The Best of the 2019 Great American Beer Festival
October 8, 2019
The 2019 Great American Beer Fest was an absolute blast, one of the best beer festivals we’ve had the pleasure of attending. Yes, there are boatloads of people, but we learned as we went, avoided lines, frequently hit the many water stations, ate at some of the scrumptious food trucks, and found the entire affair to be a well-organized delight. Four straight days, over 17 hours of drinking over 300 beers. What could go wrong (other than possible liver failure)?
We sampled everything from A to ZwanzigZ in pursuit of embracing old classics and discovering new favorites. There were *thousands* of beers being poured over the four days, so we obviously didn’t come close to drinking everything we thought looked good– so if your favorite isn’t on here, there’s a very good chance we didn’t get to it. The only task more intimidating than trying to drink so many beers is trying to choose favorites when *so much* of what we tried was fantastic. We chose only one beer per brewery in an attempt to spread the love to as many deserving breweries as possible.
Thanks again to the Brewers Association, the volunteers, and everyone there who welcomed us into the madness with open arms, answered all our questions, and happily geeked out at length over the sensational craft beer being poured throughout the convention center. We hope to see you all again next year. Now, without further ado… OUR FAVORITES!
Adroit Theory: Dia de Los Muertos
One of our Virginia favorites, it’s no surprise that Adroit Theory brought the stout heat, giving you coffee, macadamia nut, and coconut— and then putting it over the edge with a splash of honey at the end.
Aftershock’s tasty red ale, Red Alert, took home a bronze… but our heart belongs to the beer that won us over in Temecula: the Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Ale, or O.R.C.A. They tell you it’s a liquified oatmeal raisin cookie, and sure enough, they aren’t lying.
Barbarian Brewing: 2018 Elixir of the Gods
It’s only a matter of time before Barbarian develops the sort of nationwide reputation that leads to massive lines at festivals like these. Judging by their pours at GABF, not only do they make elite-level hazy IPAs, they make some of the best sour beers in the country. The 2018 Elixir of the Gods is aptly named, an incredible pomegranate sour.
This Indiana brewery delivered one of the most distinctive IPAs of the festival, their Thai.P.A., which gives you the hoppy flavor you want from an IPA mixed together with ginger and lemongrass. It may not be for everyone, but it was definitely for us.
Beachwood Blendery: Dia de Los Mangoes
Picking your favorite Beachwood beer is like picking your favorite episode of Seinfeld. There are just too many classics to feel confident with your choice. We’ll go Dia De Los Mangoes this weekend, as this spicy sour capped off Friday night perfectly.
Begyle Brewing: Barrel Aged Imperial Pajamas
We could’ve given this to their barleywine, the terrific Batch 663, but it felt most appropriate to praise their tremendous barrel aged stout, Imperial Pajamas, considering it won the Gold Medal for Wood- and Barrel-Aged Strong Stout at GABF this year.
Black Husky Brewing: Sparkly Eyes
If you think IPAs are too fruit juicy nowadays, then Black Husky has the remedy. This imperial IPA packs a big spruce punch so intense that you’d think they fermented it inside an actual tree. It may not be on trend, but it’s distinctive… and it sure is delicious.
Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales: Roswell: Sign
Black Project is making some of the best, most distinct wild ales available on the open market today. This lambic-inspired Roswell series eschews the acidic tartness of other barrel-aged wilds in order to focus more on bringing out the fruit. Sign, the blueberry variant in this series, was the best of the day, packed with bold blueberry flavor the likes of which we rarely get to taste in a beer.
After singing endless praise for Boxing Bear’s Chocolate Milk Stout, one of the best in the country, we’ll instead express our newfound love for Murkito, a hazy pale that also ranks among the best we’ve ever had.
We’ve written before about our love for Brink’s Hold the Reins, perhaps the best English mild that we’ve had since starting this website. Apparently, the GABF judges agree, giving it *another* medal — Gold in 2019, Silver in 2018 — and granting Brink a second *consecutive* Very Small Brewery of the Year title.
This almost went to their gin barrel aged Imperial Cabinet collaboration with Jester King… but we lucked out and arrived right as the timed pours of the 2019 Grey Monday hit. This hazelnut beast ran out quickly— which, given its quality, makes sense.
