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It was a milestone year for the Great American Beer Festival -- Number 30 -- and another notch in the collective belt of the Ale Street News Tour Group.
Back in 1992, the year of Ale Street News’s inception, co-publisher Jack Babin flew the flag for ASN along with his wife Laurie. That year Brooklyn Brewery won two gold medals and I remember hearing tales of Jack chauffeuring Garrett Oliver and company around Denver in a rented convertible. I still have the '92 GABF shirt he brought me back; it only comes out once a year, on tour in Colorado.
After a couple of years making the pilgrimage on our own, Jack and I teamed up with Greg Dennis of Short Hills Tours and Richie Stolarz of the NJ-based club Beers International and began bringing a tour group out to GABF. This year was our 17th annual; we do it in Richie's memory -- he suffered a fatal heart attack in 2000, at Denver International Airport, post-GABF. Out of 24 travelers this year, we had 20 repeaters and only four newbies.
Each tour is memorable in its own way. This time, from our first thirst-quenching first stop at Dry Dock Brewing Co. Thursday to the last shared bottle of New Belgium's La Folie on the way to the airport Sunday, the action was non-stop, a tapestry of mile-high liquid madness. It was our third visit to Dry Dock, and appropriately they just underwent their third expansion, evolving from homebrew store to fully-fledged brewpub. We were lucky enough to catch them in the midst of bottling their six-month-in-the-barrel barleywine.
The tour highlight is the day trip aboard our magic, swirling bus, beginning quietly up I-15 to Fort Collins -- hey, who forgot the breakfast beer? No matter, our palates were primed for New Belgium Brewing Co. This stop never gets old, revisiting favorites such as La Folie and Eric (the former, blended with peach juice); the very popular Ranger IPA, and Lips of Faith new releases, fat and juicy Dunkelweizen, super sour Le Terroir (winner of the gold in the GABF sour category); and collaborations Kick (with Elysian of Seattle, pumpkin and cranberry blended with wood-aged) and Clutch (with the band of the same name, a 9% sour stout). And some tasty food treats to pair with.
Bryan Simpson, a brewery employee of 14 years returned as our designated tour guide. After a decade and a half, his passion for the industry, the beers and the ecological and employee-friendly environment still shine through. The Fort Collins plant has almost maxed out its footprint, a few more tanks and it'll reach its 900,000 barrel capacity (it'll do 700, 000 this year, the nation's third largest craft brewery after Sam Adams and Sierra Nevada). Now they are eyeing the East Coast for a new facility (as is Sierra Nevada). We could have literally stayed there all day.
From the old to the new, we mosied over to Funkwerks, living up to its name, a brewery dedicated to Saison. With Crooked Stave sharing the brewhouse leading to some interesting tasting room offerings for this nine-month-old startup.
Onto Boulder, and a warm welcome from Avery Brewing Co., America's original extreme brewery, expanded now with a big-barrel room and a second bar. Great to hang with the wood and feel the beer breathing. At Southern Sun, Mountain Sun's second Boulder brewpub outpost we relaxed as the sun sank behind the Devil's Thumb atop the Rocky's Front Range. Some of the crew went on to take a look at Twisted Pine Brewing Co. Crooked Stave? Twisted Pine? I had to hold tight to my IPA.
Back in Denver many of us spent the night on the rooftop of the Ghost building at The Denver Affair, a fundraiser for the Beer for Brains Foundation. Louis Dolgoff, formerly an ambassador for Dogfish Head founded the charity in memory of his wife Laurie, whom he lost to brain cancer; he has dedicated his life to raising money (through beer) for brain cancer research, and he invited his friend and ASN partner Jack Babin as boardmember. The Ghost Building is a joint-venture between Wynkoop and Breckenridge. Atop the roof, surrounded by some of Colorado's rarest beers, tasting for a good cause, far from the madding crowd, seemed like a fitting end to another good day on the road.
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