Not everyone abides by this rule. Some people I know, myself included, are offended when this occurs. It’s a form of celebration and agreement, and unless you are not happy about the ongoings surrounding the clinking of glasses, or you disagree with the person suggesting the toast, you better partake. It’s a matter of respect!

Whether or not you feel the need to touch your glass to someone’s, if a toast is made, a sip is taken.

With all the beer drinking and wedding going I’ve been doing lately, there have been a lot of glasses touching one another. I’m curious what history has to say for itself on this topic.

This is actual stock photography. Look at this guy!

In days of yore, it was common for everyone gathered for some sort of celebratory event to each drink from the same flagon or vessel in celebration. This communal experience has gone away for the most part – imagine everyone at a wedding passing around a giant pouch of wine, or waiting in line at a cask to drink from it’s spout. The communal aspect is now achieved with everyone drinking from their glasses at the same time.

What about the touching of glasses itself? Some say that this is a custom based on self preservation. According to these stories, the touching of glasses would cause a splash of the contents of the joined vessels to swap, essentially mixing each toaster’s glass with the other’s. Should one of the parties be attempting to poison the other, this ritual would cause both glasses to become tainted. Therefore, it was a safety precaution.

I’ve toasted many people, and I must say, I don’t think there has been any transfer of fluids through this particular activity. Not directly at least.

With the idea of swapping potentially poison laden beverages, it’s also been suggested that in said times of yore, people would actually pour a little of their glass into the other person’s, and vice versa. This sounds much more feasible, but doesn’t explain the clinking. One idea is that we clink to express trust in the other person, symbolically gesturing a swapping of beverages without the need to actually do so.

Then again, I’ve also hear that the entire poisonous idea is based on a plot twist in one of Alexandre Dumas’ books.

Another theory is based on some sensory psychology. Prior to the clinking of glasses, a toast among friends accessed four of the five senses. The addition of a pleasant clink completes the sensory set.

Whatever the true history of the toast, the clink, and the drink, I abide and imbibe, and I hope you do too. Do you follow these rules? What are some of your favorite toasts?

And with that, I bid adieu. May your house always be too small to fit all your friends.

Cheers!

Saturday

Bacon. Yet again, the day started with bacon. This is an important part of a day filled with beer. Mostly because it’s delicious. But I’m not a doctor.

There are two sessions on Saturday. The first is a member’s only session. Anyone can be a member if you pay extra. You get some cool other stuff too, like discounts at breweries across the country, access to a shorter line at GABF, and access to the Saturday afternoon session.

It’s worth it. The member’s only session is by far the best of the 4 sessions. There are about half the people, you get actual glass tasting cups (rather than plastic), oh, and the breweries tend to bring out the big guns. For example, The Bruery, on most nights, has a set time to share Black Tuesday and Oude Tart. Saturday afternoon, it’s just on. The entire time.

We started off the session seeking out some coffee stouts. When you enter GABF at 1pm, caffeine is a good thing.  That mission got sidetracked, and we mostly just pinballed around the event, stopping by booths that were offering special beers, like Cigar City‘s [something delicious with a name I can't recall], being poured at the Florida Brewer’s Guild booth. If you were there and remember what they were pouring, let me know in the comments.

Overall, this was by far the best session. It was much calmer, much easier access to the beer, and just a wonderful experience. If you’re a member or can afford to pony up and get passes to this session, I highly, highly recommend it.

Now, an early start to the session also means an early end, and by 5pm we were released back into the wild frontier of downtown Denver. Back to Fresh Craft we went! It was a good time for a little sit down, bite to eat, and some more tasty beverages.

Honestly, after 5 days of beer, 3 of which were all day long, we were starting to get a little worn out on beer. More on that later though. Mostly, I think we were just bloated with malt. Which is an interesting feeling.

We skipped the Saturday night session. For many reasons, but one of which was Dr. Bill’s Rare Beer Tasting at Falling Rock. For a few extra dollars, we gained access to Dr. Bill’s extensive collection and knowledge. Some of the best beers of the week were had in the dark recesses of Falling Rock.

Dr. Bill’s Rare Beer Tasting – Photo courtesy of DrinkEatTravel.com

The mini-tasting started off like a rare beer power hour. Every bottle that opened was full of something delicious, and the bottles were opening rapidly. Some people brought a few of their own bottles to add to the mix, like a barrel aged Coton.