Cannonball Creek Brewing: Vladimir Brutin
Cannonball Creek won two medals at this year’s Great American Beer Festival: the Trump Hands Session IPA and, in an appropriate pairing, their Vladimir Brutin Brut IPA. Vladimir Brutin is dry and crisp, one of the best brut IPAs we’ve ever had.
Central Waters Brewing: Maple Barrel Stout
We’re normally hesitant with maple stouts— but Central Waters has mastered the art, giving their stout the perfect balance of maple syrup flavor without going overboard with sickly sweetness. Other pastry stout brewers should take note.
Claremont Craft Ales: Station 101
It’s always nice seeing a brewery you know to be reliably good at a festival when you’re trying dozens of new breweries— it can serve as a comforting home base of sorts. We’ve enjoyed Claremont’s work plenty since moving to LA, and we were delighted when we saw Station 101, their delicious, stiff, dank red IPA win Gold in the Double Hoppy Red Ale category.
This concoction by CO-Brew earns its place on the list by somehow harnessing very strong jalapeno smell and taste… but somehow *avoiding* the spiciness one would expect. As a result, you get crisp taste, strong smell, but a light finish– an ideal jalapeno kolsch.
Commonhouse Aleworks: Vertical Shear
You may not often need a rich and warming coconut stout when you’re living in South Carolina, but if you do, this Commonhouse Aleworks stout has you covered. As the note said at the table, “No, seriously. Lots of coconut.”
Cosmic Eye Brewing: Gaze of the Basilisk
We don’t admittedly get many beers from Nebraska… but Cosmic Eye’s selection at GABF make us consider whether we should take a trip. The Gaze of the Basilisk is a tasty German black lager, crisp and roasty. We could pound these all winter.
Dos Luces Brewing: Pulque Metztli
Pulque is a corn-and-agave-based beer, one of two specialties at Dos Luces Brewing. The Pulque Metztli was especially compelling, combining the sweet taste of cinnamon with a sour kick. This was our first experience with Pulque, and if it all tastes this good, we’re down for more.
Fiction Beer Company: Antiquarian No. 6 With Blackberries
If we divided these lists into categories, Fiction would’ve made the list for Best Sour, Best IPA, *and* Best Stout. That’s just how good Fiction Beer Company is. We have special affinity for their incredible Antiquated No. 6 with Blackberries, because we love our sours extra sour, and this beauty delivers the goods.
The line was often longer than we prefer for Fremont Brewing, but thankfully we found a gap or two to sneak in and have some samples. Their beers were terrific across every style— we raved about them in our Day 1 round-up— but we keep coming back to the thick toffee and caramel flavors of their Brew 3000 barleywine. They’ve moved into our “instant purchase” list when we see them in can and bottle shops in the future.
Gezellig Brewing: All the Goodness
We’re still not sure where Newton, Iowa is, but we know wherever it is, it’s Saison Season. Gezellig Brewing brought Midwestern friendliness to their table and classic deliciousness to our glasses. All the Goodness is a saison giving you a lovingly complex mix of passionfruit, grape, and spices— and we cheered when we watched Gezellig take home *two* medals Saturday morning.
Great Notion Brewing: Jammy Pants
C’mon. It’s Great Notion. It’s Jammy Pants.
Happy Basset Brewing: Munsterlander Maibock
Happy Basset not only is in serious contention for Best Table Decoration with their giant dog statue, it’s also home to terrific beer. We were especially fond of the bock– malty, smooth, and surprisingly strong at nearly 8% ABV. This dog’s bock is better than its bite. (Sorry.)
Icarus Brewing: Touching the Sun
This New Jersey microbrewery is building its rep on its IPAs, and it brought a group of tasty boys to GABF for us to sample. All were good, but the Touching the Sun triple IPA struck the best chord, giving us a luscious gulp of boozy juice. All Russell wrote in his notes was one word: “Big.”
The best way to get on our radar? Win two medals at GABF, both for tart/sour styles. While we also enjoyed their dank double IPA, Freshy Pow Pow, the Triad, a silver medalist in the Belgian-Style Lambic or Sour Ale category, captured our hearts with its tart funky cleanness.
Kern River Brewing Company: Side Hike
Kern River’s been a favorite of ours at previous festivals— and it seems the GABF judges agree, giving them a whopping four (not including Brewery Group of the Year) medals and naming them Brewery Group of the Year. Hard to pick our favorite from their pour list, but we’ll go with the Side Hike, their magnificent hoppy red.
