Thursday, September 24, 2009

Fishing for Dogfish at the GABF

let the craft beer revolution commence

The Great American Beer Festival (GABF) begins tonight at 5:30 p.m. and I'm getting there at 4:45 p.m. Am I VIP? Did I receive a special invitation from Coors? Do I have "Beer Geek" tattooed across my forehead?

Nope, just good ol' American volunteerism! The hubby and I are finally making our way to the GABF and what better entry than pouring beer for 5.5 hours, schmoozing with the brewers and getting a comp ticket to enjoy the revelry of Saturday night! In addition to our "brew crew" pouring duties tonight we volunteered to distribute event posters around Denver about a month ago (don't ask about the liquor store heist on West Colfax).

Our goal of the whole event is to stop by the Dogfish Head Brewery post and meet Sam Calagione (Dogfish Head's founder and President), who happens to be a major beer hero/entrepreneur mentor to the husband. It doesn't hurt either that he's a hunk. Sam recently co-wrote a book about beer pairings, too. Watch the clip on The Today Show (wow, great publicity!).

We discovered Dogfish after seeing the documentary "Beer Wars" which pitted the craft brewers' small business plight against the corporate brewers

- such as Anheuser Busch and Coors. A kind of David vs. Goliath story. It really sparked our interest in craft beers outside of Colorado and Minnesota and introduced us to high alcohol content suds like Dogfish 90 Minute IPA and Arrogant Bastard Ale, two favorites.

The GABF brings America's best brews to Denver and I couldn't be more excited and intimidated at the same time. We've got the pretzel necklaces made, maps marked up with must-stop booths and our palates prepped. Watch for updates following tonight's volunteering and then our attending on Saturday.

Cheers!



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