Some other highlights included New Belgium’s Blackberry Whiskey Love and The Bruery’s Papier (aka Coton…). See more and some pictures on DrinkEatTravel.com.

It was around this time that Veronica Vega of Deschute’s, with medals pouring out of her pocket, voiced an opinion that many of us shared: “Is there any whiskey around here? I’m sort of full on beer.”

Note: the previous quote was paraphrased. Did I mention the rare beer power hour?

Well, as it turns out, there is whiskey nearby. At Whiskey Bar. So we drank whiskey.

The next day included more beer, more food, and a few trips to the airport.

The End.

Oh, right, the love story part.

Pretty much, GABF reaffirmed my love of beer, but more than that, of beer people. The craft beer community is absolutely wonderful, and the excitement is infectious. Making new friends isn’t hard. In fact, it’s hard not to. By the end of the week, every bar we walked into felt like an episode of Cheers.

People in the beer industry, in the beer media, and just into beer came together from all over the world to share some beers. And they left with new friends and a heightened appreciation for craft beer and the people who make it possible. It was an incredible time, and I’m proud and grateful to be a part of it.

Kell, me, and the boys from Mutineer Magazine – Photo courtesy of DrinkEatTravel.com

Friday

Bacon. Friday started off with bacon. In fact, I awoke – or at least got out of bed – to the smell of bacon.

The day just got better from there. First on the agenda was a fundraiser put on by the Ladies of Craft Beer, aptly named “Beer for Boobs“. This brunch and beer morning benefited breast cancer research, and was quite the scene! A line before noon at Fresh Craft. A Who’s Who in craft beer wearing pink ribbons, eating burritos, and drinking beer. And all for a great cause. Well done to the ladies of Ladies of Craft Beer.

Some of the Ladies of Craft Beer – Stevie Caldarola, Melissa Jernigan, Amie Mizell, Ashley Routson, Taylor Shaw, and Laurie Delk – Photo courtesy of Amie Mizeel and LadiesOCB

One highlight of this event was Rogue’s Sebbie Buhler pouring Rogue’s Chocolate Stout, and lacing it with Rogue’s Hazelnut Rum. At 11am.

The event sold out this year, and for good reason. I advise buying your tickets early to any Ladies OCB event you come across.

Of course, starting the day with bacon and beer begets more beer. Or more bacon. Josh, aka the Ale Infidel, and I went with beer.

So it was back to Great Divide! They had a Flanders Red on tap, the lounge rocking, and some of the crew from 23rd Street Brewing and Lost Abbey hanging around.

The Beer Wench and the Mutineer Magazine crew were having a beer release at Falling Rock, so it was back to Falling Rock we went.

With a pit stop at Star Bar. Temptation on tap was too… tempting!

There’s a pattern here. Hopefully you see it.

Once at Falling Rock, we were able to enjoy something that had not yet been for sale in Colorado: New Holland. The Beer Wench and Mutineer Magazine had collaborated with New Holland to create a Chai beer that was to be tapped at Falling Rock during GABF week, with proceeds going to A Child’s Right, an organization dedicated to bringing clean water to children in third world countries. In order to legally sell the beer in Colorado, New Holland had to get distribution rights as well. So, they brought two other beers. And two liquors.

I started with the gin.

Then the Mutinous Battle Chai was tapped, and I switched to that. It was delicious! And refreshing. And, delicious! A description:

The base beer was brewed with both pale and rye malts, spiced with an original interpretation of the traditional chai tea spice blend, and fermented with a Belgian wit yeast strand. Read more about it.

It was now time for a break. I mean, at this point in the tale, it’s about 3:30pm. And there was still a session to go to. You know, that little thing known a the Great American Beer Festival.

Insert break here.

The session itself was fun. On the shit-show level, it was a good order of magnitude higher than Thursday night, but that’s to be expected. We mostly bounced around, trying what we could and avoiding crowds where we could. We paid a lot of attention to Colorado Friday night. Yes, I live in Colorado. Yes, I can get most of the beers by driving an hour or less. Yes, I still drank a lot of Colorado beer Friday night.

Photo courtesy of DrinkEatTravel.com

Have you had the Friek from Odell? Or Depuceleuse from Avery? How about Bristol’s barley wine? Or some of the new guys on the scene, like Trinity, Rocky Mountain, and Strange? It’s a good place to live, let me tell you.