Oftentimes, spicy beers either don’t put enough kick in their spice… or they aim to roast your tongue. (See the special awards at the bottom for more on this.) Künstler toes that line perfectly with their spicy chocolate porter, which brings the heat but doesn’t send you racing for a cup of milk.
Another standout of the festival, Libertine has us planning a return visit to SLO ASAP. We dug their Pacific Ocean salted gose and It’s Cobblerin’ Time, their delightfully-named cinnamony concoction… but end of the day, we love a perfectly executed classic, and the Framboise gives any raspberry sour lover what they crave.
Liquid Mechanics: Pocket Full of Shells
We got the very last pour of Pocket Full of Shells at GABF. The convention center’s loss was our gain. While we loved their stout Purveyor of Chaos, the beauty of obtaining that bourbon barrel aged coconut and vanilla treasures mere seconds before it eluded our grasp? Priceless.
Lupulin’s reputation for world-class hazy IPAs is well-known— we’ve sought out Blissful Ignorance for our beer fridge for exactly this reason. This was our first time trying Hooey, and oo wee, did we love Hooey. It’s got big juicy hop flavor, but even beyond that, the aromas are so wonderfully fragrant that you can smell the hops while the person standing next to you is drinking it.
Lost Cabin Brewing: Lord Grizzly
We called Lost Cabin’s Lord Grizzly Scotch Ale on Thursday “an ale whose ferocity matched the headware sported by its servers.” While we want to continue to rave about how delicious Lost Cabin’s beer is— we stopped by again Friday night to have everything else on their pour list— we don’t think we can top that turn of phrase. So there it is again, along with a salute to these mad South Dakotans.
Maplewood Brewing: Son of Juice
We raved about Charlatan in our GABF preview article, but now it’s time to give Maplewood’s IPAs proper love. Son of Juice is a soft hazebomb, gentle in its delivery but big in its flavor. At a time when the Chicago hazy scene is growing in acclaim (see Old Irving below), Maplewood’s hazies stand alongside the best of the bunch.
Modern Times: Mega Devil’s Teeth
We went back to Modern Times’s table every session for their special barrel-aged releases, all of which could’ve made this list. Our brains keep going back to Thursday’s special, the BBA Mega Devil’s Teeth with Coconut and Macadamia Nut. Even by their own impossibly high barrel aged stout standards, they’ve outdone themselves here.
Moonraker Brewing: Foam Walker
Everyone knows Moonraker for its exceptional hazy IPAs, but we were especially taken aback by the Foam Walker, their Nitro Coffee Stout, creamy and salty and rich. If you see these cans available, buy as many as possible. Also buy their IPA cans. Or any cans of theirs. We buy a lot of Moonraker cans.
More Brewing: Arketype: Coco Flux
Easily one of the best breweries of the festival, they brought one of the best hazy IPAs and one of the best pales of the weekend… but the Arketype: Coco Flux is one of the best beers of the weekend of any style, with chocolate and coconut flavors so rich that they’re currently throwing election fundraisers.
Morgan Territory Brewing: Old Diablo
Emily wrote down adoringly in her notes about Morgan Territory’s Old Diablo, “This is a boozy caramel apple.” The GABF judges seemed to agree, as they gave Old Diablo the gold medal for Barley Wine-Style Ale the next day. Because after all, who wouldn’t love a boozy caramel apple?
Odd Side Ales: Rye Hipster Brunch Stout
The winner of Specialty Beer (its second medal in three years in this category), Rye Hipster Brunch Stout stands out by giving you the coffee and maple syrup you’d expect, but then keeping you on your toes with some rye spice. It’s a deserving champion.
Old Irving continued Chicago’s dominance over the haze categories at GABF, winning the Gold for Hazy or Juicy IPA, the most competitive award of the weekend. It’s a worthy victor, light and tropical, perfect outdoors by the pool or indoors seeking shelter from Chicago wind.
Ology Brewing: Juice Lab: Passionfruit, Blood Orange, Raspberry (PBR)
We’re not sure any single beer at the festival made an impact on us the way Ology’s Juice Lab did. We wrote about it Thursday… then we had it again Friday, and again both Saturday sessions. It’s intensely fruity, has real sour bite, and was phenomenally refreshing. Everything at Ology was fantastic— again, we ask, how did Ology not have a line stretching around the corner??— but the Juice Lab has been burned into our tongues and our hearts.
