Great American Beer Fest - Tom's Travelogue

Following last year’s tradition after landing in Denver, we went straight from the plane to the airport bar and sipped on some Fat Tire. Thursday night, we headed to Falling Rock Taphouse to grab a bite to eat and some drinks. They boast a huge 75 tap draft selection, including some rare Russian River and Deschutes stuff. I couldn’t resist an Avery Maharaja, one of my favorite DIPA’s, which we unfortunately don’t see much of in New Jersey. Note: the wings and fries are out of this world.

Last minute Friday morning we managed to get hooked up with a couple guys from Brooklyn Brewery who had a bus headed to Oskar Blues and Left Hand. We started off at the Oskar Blues brewery and took a quick tour, which was really cool because of the intimacy. We were right in the thick of things with forklifts driving past us, face to face with the canning line, and face to face with a couple of foosball tables. We headed to their brewpub next where we partook in a private buffet upstairs. For me, this was the highlight of the trip. The food, atmosphere, bartenders, and waitresses were all top notch. The beer selection was unreal – they were offering too many limited brews to count. A highlight for me was the Sour Cherry Ten FIDY – their Ten FIDY aged in oak with tart pie cherries. Then we headed to Left Hand which was equally as impressive. We had the opportunity to sample this year’s as-yet-unreleased Fade to Black which was really tasty. Our tour guide fed us beer throughout the tour… so we couldn’t really go wrong.

The restaurants in Denver are in a class of their own. And yet again following last year’s tradition, we made sure to head over to the Cheeky Monk – a Belgian-themed craft beer bar. They had a lot more limited craft offerings than I had remembered, including a lot of Firestone Walker and Avery’s UberSwine, the latter which I’ve never even heard of. I had the moules-frites with spicy tomato sauce, olives, spinach, red wine and parmesan cheese paired with a sweet and sour Duchesse de Bourgogne.

Mick and Zack enjoying a pint
The highlight restaurant-wise was without a doubt the Buckhorn Exchange, where we feasted on delicacies like alligator tail, Rocky Mountain oysters (actually delicious), and buffalo tips. I had an elk and ostrich combo for an entrée and the ostrich was probably the best cut of meat I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating. The hundreds of taxidermied animals, super friendly waiter, and old-Western setting made for a great atmosphere as well. If you’re in Denver you need to check this place out.

At the BeerFest itself, there was simply not enough time and too many great beers to try. First, I made an effort to hit all of the breweries not available in New Jersey – Bell’s, Cigar City, Russian River, The Lost Abbey, Short’s, AleSmith, Pizza Port, etc. – just to see what I was missing out on at home. Variety is the spice of life. There were hundreds of world-class beers and countless limited offerings. Too many to name, but here are some of my highlights:

The Bruery Black Tuesday
The Bruery Oude Tart
Firestone Walker Abacus
Cigar City Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout
FatHead’s Lucifer’s Lunacy
Brooklyn Black Ops
Weyerbacher Rapture
Allagash Coolship Resurgam



The best beer being sampled at the festival, in my opinion, was Cigar City’s Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout. Released once a year in March and aged on vanilla beans, cacao nibs, cinnamon and chilies – this is one absolutely delicious beer. The unique combination of vanilla, cacao, and chili play off each other perfectly. Cigar City makes a spectacle of Hunahpu’s release by throwing a huge, well-deserved party at the brewery. The longest line at the Fest was surprisingly a cheese and beer pairing station, which we made sure we participated in before the end of the Fest. It was fun and interesting to see the gourmet cheeses and jams from the American Cheese Society paired with craft beers like Ballast Point’s chocolate cherry stout or a Flanders Red from The Lost Abbey. Some of the pairings were better than any wine and cheese combo I’ve ever tried.