Toward the end of the session, the fatigue started to hit. Less hours of sleep than fingers on a hand, and more hours of bere and sun than… well.. there was a lot, my energy was dwindling.

So we went back to Star Bar.

I didn’t last long, especially considering that the street outside of Star Bar was in full Oktoberfest mode. Yes, another couple dozen thousand people were drinking at another event.

I did stay long enough to help Justin help our group of about 12 help him polish off a keg of Avery Altar Boy. And see my roommate Kell do an ongoing impression of Harry Caray.

Harry Caray is back!

Pretty boring Friday if you ask me…

Act 4 will be the conclusion of this long tale. Please stretch, grab some water, and return when the lights flicker.

Thursday

Bacon. This will become a theme. The day started with bacon.

After grabbing our press passes, tasting glasses (they expected us to hold on to them for three whole days!), and other accoutrements, there was one more trip to the airport; my apartment was unofficially a hostel. This trip brought back Alex and a box of beer. Before breaking into the mini-rare-beer-tasting-in-a-box, we split an Avery Quinquepartite. This is definitely the advised method for starting off your day (it was about 2pm).

Casa de PJ Beer Selection

Hunger was consuming our little crew, so we wandered downtown to get some deliciously heavy beers at Great Divide. On the way, the exquisite odor of Biker Jim’s Hot Dog Stand pulled us in, and we each devoured some non-traditional meat, with cream cheese and caramelized onions to boot.

Finally, after trudging almost a full mile through the mean streets of lower downtown Denver, we arrive at our destination: Great Divide Brewing Company.

Great Divide was pouring some delicious beers. In addition to their normal spread, they had some of last year’s barrel aged Hibernation, and some other treats. So we treated ourselves to a taste or few. We met up with the best beer couple of all time, Jordan and Renee Rounds, and ran into Cambria of DrinkEatTravel.com, and our crew began to grow some more.

Mind you, this is before the session. Courtesy of DrinkEatTravel.com

One of the most memorable quotes of… this hour was Cambria, having finished her beer:

We should go get another beer. Oh wait! There’s a beer festival!

And now we get to the first of the actual festival sessions. Like I’ve said before, GABF is more than just the festival itself. The entire town is buzzing (and buzzed). But, the focal point is the festival, so let’s look at that.

Thursday is a school night. So, of course, the Thursday night session is sold out and a bit crazy. Less so than Friday or Saturday night, by several orders of magnitude, but crazy nonetheless.

Every session of the festival is fun. I mean, it’s the Great American Beer Festival. Thursday has the added benefit that all the breweries still have all their beer. And as crowded and crazy as the festival can be, the crowd on Thursday nights is a little… calmer than Friday and Saturday nights.

Eager fans eagerly awaiting

We had trouble leaving the Midwest on Thursday night. There were just too many good beers to try. Every time we came close to leaving the region, we’d spot something new and awesome. There were standard styles, new styles, and styles that were super original. Founders Canadian Breakfast Stout was a solid start to the region.

My friend Todd from Copper Canyon Brewing was serving up an Apple Strudel Tripel, which was amazing. I’m not usually one for fruit beers, or beers with any sort of fruit, or fruit in the name, or anything fruit-related. But this one was fantastic, and was the first of many great fruit-based beers I tried at the sessions.

Another crazy awesome fruit beer was Shorts Brewing’s Key Lime Pie. Seriously. It tasted just like key lime pie.

One beer I couldn’t get enough of was Fat Head‘s Collaborative Evil. The Collaborative Evil project is a brewing experiment by a bunch of small breweries around the country. They each start with the same basic recipe, and each adds their own special ingredient to set their version apart from the rest. They then bring the beer to GABF and serve all the varieties under one big roof. I only sampled Fat Head’s version, but I did sample it multiple times. It was this smokey brownish liquid of awesome that felt like you just caught a whiff of a nearby campfire as the wind changed. It also reminded me of bacon.

I like bacon.

My roommate and I were lucky enough to have tickets to the Farm To Table Pavilion on Thursday night. This is a back room in the beer hall, which alone is nice. You get to sit down, and it’s quiet.