Oozlefinch Craft Brewery: Riveting Conversation
Oozlefinch was yet another brewery that deeply impressed us at GABF across the board, giving us a terrific series of pours, from a top-notch hazy to a dirty martini gose, but the Riveting Conversation oddly but effectively combined our love for scotch with our love for sour, making one of the more memorable beers of GABF.
Orpheus Brewing: an air portends
We definitely heard word-of-mouth from multiple people about Orpheus Brewing and their gargantuan barrel-aged wonders. Everything hit the spot, but an air portends was a mammoth mixture of bourban barrel, chocolate, vanilla, and roasted macadamia nuts. We’d put it on the same tier as Grey Monday and Mega Devil’s Teeth when it comes to big barrel booze bombs.
pFriem Family Brewers: La Mure
pFriem shouldn’t be a surprise inclusion here— they’re renowned for being one of the best breweries in the country, they’ve won countless awards, and they even occupy space on our shelf. They ran out of beer before the final session even began! We *nearly* put their terrific pilsner on here… but the La Mure answers the question “how do tart wine-soaked blackberries taste?” The answer: “Very good.”
Pontoon Brewing: Snozzberries Crumble
Readers know how we normally feel about kettle sours here on this site, but Pontoon Brewing has done the exceedingly difficult and made… *a good kettle sour.* It’s mildly tart, but it’s full of of creamy fruit juice with a dash of cinnamon— it’s like if a beer and a piece of homemade pie had a baby.
Port City Brewing: German Pilsner
Upon a recent visit to Alexandria, we had the pleasure of visiting Port City and trying their high-quality crispy boys. We were delighted to have them again at GABF and even *more* delighted to see them win the gold medal for Kellerbier or Zwickelbier.
Prison City Brewery: Wham Whams
We were tremendously impressed with this Auburn, New York brewery, whose pour list peaked with this remarkable coconut stout, which delivered the richest coconut flavor of the weekend. In Russell’s notes, he simply wrote, “I’m drinking a coconut.”
Red Horn Brewing: Barista Theory: Pour Over
Their Pure Faith berliner weisse could’ve made this list, but if you take your coffee black, you may find this coffee stout from Red Horn a personal favorite. It’s smooth, but it’s not terribly sweet or creamy— just delivers pure uncut coffee flavor.
One of the best breweries of the weekend, Snake River brought masterful beer ranging from lagers to stouts, but this was our first encounter with Speargun, their GABF-medal winning coffee stout, and it did not disappoint, standing out in a festival with many A-level coffee stouts.
Speciation Artisan Ales: Abiogenesis
We’d heard Thursday evening that Speciation ran out of beer after something like 90 minutes. So naturally, when we saw no line early in Friday’s session, we leapt at the chance and tried everything. The hype is earned: Speciation is making some of the festival’s best sours— and Abiogenesis, a foeder-aged sour with passionfruit and strawberries, is one of the most impressive jewels in its crown.
3 Floyds Brewing: Pillar of Beasts
If you asked Russell what’s on his dream Christmas list, he’d probably say “drinks with Nicolas Cage” or “salted caramel barleywine from 3 Floyds.” One out of two ain’t bad! So we caught 3 Floyds early, before the line got unmanageable, and basked in the glory of the Pillar of Beasts. (Pillar of Beasts would be a great Nic Cage movie title.)
Three Weavers Brewing: We Saw Them Coming
Sometimes timing is everything. We’d just finished our long walk to the convention center, got inside, and found Three Weavers nearby. After a long walk, few things sound better than a mildly tart, supremely refreshing watermelon saison.
When the nice people at Tripping Animals urged us to try the Moskittle, telling us “it tastes like Skittles,” we were skeptical that a Skittle berliner would be good. We were right— it wasn’t good. It was great. Here’s the rare gose that lives us to its candy comparison.
Turning Point Beer: Kama Citra
While many of the beers on this list are noteworthy for being singular unique experiments in brewing, we still have a fondness for the classics. Turning Point’s Kama Citra is a single-hopped NE IPA featuring, you guessed it, Citra hops. And it was as clean, juicy, and memorable as any IPA at the festival.
