When I first decided to go to Great American Beer Festival this year, I did not know what I was getting myself into. Sure, I’ve been to Texas Craft Brewers Festival and Big Texas Beer Fest, but I (nor my liver) was not ready for the most epic brewery festival in the US.
Everyone says to have a plan. My friend Caitlin, Big World Small Girl, who had gone once before had shared her tips and advice on attending GABF. Whoops, I had ignored that! Thankfully she was there to show me around night one as well. I’m going to help you come up with a plan from my experience!
Pre-gaming for GABF at Cerebral Brewing with Big World Small Girl
My previous post was about our adventure in Fort Collins & Greeley to get us prepped for our two days of the festival. We stayed with some friends we knew from Austin that previously moved to the Denver area, so we had some locals to take us around to brunch spots to fill up on before going out to fest (including Denver Biscuit Company & Syrup – must try!).
We chose Friday night & Saturday afternoon sessions, which were about 4 hours each. Friday night was dedicated to scoping out the entire convention center to figure out our plan of attack. What I would advise is make sure to download the GABF app and review all of the breweries participating and which brews you’d like to try. You can create a list to track what you’re interested in! What was the most helpful was understanding the regions at the convention center. If you’re looking to try a beer from Texas, you would find those breweries nestled into “Southwest Region”.
Had to stop by fellow Austinites ABGB for Industry Pils!
One of the most surprising sections of GABF was that Jameson Caskmates had a festival setup within the festival. There were 22 different brewery partners that collaborated with Jameson all within one section to highlight their partnership in barrel aging beer with Jameson Irish Whiskey barrels.
Jameson Caskmates area with 22 brewery partners
We got through maybe less than half of the entire convention center just in Friday night. There were so many beers to be tasted and sites to take in that we were so glad that we had day two.
Figtoberfest from Figueroa Mountain (I was excited to try this brewery because my maiden name is Figueroa!)
If you get the chance to attend, make sure to have an American Homebrewers Association membership to join the members only session for Saturday afternoon. Kegs start to kick by the end of the session & you get to be a part of the celebration following the awards ceremony. Make sure to arrive early, and by early I mean at least one hour early. The corrals start lining up probably at least two hours early to get into the convention center.
Thousands of people lining up in corrals waiting for their turn to pour in.
Pick a side to conquer! Utilize the regions & figure out what top breweries you want to hit up, especially if you have had a chance to be a previous session. Find where you want to spend your time, four hours flies by when you’re drinking award winning beer!
The basic in me had to try this beer from Mirror Image. It tasted exactly the perfect balance of a PSL!
Take photos of the beers you have tried & want to remember. I didn’t even bother with using untapped for GABF because it was an overwhelming amount of tastings. By the end of the session, your palate may be wrecked. It’s also a good idea to wear your snacks and build pretzel necklaces ahead of time. Don’t be shy with just adding pretzels, utilize fruit snacks, beef jerky, cheese, chocolate, or whatever else you can string onto your necklace!
Hanging out at the Black Husky booth, reppin’ my Milwaukee roots!
GABF is definitely a festival you need to experience more than once. There’s so much to do in Denver including GABF pre/after parties and also many options to go to breweries that are available all around town. My advice is to plan at least four to five full days and at least two sessions for GABF. The experience & unlimited beer pays for itself instantly. Why not get together with thousands of other craft beer lovers from around the country to celebrate some of the best craft beer there is out there? Make a fun vacation out of it with your fellow craft beer friends and start planning for next fall!
Cheers!
-Cheryl 🍻
Waking up in Louisiana in mid to late February feels cool and dreary, with the remnants of winter clinging onto the grey skies until the afternoon sun, in alliance with the river, teases the warmth and heavy humidity of the coming spring. If you live around uptown and St. Charles avenue, your daily coffee and chicory is sipped to the tune of local high school marching bands warming up for their second lines. This can mean only one thing: it’s Carnival season in New Orleans.
Ghost in the Machine, which was incidentally the first beer introduced to Kimberly at a couple Carnival’s past. She was eager to score a few bottles of Ghost, but alas! Parish was featuring a different rotation this time of year. Kimberly enjoyed a version of their wheat ale, Canebrake, blended with fresh strawberries, and finished the visit with a Flora Genesis dry-hopped sour. Also on tap was Rêve Coffee Stout, a beautifully blended sweet stout using beans from acadiana’s own Rêve Coffee Roasters.
Upon entry, you’re greeted by one massive open space, stretching from the spacious taproom in front to the production floor in back. Both are separated by a row of comfortable theater seats paying homage to the building’s storied past. Due to the wide-open facility, there is nothing to hide in this brewery’s process, and it’s no secret the beer is world-class. Amazingly, while only open three months, Wayward Owl featured almost 10 taps, including a barrel-aged scotch and Kimberly’s favorite: the DoKtor – a saison with coconut a limes served on nitro.