Oh, and there’s a bunch of different tables, each with a combination of food from local farms cooked by local chefs, paired with specially selected beer. Here’s an example:

Smoked Trout, Corn Cake & Tomatillo Chutney – Rogue Juniper Pale Ale

Pouring for Rogue was Sebbie Buhler, the face of Rogue Chocolate Stout, and a wonderful person to boot. I ran in to her a few more times during the week. More on that later.

Other things on the menu:

House Made Pork Sausage with Smoked Fingerling Potato, Mixed Cabbage & Pear Slaw - Victory Brewing – V12

Farm to Table - Smoked Mashed Potatoes!

The full menu is on the GABF site.

Next year, when you buy your tickets early, spring for the Farm To Table. Especially if you attend more than one general session. It was truly a wonderful experience.

I’m not going to list every beer I had during each session, for multiple reasons. For one, I don’t remember them all. Shame on me for not taking better notes. For another, it’s really just not that exciting to list every single beer I tried.

However, I must say that I visited The Bruery‘s booth every session. And every session I got at least one sample of Black Tuesday and Oude Tart. These two beers make me want to be a better brewer. They make me want to drink better beer whenever possible. They are such incredible examples of over the top beers done right.

As the Thursday session ended, cries went out across the crowd gathering outside by the Blue Bear (an actual blue bear, not a bar like some might think): Where do we go now?

Where does one go after a session of the Great American Beer Festival? With that many people, beers, and general instances of awesome (read: full kilted bagpipe parade), it’s hard to pick just one measly bar, even if said bar has 75 taps.

So obviously, we took on the town.

We ambled on over to Fresh Craft, one of the newest and coolest beer bars in Denver. Considering they opened a few weeks ago, it’s pretty incredible to see a line out the door and down the block. Thursday night was a special tapping of Avery’s Missionary, a guava infused version of The Reverend.

It was quickly time to clear out and let others get at the tap. The next logical step was Falling Rock. Falling Rock being the unofficial HQ for all festival attendees, it was a bit crowded. And angry. It’s pretty rare to a fight at a bar like Falling Rock, let alone 4. The chickens were restless, as they say. Or something.

Anyway, it quickly became apparent that another change of scenery was in order. A smaller version of our continuously evolving crew moved on, chins jutted and struts a strutting. Or something. Our destination was Whiskey Bar, but something happened along the way.

Star Bar happened along the way. It was karaoke! You know in movies when the two lead characters get in some sort of screaming match and then start making out? Star Bar is like that, with dive bars and craft beer being the two lead characters. And there was karaoke!

Love shack, baby. Love shack. Courtesy of The Wench.

I wish I had video of the girl singing Salt N Peppa’s Shoop, with two backup dancers. Epic.

Let me summarize the rest of the night, as this story is getting a bit ridiculous.

Whiskey Bar for some Pappy Van Winkle and other assorted delights, back to Star Bar for more friends, more karaoke, and more craft noms, a 3am search for food, breakfast delights at the Denver Diner, and to bed.

And another intermission.

I really don’t know how to describe my experience. People that I spent time with last week share this sentiment. If you haven’t been to a week long conference or festival about a topic you’re truly passionate about, with people who are equally obsessed, in an small industry of amazing individuals, well, I just don’t know what to say.

As one friend so eloquently suggested: Amazeballs.

But I’ll try to at least sum up what happened.

The following is a recap of the ridiculousness that was last week. It is not intended to portray what a sane person’s experience might be like, nor does it constitute any sort of recommendation on how to lead your life.

And some parts have been left out to protect the guilty.

Monday

Courtesy of @RoMills

My normal days are spent writing code for an awesome website based in Denver. Our offices are a block from Falling Rock, the bar that has a countdown clock for GABF and a tapping party to kick off the week every year. A block.

I try not to look at Twitter during the day, but I mistakenly opened it on Monday. And saw people start arriving. And drinking. A block from me.

So, on my way to kickball, I took a pitstop at Falling Rock for a Port Brewing Older Viscosity. Ran into the owner of Star Bar and the founders / brewers of Strange Brewing. Game. On.

After kickball, it was back to Falling Rock for some more tastiness. The place was already starting to fill up with beer geeks. We met some of the people who organize the entire festival, and I plan to interview one and find out just what goes in to pouring that much beer for that many people.

And after another bar with the kickball team, it was back to Falling Rock.

