2005 GABF Winners

Just in case you aren't there, and wanted to know who won medals:

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Reply to
Frank Mancuso
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Congrats on St. Arnold's two new medals.

Cheers,

Steve

Reply to
Steve Moore

Love the Silver medal winner in Cat. 18 "European Style Pilsener"...

Reply to
jesskidden

One wonders why people at the Sandlot would dis beer judges. They've done quite well at the GABF over the years.

Speaking of the Sandlot. Aren't they part of the Coors organization? Coors is Small Brewery of the Year?

Slante,

Steve

Reply to
Steve Moore

Who the heck voted Bigfoot the best Barleywine? Unless this batch was spectacularly better than previous years I don't know how they'd crack top-10.

Bill

Reply to
Bill Bradley

Ah, that would be blind tasters who didn't see what the label was on each beer, poor bastards, and only had taste and smell to go on, instead of years of finely honed opinion and prejudgment.

Reply to
Lew Bryson

Oh come on. I rather like a number of Sierra Nevada's brews, but I know I am not alone in having found Bigfoot a rather unpleasant experience in Barleywine. Although Heavyweight's Old Salty was not represented, Weyerbacher and Old Dominion were (were Blithering Idiot, Millennium or Insanity entered? They only list the breweries not the particular beers) and I have had difficulty finishing previous years' Bigfoots at all, to the point that I avoid them on principle, but this years would have to be bloody spectacular to beat those two breweries, and they didn't even place! Sorry I've "only" tried about a hundred different brews this year (Bigfoot '05 not having been one of them) but I have a hard time buying that as a gold medalist.

Bill

Reply to
Bill Bradley

Why? They're way too strict. Maybe OK for getting a grab on a truckload of homebrews, but for a professional brewer, it's just a terrible clamp on his sense of creativity, on his imagination. Who needs categories? I need imaginative brewers. And new tastes. Joris

Reply to
Joris Pattyn

Bravo!

Reply to
Lew Bryson

Bill, take a look at who judges these beers. Over half the judges come from Colorado and west (Mountain state judges are always the biggest group, no real surprise). The East Coast (New England and the mid-Atlantic region) puts up about 15% of the judges (really, I have the numbers, I'm not guessing). I'm NOT saying that the judges are in a conspiracy, but what I am saying is that people gravitate towards liking what they drink on a steady basis. Western site for the festival, Western judges drinking Western beers (and they do, much more so than we in the East drink solely Eastern beers), Western beers win medals. I do not think that it's any surprising coincidence that Denver and Boulder together have --over the entire history of the GABF -- won more medals than any other city. Conspiracy? No, inevitable playing of the odds.

Reply to
Lew Bryson

Maybe they think they should've gotten a Gold with that beer. Heh.

Reply to
Joel

Lew Bryson wrote: : "Bill Bradley" wrote in message : news:Tt10f.7352 :> Lew Bryson wrote: :>> "Bill Bradley" wrote in message :>>>Who the heck voted Bigfoot the best Barleywine? Unless this batch was :>>>spectacularly better than previous years I don't know how they'd crack :>>>top-10. : :>> Ah, that would be blind tasters who didn't see what the label was on each :>> beer, poor bastards, and only had taste and smell to go on, instead of :>> years of finely honed opinion and prejudgment. :>

:> Oh come on. I rather like a number of Sierra Nevada's brews, but I know I :> am not alone in having found Bigfoot a rather unpleasant experience in :> Barleywine. Although Heavyweight's Old Salty was not represented, :> Weyerbacher and Old Dominion were (were Blithering Idiot, Millennium or :> Insanity entered? They only list the breweries not the particular beers) :> and I have had difficulty finishing previous years' Bigfoots at all, to :> the point that I avoid them on principle, but this years would have to be :> bloody spectacular to beat those two breweries, and they didn't even :> place! Sorry I've "only" tried about a hundred different brews this year :> (Bigfoot '05 not having been one of them) but I have a hard time buying :> that as a gold medalist. : : Bill, take a look at who judges these beers. Over half the judges come from : Colorado and west (Mountain state judges are always the biggest group, no : real surprise). The East Coast (New England and the mid-Atlantic region) : puts up about 15% of the judges (really, I have the numbers, I'm not : guessing). I'm NOT saying that the judges are in a conspiracy, but what I am : saying is that people gravitate towards liking what they drink on a steady : basis. Western site for the festival, Western judges drinking Western beers : (and they do, much more so than we in the East drink solely Eastern beers), : Western beers win medals. I do not think that it's any surprising : coincidence that Denver and Boulder together have --over the entire history : of the GABF -- won more medals than any other city. Conspiracy? No, : inevitable playing of the odds. :

Of course there's no possibility that SN brewed up a small batch of Bigfoot just to enter at GABF, is there? Only the little brewpubs do that -- you know, the guys who never have the beer that won their gold medal when you seek them out. SN wouldn't do that now, would they?