Next in line was Urban South, a brewery nestled in the warehouse district along the east bank of the Mississippi. Kimberly and Jared were fortunate to visit this brewery in the summer last year, and no trip to New Orleans is complete without a pit stop to sample this young breweries offerings. Kimberly chose a round of their Charming Shandy – a succulent blend of Charming Wit and Urban’s own fresh lemonade. Luckily, they visited early enough to still catch the Rectify coffee porter – a winter seasonal that is equal-parts toasty and chocolaty.
Mid-February, Cheryl traveled to the Bay Area with her hubs on a rainy weekend an explored various breweries and made a stop at Napa. Conveniently, she arrived during the tail end of San Francisco Beer Week. First stop was The Rare Barrel in Berkeley where they had a cellar release. We then ventured into Oakland to Drake’s Dealership where we stumbled upon a small beer festival that was unfortunately sold out, but we still were able to snag some food and a few beers.
After riding the BART back to San Francisco, we stopped in The Mission to go to Almanac’s new tap room. Since it was San Francisco Beer Week, their event focused on their Grand Crus. Our favorite was a Grand Cru in red wine barrels with vanilla, took some back to Texas! Our last stop after Almanac was Tripe Voodoo Brewing in Dogpatch where wine barrel aged beer was all over the menu.
Sunday and Monday were dedicated to travels outside of San Francisco. Sunday we went to Napa where we spent the rainy day at beautiful wineries like Artesa, Domaine Chandon, and Girard Winery. Our favorite wine was the Tempranillo from Artesa, which had a beautiful property and felt like you were someone in the United Kingdom.
Located just by the Austin Airport, Hi Sign Brewing is a brand new member to the Austin brewery scene. Of their core-four beers, the New England IPA and the Blood Orange Coffee Stout stand out among the others. Their hopes to bring attention to the style and elevate the style in Texas is certainly something we are looking forward to. The brewery is very large with plenty of room to either grow or have large events. Owner, Mark, gave us a private tour of the brewing set up and gave some insight into his brewing passion. Its very clear that Hi Sign is coming into the Austin scene strong. We are looking forward to great things from them.
The long awaited tap room from Austin Beerworks is finally here, and better than we could have ever hoped for. Not only can you just buy a single beer now (why would you want to though?) but there is tons of seating indoors and out to enjoy your beer, hang out with your pups, and even play a board game. The design of the new taproom is magnificent and the branding of ABW is consistent throughout the building. It is as if you were standing inside one of their cans, looking out. The live edge picnic tables were teeming with hundreds and hundreds of people from families, groups of friends, and people with their pets. It is clear this new space opens them up as a better event venue as well. We look forward to all the good things to come from this new tap room!
With a few locations around North Dallas, Taps and Caps offers an amazing selection of beers not just to enjoy in their bar, but in crowlers, and growlers of all sizes to go! Instead of a standard chalkboard telling you what is on tap, they have a live digital menu showing beer, beer type, brewery, what color the beer is, and the prices of each different size the beer is. But best of all, it tells you how much is left in the keg! So when you see something getting low, get a pour fast or you will be missing out! If you find yourself in the DFW area, this is a must go to bar!
This month, 
true and Sprinkles has finally opened at the 
Our Basics And Beer stitch club was born back in December when 
A few of us went to celebrate Oskar Blues ATX’s release of locally brewed Ten Fidy. At this event, they also tapped a PB+J Firkin that paired with an espresso cupcake from Hey Cupcake! Oskar Blues is still relatively new to Austin and we were really excited to have a glass of Ten Fidy from the source. Hope to be back in the near future for more events!
The ATX Brew Crew is a group of people who love to drink and support local craft beer. Typically we host a monthly get together to check out a brewery or local beer related event. This month we explored one of Austin’s newer breweries, St. Elmo Brewing. Located south of downtown, St. Elmo is a bright spot in a very industrial area. When walking into the brewery, you are instantly greeted by the delicious smells from Soursop, the resident food trailer. The patio is covered in plenty of picnic tables, string lights, and cornhole boards. Inside there are even more tables, a bookshelf full of community board games, and of course their beautiful bar.
Bringing in a new year also brought us a new brewery on the East Sixth – Lazarus Brewing. The brewery was a dream of Pastor Christian Cryder who wanted to focus on creating a space where people could hang throughout the day and even multiple times a week. Because of this, they aren’t too concerned about distribution.
At the end of January, Kimberly brought Sierra down to Independence Brewery for Barkhappy’s Barks ‘n Brews event benefitting Austin Pets Alive. If there’s one thing to know, us basics love our dogs and this event was even better because there was beer involved.
Kettle Sour Sunday at Hops and Grain was an awesome special. They took their dry hopped kettle sour and used it as a base for 4 other variants – strawberry, blackberry, apricot, and cherry. The strawberry was so fruity and fresh, we went back for more!
Basics and Beer 