Tuesday

City O’ City held a homebrew competition, in which my roommate and I entered our blonde ale. Turns out a bunch of our bottles  went and got all oxidized, so we didn’t do so well. But it was super fun, and the people there were amazing. Left Hand took over the place and had a bunch of beers on tap. It was great going back and forth between homebrews and Left Hand.

A few of us moved on from City O’ with the intent of walking to Cheeky Monk to meet up with the infamous Beer Wench and the lovely Art of Beer. Of course, we made a pit stop at Uptown Brothers Brewing, one of the many new beer bars in Denver. The tap list had enough to entertain us.

Cheeky Monk was a party. It was packed, The Railbenders were rocking, and the beer was flowing. Oh, and the variety of mussels filled us up.

But of course this could not be enough. So off to Falling Rock we went. A good portion of the Brewer’s Association was there, along with Garret Oliver of Brooklyn Brewery and some other neat people.

Wednesday

Being an intelligent college graduate (yes I see the humor in this statement), I opted to take Thursday and Friday off of work. Wednesday being my Friday last week, I immediately celebrated the weekend with a trip to Great Divide. They created a beer lounge in their parking lot, complete with satellite bars and food, and some absolutely wonderful new merchandise. The fun people from The Hop Man were there, and helped us start off the night.

Alex likes Great Divide – Photo courtesy of DrinkEatTravel.com

I had to make an airport run later in the night, so one beer here, and one beer only. Hooray for 4 ounce tasters!

The aforementioned Art of Beer’s birthday happened to be on Wednesday. This girl knows how to share beer. She, with the incredible Dr. Bill by her side, hosted a few friends downstairs at Falling Rock, with incredible beer for all.

After a quick trip to the airport to retrieve Ms. Sarah Huska of Cicerone fame, and an incredibly hilarious yet somewhat frightening cab ride – it included stories of transvestites and shoes being used as weapons – it was back to Falling Rock. This time Shmaltz Brewing were celebrating their Bar Mitvah.

And then it was time for bed.

End Scene.

Thursday and the sessions after the intermission.

Denver Beer Week is officially under way. With dozens of events happening every day, Denver is flowing with beer, and will continue to do so through next weekend. Granted, Denver is generally beer-soaked. This week it’s just extra soaked. Shamwow soaked.

The festival itself is a behemoth of an event. Whether you’re attending one session or all four, there are some tricks to coming out alive. Or at least remembering your experiences.

Two super important rules:

First and foremost, Don’t Drive. Denver has a great public transportation system called RTD. We’ve also got a bunch of taxi services (The area code here is 303. Try all 3′s first – 303-333-3333 – then 7′s, then pick a random number). And a bike rental system. There is  so much beer and so many people drinking it that you have zero reason to drive. Don’t do it.

Second, eat. Food helps you stay sober longer, helps you get over hangovers, and helps you enjoy delicious nom noms in Denver. Each session is 4 1/2 hours long. Pace yourself and bring a pretzel necklace. You’ll thank me later.

Third, drink lots of water. Lots. We’re a mile high in the sky here. It’s extremely dry. If you dont touch a drop of alcohol, you should still be drinking about 8 pints of water a day, if not more. Drink a lot of water. A lot.

Get there early if you want to get in at 5:30. If there’s a line when you get there, don’t worry, it moves fast. But it will definitely seem intimidating. The people watching is part of the fun!

If you’re only attending one session, I advise you to get a map, fold it in half, put it in your pocket, and go try some delicious beer. Thursday and Saturday morning sessions are the calmest by far, and if you’re attending these, you can seek out the breweries you’ve been meaning to try. However, if you’re going Friday or Saturday night, your best bet is to find 2-3 of those sought after breweries right off the bat, and then just walk around.

Booths like Dogfish Head and Sam Adams (for their Utopias) tend to get crowded. If you really need that picture with Sam (of Dogfish Head, not Sam Adams. Sam Adams died a long, long time ago. Silly), then sure, go wait in line. Otherwise enjoy the beer. That’s why you’re here!

If you’re attending more than one session, focus on the beers that are likely to run out on your first visit, but still feel free to wander the aisles, trying what sounds good. There are more than 2,200 different beers being served in the festival hall. Since you’re not going to be able try them all, don’t fret.