Une Annee: Le Grand Monde 2019-4
If you’re a regular reader of our site, you’re probably bored of our praise for Une Annee’s mind-melting sours at this point. Judging by their lines at GABF, however, we’re not alone. Le Grand Monde 2019-4 is the latest in their series of mouth-puckering masterworks, this one scorching your tastebuds with sour watermelon magic.
Vernacular Brewing: Conscious Conundrum
Sometimes our search for new breweries takes us to unexpected places. We saw Vernacular, felt we hadn’t had sampled a lot of Wisconsin breweries, and gave it a Day 1 spin without knowing anything about them. What we got were fantastic pilsner, saisons, sours, and stouts— our favorite, the Conscious Conundrum, was a straight-forward, oak-aged Belgian sour. We suspect we’ll be hearing more from them in the near future.
This Idaho brewery delivered on a number of classic styles– their Moutaineer Marzen was also very good– but their Brut IPA was especially noteworthy since it was as juicy as a standard IPA at the front, getting playful with our expectations, holding off the textbook Brut IPA dryness until the very end.
MOST DISTINCT BEER:
Weldwerks Brewing: Hot Sauce Barrel Aged Taco Gose
This shouldn’t work. And for many people who had it, it probably didn’t. But for the intrepid souls who went for it, they got served a sip of hot sauce flavored beer with a mini-taquito served on the side. Love it or hate it (we loved it!), there’s no mistaking this beer for any other served at GABF.
BEST PRIOR CHAMPIONS:
Cogstone Brewing: Chips and Salsa Cream Ale
Phillipsburg Brewing: 5 Phantoms
Low Tide Brewing: Basil Better Have My Honey
As noted in our wrap-up article, we hit the tables that were serving previous winners and tried to hit a number of the ones whose breweries weren’t present at GABF this year. These three stood out from the rest of the pack, with Phillipsburg giving us a hefty imperial pumpkin ale and Low Tide providing the honey basil beer we never knew we needed. Strangest of all, Cogstone Brewing created a beer that, in defiance of God’s will, actually takes like chips and salsa… but is also actually somehow delicious. Here’s hoping all three of these breweries come to the festival next year so we can have more.
BEST SONG TITLE PUNS:
Sasquatch Brewing: Hey I Just Met You And This Is Hazy…
TAPS Brewery: Don’t Drop That Dun Dun Dunkel
Special mention necessary for two outstanding beers with outstanding music reference. First, Sasquatch drops a reference to one of our favorite pop artists and then delivers a beer worthy of the great CRJ herself. Then, TAPS absolutely BLESSES its beer with a play on the Finatticz classic, and the combo of the quality of the beer and the quality of the name led them to medal in the German-style Dark Lager category this year.
BEST PUMPKIN BEER:
Lakefront Brewery: Imperial Pumpkin
We’re currently collecting pumpkin beers for a future article on our favorites– and needless to say, it’s very likely that Lakefront Brewing makes the cut with its brandy barrel-aged Imperial Pumpkin. It’s like taking a piece of pumpkin pie and dipping it into a glass of brandy. What, you’ve never dunked pie into brandy before?
BEST PALATE-BUSTERS:
K2 Brothers Brewing: Mango/Habanero Sour IPA
Sockeye Brewing: Redfish Rauch-Bock
Both of these beers were delicious but so extreme that, after a mere sip or two, we had to take a break and eat food before moving on to other beers. The K2 Mango/Habanero had good mango flavor, but both those looking for heat and those looking to avoid it should know this was the spiciest beer of the festival for us. The Sockeye Rauch-Bock won the gold medal for Smoked Beer this year, and it’s a worthy winner with hefty smoky flavor… but if you didn’t wash your glass out multiple times after drinking this, your next five beers tasted like smoke. Drink, enjoy, praise, but don’t forget to wash!
BEST COLLABORATION:
Danville Brewing, Lodi Beer Company, and Morgan Territory Brewing: Tainted Love
We didn’t get to try as many collabs as we’d like, but of those we did try, this double nut brown ale from the aforementioned three California breweries was the clear winner. It’s chock full of roasted nut flavor with a splash of caramel. In the spirit of the festival, it’s great to celebrate a community that’s often very sweet and occasionally nutty.