I had the opportunity to be a steward at the World Beer Cup -- got to be in a room with a hell of a lot of bottles from a hell of a lot of places. I saw and handled bottles from well known commercial breweries with contents representing their well known flagship brews and said bottles had handwritten labels on them. So, at a minimum, some special care in handling was taken. I can only speculate as to whether the contents were drawn from a "regular" batch on not.

Last October my vacation conincided with the release of the GABF winners list. We made side trips to a lot of the winners sites and asked for he specific beers that had won medals. If memory serves me correctly I think maybe 30 to 40 percent of the beers we specifically asked for were unavailable.

Reply to
Bill Benzel

not true

Reply to
david darr

the catagories aren't what is restricting their creativity or imagenations.

Most commerical brewers don't take advantage of all the styles they could: they brew the same 3 or 4 beers all the time.

A commerical brewer is lucky if they get to brew a "seasonal" beer once every 3 months.

I've sometimes thought of becoming a commercial brewer, but then I've wondered if I'd be extremely bored with it.

As a homebrewer I can brew any kind of beer I want, any time I want. I think I've brewed just about every style in the BJCP guidelines, and rarely brew the same thing two years in a row.

And if you don't like being restricted to the classic catagories (or are not capable of brewing something within the classic guidelines), you can always brew enter into the "Specialty #23" catagory, which is no-holds-barred: "This is explicitly a catch-all category for any beer that does not fit

into an existing style category. No beer is ever "out of style" in this category, unless it fits elsewhere."

Cheers, John

Reply to
jswatson

*And in that neat summation, Lew has nicely quantified why I pay almost no attention to the GABF. Ever.

For those that don't know, Lew also wrote an article for American Brewer Magazine comparing beer festival entry conditions--for example, festivals/competitions that pay for the beer they pour versus competitions that make the brewers GIVE them the beer and then still charge them an entry fee! Very interesting and illuminating article--Lew, maybe you have it online or want to summarize it for us?

I find it notable that nearly all the "best" brewpubs and small breweries I've sampled beer from--i.e. places with a chance to win big at GABF--can't or won't enter the GABF. They either can't afford to (and if they did, what chances would they have against, say, 102 other "American IPAs" or 54 hefeweizens?) or are really cheesed off at the entry conditions. As one brewer told me, "I make beer to SELL, not give away at a party where they charge for it!" Now, certainly, there are exceptions to that "rule" of non-entry--Flossmoor, New Glarus, Dogfish, and Victory come to mind--but still, much of the best beer in the nation (Selin's Grove Brewing in Pa., anyone?) will never get a GABF medal.

Alexander D. Mitchell IV Baltimore columnist, Mid-Atlantic Brewing News--next issue on the presses momentarily........

Reply to
Alexander D. Mitchell IV

Probably not, no. Nor would they need to, Bigfoot being one of the most consistently drinkable and delicious barleywines every year, your odd opinion notwithstanding.

Reply to
Jon Binkley

Jon Binkley wrote: : : Bill Benzel wrote: : :> Of course there's no possibility that SN brewed up a small batch of :> Bigfoot just to enter at GABF, is there? Only the little brewpubs do :> that -- you know, the guys who never have the beer that won their gold :> medal when you seek them out. SN wouldn't do that now, would they? : : Probably not, no. Nor would they need to, Bigfoot being one of the : most : consistently drinkable and delicious barleywines every year, your odd : opinion notwithstanding. :

I didn't offer an opinion on Bigfoot, Jon. I have a nice stash back to the late '90s and enjoy an annual vertical.

What I offered was a perception of a possible reality. If that reality is unacceptable to you, fine, but the rest of my post, which you conveniently snipped, states my personal experience for offeing it as a possibility.

Reply to
Bill Benzel

oops. I'm not sure how I wound up posting that... I was trying to forward this to myself (using a new newsreader).

mea culpa from bad boy Dave

Reply to
david darr

Oops, wrong Bill B! Sorry!

Oh, I know it's possible, I've had similar experiences with medal-winning brewpubs. I just find it very unlikely that the likes of Sierra Nevada would bother doing it just for the GABF. More likely it was a fresh batch made for their Chico pub. Bigfoot really does stand out when it's fresh, and in a palate fatigue-plagued category like Barleywine, it's all about standing out.

Reply to
Jon Binkley

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