The festival has a lot more going on than just the beer, too. Head over to the Silent Disco for some moves and some laughs. Check out the Pro-Am competition and taste some beers you’ve never had before, and will most likely never have again. Sit down for a quick talk at the Brewers’ Studio. I think I’ll check out Sour Power there. And definitely stop by the Beer and Food Pavilion to experience the power of brewers and chefs joining forces to excite your taste buds.

There are a bunch of other small excitements throughout the festival, and you’ll definitely see some that will make you laugh between tastes. The bagpipe crew is always a blast.

When the event wraps up at 10pm (4:30 for the afternoon session on Saturday and last call is 15 minutes before closing), downtown is flooded with festival attendees. If you’re still up for a beer, there are plenty of places to go within a few blocks walking distance. And a few different places are open until late for munchies.

Have fun, don’t worry if you lose your friends – they’ll be by the big blue bear  - and don’t drive.

And don’t drop your tasting glass, unless you like the spotlight.

But this is Denver. That’s just not enough beer. So pretty much every establishment with a liquor license throws down like prohibition just ended. Or started.

Pretty much the last time you'll see Falling Rock this empty until after GABF.

The Denver Travel and Visitor Bureau has a great website that showcases pretty much every inch of the Mile High City and the surrounding area. They have a list of beer events happening between September 10th and 19th that is.. long. A quick count – me copying and pasting the entire list into excel and seeing how far down the list goes – shows over 300 events. Have fun parsing through that.

That list isn’t even complete! What I’m trying to say is that there are a lot of events that week.

Here are some to pay attention to.

• Fri 9/10 Brew at the Zoo – 40 breweries and a suds safari. Seriously.
• Sat 9/11 Great COntenders at Wynkoop – Last year’s winner, this year’s contenders, and rare beers too.
• Sat 9/11 New Belgium Tour de Fat – Bikes. Beer. Bands. Other awesomeness.
• Sun 9/12 Beer Pairing Brunch – Strange @ Steubens – Dessert will be a Cherry Bomb Stout Float!. Limited seating.
• Mon 9/13 Beer and Cheese Pairing – Boulder Beer @ Root Down
• Tue 9/14 City O’ City Homebrew Competition – 5 Judges – 3 pro brewers, one beer sommelier, and the owner of City O City
• Wed 9/15 Beer Pairing – Mountain Sun @ Osteria Marco – Just like it sounds. Two great establishments pairing up.
• Wed 9/15 Rare Beer Tasting at Rackhouse Pub – $25, Avery, Great Divide, Breckenridge, Bristol, Wynkoop.
• Fri 9/17 Beer for Boobs Brunch at FreshCraft – Great beer, great women, great cause, get on it!
• Fri 9/17 Mutineer + New Holland @ Falling Rock – Chai Beer. Made by the Mutineers. I hear @thebeerwench had a heavy hand…
• Fri 9/17 Beer Advocate Does Denver – Join the boys from BA in a romp around town, hitting restaurants, bars and breweries.
• Sat 9/18 Oktoberfest 5k/10k – Don’t worry, there’s beer afterward.
• Sat 9/18 Gastravaganza @ Breck Brew – Street food and local beer. By the way, our street food is ahhmazing
• Sat 9/18 British Bulldog World Football & Beer – Awesome football (soccer, not NFL), great food, great beer. 7-11am happy hour.
• Week Long – Sweet Action Beer Ice Cream – All week long, Sweet Action is making ice cream with local brewery’s beer.
• Week Long – Avery Special Tappings – I don’t know if the list I received is public knowledge quite yet… But, GABF week, Avery will be tapping some amazing beers. Example: a 2006 cask of Samael.
• Week Long – Star Bar Big Beers – Much like Avery, the list I was given doesn’t seem to be public. But daaaamn. Their list of Avery rivals Avery’s list.
• Week Long – Great Divide – Beer Garden w/Apaloosa – Great Divide doesn’t serve food. So all week, Apaloosa Grill will be serving in the parking lot. Win.
• Week Long – Cheeky Monk – As if this bar wasn’t enough of a draw on a Tuesday… Every night, something awesome is happening.
• Week Long – Falling Rock – This is pretty much guaranteed to be awesome every minute during the week. I don’t have a list of events, but no matter what, if you go to Falling Rock, I guarantee something awesome will happen. And you, with the creepy Quagmire giggle.. No, not that.

