The week of the Great American Beer Festival is always crazy at the Wynkoop. It starts Wednesday night with the brewer's gathering when breweries from all over the country have their kegs set up throughout the restaurant. The best one this year was a keg of Alaskan Smoked Porter... from 1994. I was 10. The VIP party was set up in the basement of the brewery where we had a little beer pong going. First time I have ever played with a 6.7% lager, though.
On Thursday the Festival opened up to the public. But I learned my lesson from last year and did not attend that first session. Going three straight days wears on the body a little.
Friday I took Kevin and Bobby to over for a bunch of one ounce samples. Kevin has been many times before so he just wanted to go pour people beer at the booth and say funny things like, "The Silverback Porter was actually made by gorillas, under supervision of course." I tried to get Bobby to try as many styles as possible. However a few he let me finish because he is a little bi... I mean, he didn't like them. Sour ales didn't set too well with him, which means a little extra for Craig!
Also on Friday Bobby and I were walking around with his friend Nate and saw Dave Lieberman talking to a few fans after his beer and cheese pairing seminar. So we did what anybody would do, walked up to him and ate all the cheese he was holding and drank all of the beer. And, he is really short, I'm talking like 5'4" short.
I didn't make it to the Saturday afternoon awards ceremony because I had to catch up at the brewery, but Charlie and Andy were there to represent for the Wynkoop. We won gold for our Wixa Weiss and B3K schwarz bier. Charlie Papazian, President of the Brewer's Association gave them the awards on stage and said, "it's good to see Wynkoop back up here." The way I found out the news was John Hickenlooper, Wynkoop founder and current Denver Mayor, found me to personally congratulate me while I was giving a tour. Andy and Charlie came back in to Wynkoop to hear applause from all the bartenders while wearing the medals. Then they put them on me and I walked around like the Michael Phelps of beer. I now plan on melting them down into gold bars.
I took Amy to the Saturday night session. Everyone was telling me congrats including Garrett Oliver of the Brooklyn brewing company. Defiantly my proudest moment thus far in the brewing industry.
2 comments:
I didn't know Wynkoop was founded by a dirty democrat.
congratulations, babe!!! you rock.
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