BrewDog at the Great American Beer Festival

We know how you all love to drink amazing American Craft Beer in our bars, so recently we sent two of our very lucky HQ employees, Matt and Tony, to Denver, Colorado for the Great American Beer Festival. They went to sample, source and acquire more awesome beer for our bars. They went on this trip to cement relationships with awesome breweries like Stone, Firestone Walker and Left Hand, but to also try and find new and exciting beers that have never been seen before on this side of the pond.

For those of you who have not heard of it before, the GABF is one of the biggest beer festivals in the world, showcasing over 600 US breweries and more than 3000 beers. The festival also has a very good way of allowing you to sample as many beers as possible by serving only in 1oz (Around 30ml) pours, meaning that you get the taste without ending up suffering for it. The weekend is also made up of various seminars, food pairings and panels about craft beer and the industry. For the entire weekend, Denver is awash with various ‘Meet The Brewer’ events and ‘Brewer vs Brewer Tap Takeovers’ making it an ideal place to make contact with new potential breweries and let them know how eager we are to bring their beer to the customers of our bars.

Whilst in Denver the guys also caught up with our good friends at Oskar Blues, and held a mini launch of our collaboration beer Shipwrecker Circus at a great craft beer bar in Denver. Over 40 people turned out after the first session of the GABF to meet our intrepid travellers, some of the guys from Oskar Blues and try the amazing beer we made together.

Here’s a list of the nine coolest things the guys experienced while in Denver:

1. After 18 hours of travelling, their first beer was shotgunning a can of Deviant Dales with Chris Katechis from Oskar Blues, otherwise known as ‘The Gubna’. Recognise the nickname?

2. The Jazz Cab – A simple taxi journey became a bizarre experience as the stereo switched to avant garde jazz and the driver handed out maracas and bongos. Seek it out; your life will be immeasurably better.

3. If Greg Koch wants to steal your fries, you damn well let him.

4. Arriving at Freshcraft for a ‘Hangover Breakfast’ at 9am, only to be immediately presented with a barrel aged G’Knight and a Bacon infused Bloody Mary.

5. Visiting the Hops + Heifers farm and meeting some lovely piglets. And 4 hours later eating one of their brothers or sisters at Homemade Liquids and Solids, Oskar Blues’ barbecue restaurant.

6. Finding a beard that actually beat Bowman's and then finding the same brewery love Taxidermy as much as we do (Black Bottle Brewery from Fort Collins, CO).

7. Discovering that Randy Mosher is as much of a legend as his name would suggest.

8. Walking through the convention centre for 2 hours and still not having seen every bar at the festival.

9. The beer we brewed with Elysian for the BrewDogs TV picking up a medal!

Festival photos © Brewers Association