Other places to keep an eye on: Euclid Hall, Colt & Gray, Big Game Denver, every other bar with a 303 area code…

As I learn about more awesome events, I’ll update this page. If you have an event that should be on this short list, leave me a comment or email me at pj [dot] hoberman [at] gmail [dot] com. And let me know where you’re going! I’ll be here all week. All year, really. But all week.

At the same time (time being a term used to describe my explanation of history, not history itself), beer has highs and lows. As we say at the homebrew shop, if you can boil water, you can make beer. Making good beer, however, is a little more involved. But, the fact is, making beer isn’t hard. It’s why it’s been around for so long. It’s a way to make dirty water clean and taste good, with some fun after effects.

Some good beer has been around for a long time. Orval was born in 1070 AD. That’s almost a millennium ago. That’s about four times older than America. Correction: As an astute reader pointed out, construction on what would become Orval began in 1070. The beer has only beer around since 1931. Less fun, but still a long time.

Meanwhile, Budweiser is the most sold beer in the world. And today, August 30th, 2010, craft beer sales are growing faster than their macro competitors. Significantly faster. And I’m using significant in the true scientific 5% sense. In fact, macro sales have been down the past few years. And craft – as defined by the Brewer’s Association – is up.

Craft brewing has been around for a long time, but it’s had a recent resurgence. Sierra Nevada, arguably one of the forerunners of craft beer in America, started in 1979. 31 years ago. Now, while I don’t expect to be mature when I turn 31, it looks like craft beer is starting to mature.

In the past few months, some of the bigger, older, more well known, and sometimes the obscure, but in general, some microbreweries have been bought up by bigger companies. There have been mergers, acquisitions, and other business terms that don’t belong on a beer blog.

Anchor Brewing has been rolled up into Anchor Brewers & Distillers LLC, a group owned by the guys who took Skyy from a no name to one of the most recognized vodka brands in the world. Included in the portfolio are Junipero Gin and Old Potrero Whisky. Read more in the press release and article.

The Craft Brewers Alliance Inc. (CBAI) recently purchased Kona Brewing outright, adding Kona to their portfolio of Redhook Brewery and Widmer Brothers Brewing. CBAI also distributes Goose Island, though Goose Island is not wholly owned by CBAI. Read more.

North American Breweries purchased International Brewers United, and the combined portfolio includes Pyramid Breweries and Magic Hat Brewing.

And hell, even Pabst was bought by a Greek businessman recently. But they were going out of business. So there’s that.

On top of all these major acquisitions, many, many, many smaller craft brewers have been merging or buying out other breweries.

This goes a bit beyond collaboration brews.

It looks like the craft beer industry is maturing. While there has always been a tipping point, where a craft brewery goes from squeezing every penny out of every pint to having excess cash to spend on growth and marketing, it appears that craft breweries are starting to be recognized as legitimate businesses. Less than a half dozen breweries make up over 90% of the total volume and dollars of beer sold in America, and more than 1,400 breweries make the 10% left. But of those 1,400, a few are breaking through and being considered a worthy investment.

I’m not an economist. Or a speculator. Or really anyone with any sort of intelligence for this level of business. But, that qualifier aside, it appears that craft beer is getting the recognition it’s been striving for. For better or for worse. Good beer isn’t just a fad. It isn’t just a trend. It’s here to stay, it’s growing rapidly, and people like it.

Many industries go through this change. Skiing had a similar roll up recently, with almost all the brands being rolled up into three companies. And then another 50 sprouted in the wake.

I don’t know if it’s a good thing that some of the biggest, most well known, most consumed breweries are being bought up, rolled up, and combined. It’s been happening for a while, and some breweries, like Unibroue, continue to make amazing beer under corporate rule. Did you know they’re owned by Sapporo?

Maybe this will make good beer more accessible. Maybe it will be the end of this phase of the craft beer revolution.

Or maybe we will soon experience better beer than the world has ever seen. Better beer than you or I can possible imagine.

Or maybe nothing will change at all.

What do you think?

The festival is sold out, but there are always tickets for sale on Craigslist and other such sites. But whether you got tickets or not, Denver has a lot of beer to offer outside the hallowed – scratch that – beer-drenched hall that is the Festival. Why, just within a few miles of the Convention Center, there are more than a dozen beer-centric establishments.

Before I get into what those are, I want to impress upon you that Denver does in fact have more to offer than just great beer. We have whiskey too!

