When you step into a ginormous convention hall that’s been remade as the mecca of the brewing world, the scene is a beer-lover’s dream. But it’s also daunting: a cavernous space, unfurling over the equivalent of eight or so football fields, offering 4,000-plus options to sample from 800 breweries from across the country.
At the Great American Beer Festival, set to be unleashed Sept. 20-22 in downtown Denver, where do you start?
First, by making sure you’ve got one of the 62,000 tickets divided among four sessions over the course of three days. Tickets were easier to snag than usual this year — and as of early this week, they were still on sale for the opening Thursday night session for $85. But one of the open secrets of GABF is that the secondary market is full of resale tickets, and often they can be found being hawked for face value on the street outside the Colorado Convention Center.
OK, so you have a ticket. Whether you’re attending for the first time or hitting GABF as a veteran, next you need a plan. Here are a bevy of tips gleaned from my experience at the last four GABFs as well as The Denver Post’s past GABF coverage, including this helpful guide for first-timers.
The basics: You’ve got a lot of ground to cover
This year’s GABF is the largest in nearly every way. Especially in size: The 584,000-square-foot festival space includes the addition of a sixth convention hall, two more halls than the 2016 festival used. The extra space is allowing the festival to spread out, accommodating more attendees and providing more diversions to entertain (and educate) them.
“Wear your favorite, most comfortable shoes,” advises Ann Obenchain, the marketing director for the Boulder-based Brewers Association, which puts on GABF. “And then have a plan (for leaving): a designated driver or a public transportation plan or using ride share,” such as Uber or Lyft.
Here are a few things to know at the outset:
- It’s gone alphabetical: GABF’s tradition of grouping breweries by region has been thrown out the window. This year, most breweries are ordered alphabetically en masse, along the festival’s long banks of tables and stations, no matter where they hail from. This should make it easier to find your favorite by name. The Brewers Association says the change also should reduce congestion from past years around booths in the most popular regions.
- Except: As in the last three years, brewery tables staffed by brewers or their employees — rather than GABF volunteers — are set off in the Meet the Brewer section. This allows attendees to chat up the people who brewed the beer they’re drinking. This year, 176 breweries made the cut, an increase of 40 percent over 2017.
- Food-pairing event grows, too: Along with the festival, its popular — and separately ticketed — offshoot of food-and-beer pairings, appropriately called PAIRED, also is bigger. The BA says 25 chefs from around the country are working with an equal number of breweries to create bites that go with brews, growing the field by about a quarter.
Everyone must go through an ID check and security screening, so be sure to arrive at the convention center well before the start of your session. And though there’s food for sale inside the hall, it’s always a good idea to eat a meal beforehand so that you’re ready for the long haul.
If you make a plan, you’ll enjoy the experience more
I’m not talking about locking yourself into a detailed itinerary — after all, GABF is a heck of a lot of fun, and part of it is following your fancy and making discoveries.
But if all you do is wander from booth to booth, you’ll drink fast; you’ll imbibe a palate-confusing mishmash of IPAs, sours, porters and Pilsners that increasingly blend together; and you’ll likely end up disappointed — and maybe even wasted — by session’s end.
Here’s my advice: Jot down the breweries you love and those you’ve always wanted to try. Do some Googling to find hot breweries and beers in a region or state that interests you. Find unsung or hidden-gem brewers you want to hunt down. (Here’s our fresh list of 26 breweries to scout out, and here’s another good list to consult from last year, since most of those breweries will be back.)
Download the My GABF app: Tag the breweries you want to visit, and find out where they’re located. The app will serve as your guide inside the hall, righting the ship once your senses are on overload. It also allows you to rate what you try, helping keep track of your favorites. (The app already has info for all the breweries that are participating, and the Brewers Association says each’s beer offerings will be uploaded by Wednesday night.)
A few other tips for the floor: Start with lighter beers, and hit the heavies later in the session. Don’t just go for the big names — look around for buzz around smaller breweries. And be willing to pivot if you hear other attendees talking up a brewery that’s catching fire on the floor.
A good early stop: The Heavy Medal Booth features award-winning beers from last year’s GABF competition. ”It can give you an idea of what you might like,” longtime GABF volunteer Matthew Rawlins told us before a past festival.
Respite from lines: At the Protect Craft Guilds Pavilion, guilds from two dozen states will offer pours of beers you can’t find anywhere else in the hall, often from newer breweries that didn’t make the trek to Denver. Usually the lines are minimal, and some beers are surprisingly good. Another option is a new collaboration offering, in which professional brewers have paired up to brew beers they’ll be pouring at the Collaboration Competition Booth.
Sample a lot of beers — but don’t get loaded
When each table is offering 1-ounce pours, how long does it take to get tipsy? Answer: Less time than you’d think.
Exhibit A: By the end of the night, the festival hall can get rowdy. The clinks of dropped plastic tasting cups will prompt increasingly annoying swells of “Ohhhhh!” from surrounding crowds.
But if you take a deliberate approach, you’ll keep your wits. As a colleague advised last year, only finish the beers that put a smile on your face. My addendum: Realize that you’ll be smiling a lot more as the session wears on.
The taste-and-dump strategy is officially sanctioned, in fact.
“You don’t have to drink the whole beer. It’s fine just to taste it,” Obenchain says. That’s why each table has a swill bucket. If you feel hesitant to dump out the beer at the place that poured it, just wait until you get to the next brewery.
Don’t forget: Drink lots of water. GABF has lots of water stations, so make frequent stops to hydrate. Out-of-towners, remember: Denver’s high altitude can hasten the effects of alcohol, making it even more important to drink water often.
And remember to eat. The festival doesn’t allow outside food, unless you wear it — hence the much-debated pretzel necklaces that provide ready reserves of sustenance, as well as a palate-cleanser. Besides the usual food stand offerings, GABF this year has lined up five Denver food trucks to set up inside the hall, including Dude Bro Taco, Mile High Cajun and Smokestack 70.
Avoid the longest lines, and know where to chill
For popular breweries you’re dead-set on hitting — in my case, Three Floyds from Indiana and New Glarus from Wisconsin — do it early. By each session’s back half, the most popular breweries’ stocks begin running out.
But don’t spend the entire session in line. There are too many good beers from less-known brewers. A few years ago, I discovered Bayou Teche Brewing, out of Arnaudville, La., and they didn’t have a line all night. Each year brings a new discovery that doesn’t require an eternity in line.
Don’t forget to hit pause once or twice, whether to get food or to take a breather. Here are some options:
Hit the pavilions. Besides the state guild booths, there is the Food & Beer Pavilion that offers talks and demonstrations. “You can get food there, which is free,” Obenchain says. “And you’re learning about beer and food pairings. This year we actually have one on pairing beer with bugs,” along with more conventional topics.
Dance it off. Back at the festival this year is the Silent Disco area, where a live DJ will pump the soundtrack into headphones worn by dancing participants.
Two new hangouts. Jameson Irish Whiskey is sponsoring the Jameson Caskmates barrel-aged beer garden, which will include talks on bourbon-aging, and Buffalo Wild Wings is sponsoring a sports bar where attendees can make a pit stop and catch games on big-screen TVs.
Finally: Make a bathroom plan
It sounds simple, but when you have to go to the bathroom, chances are a lot of others will, too, and you’ll face a squirm-inducing line. Make note of where the bathrooms are along the hall’s perimeter, and make a beeline before nature calls.
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