Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Thursday night #GABF plan

A couple weeks ago (it is hard to believe it has already been almost two weeks) after the GABF map came out, I started to discuss My #GABF Game Plan. I think I am ready to finalize my plan for the Thursday night session of GABF.



  • 4:30 pm ... leave work and drive to light rail station.
  • 5:30 pm ... enter the event through the members only entrance.
  • 6:00 pm ... (hopefully before. perhaps after) ... get tasting cup and head straight to D18 and try New Glarus Brewing Company's Belgium Red.
  • 6:00 pm - 6:30 pm ... sample beers between D18 and the Brewers Studio Pavilion. *
  • 6:30 pm - 7:00 pm ... attend the "Celebrating 30 Years of the GABF" presentation by Charlie and friends.
  • 7:30 pm ... head over to J3 Heretic Brewing company to say hi to Jamil.
  • 7:45 pm ... try to hit some more beers on my list **
  • 8:45 pm ... get to the bathroom so I'm ready to leave at 9pm.

 * beers to try to find 6-6:30:
  • D21- Victory Prima Pils
  • C19 - Goose Island Bourbon County Stout
  • C3 - Bell's Hopslam, Bell’s Expedition Stout
  • G1 - Deschutes The Abyss
  • G19 - Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter
** beers to search after Heretic (J3):
  • Any I missed between 6 and 6:30.
  • J30 - Lost Abbey Angel’s Share
  • F36 - Russian River Blind Pig
  • F1 - Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine
  • A7 - Ballast Point Sculpin IPA
  • A4 - Alesmith Speedway Stout

Seems reasonable for Thursday night. A bunch depends on how quickly I can get in. A bunch depends on how crowded some of these booths are. My Friday night game-plan depends on how I do Thursday night.

If I have time, I'm also going to check out booth E1 to try some of the pro-am beers.

Wish me luck.

2 comments:

  1. Suggestion: Since you can buy Victory Prima Pils, Deschutes the Abyss and Goose Island BCS here in Colorado - wait in lines instead for beers you can't get here. I've also seen Angel's Share and RR Blind Pig at my local Colorado beer store too.

    I'm going to hit up just the beers I can't buy here and one's I haven't had before. Then if I have time left over near the end of the session I'll visit beers I've enjoyed in the past.

    Still - everyone has their own plans and goes for what they like. Seeing how you only get 1oz of each beer I tend not to want to wait around any 1 booth for more than 5 minutes.

    I once waited in line during the 2009 GABF for 20 minutes to try The Bruery's Black Tuesday. Yes it was a very tasty imperial stout - but thinking about it, waiting that long for 1oz of beer made me miss out on so many other beers with little or no lines that I wanted to try too. Sometimes you find the best surprises at booths with no lines at all. That's half the fun.

    Perhaps I'll see you there Thursday night. I'll be wandering around.

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  2. You are probably right, Dave.

    One thing about Thursday night is that its main purpose is reconnaissance for the rest of the weekend. Long lines are avoided. I save those breweries for the members-only session. We'll see how it goes.

    I just saw http://www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com/at-the-festival/beers-at-the-festival/

    I need to go through it to see which beers each place actually has.

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