This town is wonderful, and I implore you to explore it, should you find the time and the sobriety. Our local Yelpers are fantastic, so trust that site if you need a quick lookup. Grab a reindeer  or wild boar hot dog, see a show or a show or a show, grab a book, or maybe even take a hike. And if you like dive bars – and I love dive bars – we have a few of those too.

But, in the end, you’re here for the beer. So let’s get to that.

I made a map on Google maps of about 15 beer places within 2-3 miles of the Convention Center. There are hundreds, if not thousands of them within 100 miles of downtown, so I decided to stick to walk-able and bike-ride-able from downtown. If you want a more complete map of the region, check out beermapping.com. Oh, and speaking of bicycles, we have an awesome bike rental program too.

Click the map to see the whole thing

In no particular order, here are the establishments I’ve pinned on the map. If you know of another I should add, please let me know. Click on the map for addresses, directions, etc.

Falling Rock
75 taps, 120 bottles, events every day, this is generally a good place to be. Full writeup.

Great Divide
It’s no secret I love this place. I think I mention them in every single article I write. Do yourself a favor and go there.

Euclid Hall
Brand new spot in town, tons of awesome beer and food. My friend Ryan is pimping out their tap list.

Mellow Mushroom
New location right downtown. 36 beers on tap, from the cold yellow fizzy to the crazy Belgians nom noms.

Strange Brewing
They just got started a few months ago and are rocking out. Go try their brews and support new micros.

Star Bar
Old dive turned into new dive with craft beer and liquors. You didn’t have a good time if you didn’t stop here.

Breckenridge Brewpub
One of the biggest production breweries around here, and right next to Coors Field to boot!

Cheeky Monk
Tons of Belgian awesomeness on tap and in bottles, plus great food. Try the mussels! Full writeup.

Vine Street Pub
Part of the Mountain Sun family, this place is one of the coolest spots in Denver. Great beer and guest taps too.

Thin Man
Funky little bar with a coffee shop attached. Right next to Vine Street.

Rackhouse Pub
I go here a bit too often. Amazing beer, liquor, food, and people. Full writeup.

Colt & Gray
I told the bartender I liked scotch, whiskey, and new things, and he made me a pre-prohibition style Old Fashioned. Amazing.

Wynkoop
Started by our current mayor in 1988 and still rocking right downtown.

Uptown Brothers Brewing
Yet another new beer place in Denver. Tons of good stuff now, brewing their own soon.

Pints Pub
Largest single malt scotch collection in.. America? At least this side of the Mississippi. They brew there as well. Full writeup.

Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV

Raise your hand if you like bacon.

Good.

Hangovers suck. But they happen. If you like good beer, like going to bars, like scotch, like… ya, there’s a lot of ways to get a hangover.

Eventually, that gross feeling will go away. And everyone experiences said gross feeling differently. And just as different are people’s cures.

Personally, I like to eat and listen to really vocal-bass-heavy music. Give me some Magnetic Fields and Louis Armstrong or give me death.

Eating helps, if you can handle it. It doesn’t really matter all the much what you eat, it just helps to eat. Consuming some delicious munchies kicks the cobwebs off your metabolism, which starts a bunch of digestive and processing activities throughout your body. Like your liver.

Since a good portion of a hangover is the toxins leftover from breaking down alcohol, an active metabolism will help clear those toxins that much faster.

Greasy, crunchy, burnt food – read: bacon – may or may not help as well. One theory I’ve heard is that burnt meat is like taking charcoal tables. Take it or leave it, but eating in general does help. This is science.

A little nip of whatever bit you, aka The Hair of the Dog, is an interesting remedy. It will in fact stop the hangover you’re experiencing, but only for now. Granted, you could slowly ween yourself off the alcohol, but in general, drinking to cure a hangover just postpones the hangover.

A dark room, air conditioner, comfy couch, and V for Vendetta or the soothing voices of professional golf announcers also works.

Rehydrating during all of this is also a good idea. Water, or an IV drip of Pedialyte, should do the trick.

But the best, most efficient, fastest, and straight up awesomsauciest method out there is to get your endorphins flowing. Go for a run in the blazing hot sun. Stub your toe on a spiked wall. Or, take the more fun approach: have sex. Of course, this requires a significant other nearby or someone willing to cure you of your pain, but hey, win win really.