said David Lin, Founder of Comrade Brewing Co. “We always try to make the best beer we can and this year the judges thought so too. We’re incredibly proud of the brewing team Marks Lanham and Rio Urioste. It’s an honor to win small brewing company of the year and we’ll continue to do our best here in southeast Denver.”
The Small Brewing Company of the Year category is one of the most competitive as most breweries in the country brew between 1,000 and 14,999 barrels of beer per year. This is quite the achievement for a brewery which has a simple philosophy. “We make beer we like to drink and whatever is left over, we sell,” said Marks Lanham, Brewmaster for Comrade Brewing Co.
Superpower IPA was awarded a gold medal in the American-Style Strong Pale Ale category, which had 131 entries. Superpower IPA is an American IPA with loads of Pacific Northwest hops that lend huge pine and grapefruit hop aroma and citrus flavors. Its bitterness is balanced with a crisp, light malt character and is available year-round at the Comrade Brewing tasting room.
More Dodge Less Ram, a triple-dry hopped sister of Superpower IPA, took gold in the second most-entered category, American-Style India Pale Ale, which had 342 entries. More Dodge Less Ram was the first beer that Comrade brewed after a Dodge Ram plowed into the brewery three years ago.
“I told David on August 25 we were going to win this year,” said Lanham. “It’s been a challenging year for both of us. David got married and had a child. I had less fortunate things happen to me. When these things happen, it drives me to do better.”
A total of 322 judges from 18 countries do blind tastes to evaluate the beers in defined style categories. This year, 2,295 breweries from around the country, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands submitted entries. There were 9,497 entries overall.
“This year’s GABF competition was the largest and most competitive to date,” said Chris Swersey, competition manager, Great American Beer Festival. “The beers and talent were as impressive as ever, and we congratulate this year’s winners for their achievements in brewing.”
In addition to the medal winners, there are standout and under-the-radar beers that by the end of the festival, word has spread. 2019 was no different for these exciting, and at times, adventurous beers. These reporters were successful in trying over 150 beers over the three days of GABF, and the following beers deserve attention. While it is difficult to rank them based on favorites, all of them were outstanding beers, and most of them had large lines waiting to try them before the weekend was finished.
Local favorite WeldWerks Brewing Co. from Greeley, Colorado, always has a long line. They seem to have the most unique beers year after year at the GABF. Last year’s Spaghetti Gose was the talk amongst many of the patrons. This year would be no different. WeldWerks brewed yet another masterful concoction called Taco Gose. It tastes just like you would expect it to with those ingredients — Taco Sauce Beer. When it is served with a mini taquito, it tastes even better.
“For 2019, we knew we had to up the ante so we took things a step further by partnering with the folks at Horsetooth Hot Sauce in Fort Collins to create a completely unique hot sauce, based on their venerable The Green Hot Sauce, but aged for an extended amount of time in a freshly emptied Medianoche barrel,” said Neil Fisher Co-Owner, Head Brewer of WeldWerks Brewing Co. “Immediately after the barrel was emptied, we used the hot sauce barrel to age our Taco Gose, brewed with over 600 lbs. of fire roasted tomatoes, sea salt, chili powder, paprika, oregano, onion powder, garlic powder, and cumin. The result was Hot Sauce Barrel Aged Taco Gose, and it was one of the first beers we kicked at all four sessions of GABF this year.”
WeldWerks is the most innovative brewery in this beer crazy state and it’s no wonder that they needed a GABF volunteer to manage the line for every session of this year’s event. In fact, the line was so long one evening, the fire marshal paid a visit to reroute how the line was formed.
“Fortunately, for those not as excited about our savory sours, we had nine other beers available at the fest, including four variants of Medianoche, our barrel-aged Imperial Stout,” said Fisher. “According to Untappd metrics from GABF, three of the beers we poured ranked in the top 10 out of more than 4,000 beers at the fest and all 10 of our beers ranked in the top 150. We also finished the fest as the highest rated brewery and the most checked-in brewery out of more than 800 breweries at the fest. Those stats, coupled with the two medals we brought home from the competition, make 2019’s Great American Beer Festival a tough one to top for us.”
The next group of beers were complete surprises to these reporters and deserve to be mentioned with any award-winning beer that is found at GABF. Ology Brewing Co. from Tallahassee, Florida, brought the latest in their Juice Lab series. Ology rotates fruit for this series and this version had blueberries and raspberries in the brew. If you can imagine drinking a beer smoothie infused with an incredible amount of fruit, this is the beer you would crave. It is difficult to settle on a favorite beer of the entire festival, but this one is at the top. It is a fantastic beer and another brewery added to the must visit list.
Great Notion Brewing located in Portland, Oregon, had lines growing throughout the weekend. Blueberry Muffin and Sticky Bun were crowd favorites and as you stood in line to get their beers you overheard countless festival goers marveling at these two beers. Blueberry Muffin was perfect for anyone who was hoping to remember what a homemade blueberry muffin tasted like. Sticky Bun is an 11.3% ABV monster imperial breakfast stout with melted brown sugar, toasted pecan and cinnamon. It is almost like the sticky buns were fresh out of the oven.
Another beer on the list of notes was right there with Juice Lab as a favorite — Wake and Cake brewed by Burning Barrel Brewing Co. out of Rancho Cordova, California. This beer is a desert-inspired pasty sour loaded with pineapple, coconut, passion fruit, vanilla and marshmallows. A 9% beer that had so much flavor, it made you get back in line to try it again, and again to make sure you didn’t miss one of those flavors listed above.
Last but not least, remember in the ’70s when Coors was only sold west of Texas? The Tank Brewing Co. is following in their elusive footsteps, but in reverse. Their exceptional craft beer that’s brewed in Miami, is not currently available outside of Florida, so the GABF provides a rare window of opportunity for beer lovers to sample their award-winning liquid innovations. This included La Finca Miami (World Beer Cup 2018 Gold Medal winner).
GABF never disappoints when it comes to unique beers. And the ones listed here are just the beginning. If you do your research, you can try so many different styles and types of beer. Don’t be afraid to step outside of a comfort zone. If you are, you might just miss some great beers.
Mark your calendar for 2020 as the 34th Annual Great American Beer Festival is set for September 24-26, 2020. Visit www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com for more information and for a list of all winners.