2019 Great American Beer Fest: The Best of Day 1

We met so many people on our first day at the 2019 Great American Beer Fest. We met brewers, excited to have us try their beer. We met fellow bloggers, chomping at the bit to try as much new beer as they can. We met casual attendees, some of whom were annually enthralled with the prospect of trying new craft, and some of whom were just present as the result of a won contest. Regardless of the origins of the people we encountered, all of them were beyond ecstatic to gather at the largest beer festival in America and try many of the best beers America has to offer.

When we arrived, we went straight for some of the breweries we felt would have the longest lines. We hit Great Notion, we hit pFriem— we tried to hit J. Wakefield but the lines were *already* too long under a half hour into the festival. So we ditched our plan and started focusing our attention on breweries that we felt were going woefully under the radar. We only made it to three of the regions, really— Pacific Northwest, Southeast, and Meet the Brewers— but if you’re looking to dodge some of the lines Friday and Saturday but still want to hit top-tier level craft breweries, we have some suggestions for you:

Fiction Beer Company

We know you’re probably tired of hearing us rave about Fiction Beer Company. We drove a good 45 minute round trip out of our way to visit their tap room to buy three 4 packs of their delicious beer today, so believe me when I say we feel Fiction has a strong argument as the best brewery in Denver. The Antiquarian No. 6 with Blackberries was one of the best sours of the first day of the festival, and the barrel aged Malice and Darkness with Coffee, Caramel, and Vanilla is as good as it sounds. We’re stunned Fiction doesn’t have lines that wind around the corner.

More Brewing

We’d heard tale of More Brewing from our friends in Chicago, so when we strolled up and saw a complete absence of line, we were stunned. Perhaps our Chicagoland friends were wrong! But no. The wrong ones were the ones who chose to pass up More Brewing to line up elsewhere. The DDH Double Space Boots was Emily’s favorite IPA of the day, a delightful dry-hopped wonder, and the Arketype: Coco Flux definitely competed for the best stout of the day, easily. If you see them with as short a line as we saw them today, then you’re in for a treat, as their beers were better than several of the more hyped beers we waited in line for today.

Ology Brewing

Perhaps it’s Russell’s Floridian home state bias talking, but one has to wonder if Ology came from, say, California, Oregon, or Colorado if their lines would’ve been as short as we saw them today. In a day full of terrific sours, the Juice Lab: Passionfruit, Blood Orange, and Raspberry very well may have been the best of the entire day, and the DDH Sensory Overload was among the best IPAs of the bunch as well. If you get a chance, ask them to mix the Juice Lab with the Double Passionfruit Gose— it was as wonderful a concoction as we had all evening.

Orpheus Brewing

While the names of the beers at Orpheus Brewing sound light and airy like lines from classical poetry, the flavors on their beers are anything but light. For those who like their sours wine barrel aged, the Under the Shadows is a winey, blueberry-infused, pucker-inducing delight— and while any of the stouts they have to offer will appeal to any of the stout lovers in the crowd, our personal favorite was the An Air Portends, an imperial stout aged for 14 months in bourbon barrels with roasted macadamia nuts and vanilla beans. It’s as intense/glorious as you’d expect.

Tripping Animals

Look, we know that not every beer is for everyone… but there’s someone reading this article that will see the phrase “Skittles sour beer” and will immediately start salivating. The good folks at Tripping Animals in Doral, Florida have cooked up a sour beer, Moskittle, that, you guessed it, takes exactly like sour Skittles. Maybe this won’t be for you… but we reckon it’s for enough people that the line for Tripping Animals should be *way* longer. Especially considering that the Vortex of Darkness is one of the more luxurious stouts that we’ve encountered at the festival.

Vernacular Brewing

Don’t judge a book by its cover— judge a book by its mother. If you weren’t convinced that Vernacular Brewing was a nano-brewery worth seeking out, be aware that the brewer’s mother works for the company. When you’re an adult, it’s hard enough to get your mother to commit to a visit, much less work for your company! Odds are Annette, the delightful mother at Vernacular Brewing, tasted such terrific beers as the Conscious Conundrum, their terrific sour saison, and the Daemon King, their rich boozy imperial stout, and she realized her son had the goods. We had a great time talking to her and the rest of the Vernacular crew, and you will too.

Lost Cabin Beer Company

Most of us don’t get up to South Dakota terribly often. That’s a damn shame, not just because we’re missing out of some outstanding hiking, skiing, and more— but because we’re missing out on regular visits to Lost Cabin Beer Company. Their Woodshop Series: IPA #5 is an upper-tier hazy IPA, and the Liar’s Chair is a dry-hopped saison that ripped the lid off our expectations, but the big winner here is the Lord Grizzly, a scotch ale whose ferocity matched the headware sported by its servers.

Maplewood Brewing

We enjoyed Maplewood on our last visit to Chicago— so much that we previewed them in our must-visit GABF breweries. The Charlatan was as good as we’d remembered it, but their pour list extended well beyond that. The Son of Juice was one of the better New England IPAs that we sampled on Thursday, and they also cooked up one of the better beer hybrids we had all day: their Cuppa stout with a splash of their Mr. Shakey Strawberry milkshake IPA. The end result is a chocolate strawberry shake of a beverage, the likes of which should demand a far longer line than we encountered.

Une Annee

The next two breweries we admittedly visited at the end of the night, so they may have sported longer lines throughout the rest of the session. We were grateful that Une Annee’s line was minimal at session’s end, because we were able to hit two of the best beers of the night with minimal resistance: the Le Grand Monde 2019-4, a face puckering delight of a watermelon and prickly pear sour, and the El Zacatón, a cinnamon and chile infused imperial stout. We urged people to visit Niles to try Une Annee’s beers— but if you’re at GABF, they’re a mere convention center walk away.

Fremont Brewing

Okay, so in all fairness, we passed Fremont Brewing *several times* and saw long lines most every time. However, as fate would have it, in the final hour, we found Fremont without a line to be seen. This opportunity gifted us some of the more potent beers of the evening, including the Coconut B-Bomb, a barrel-aged winter ale with toasted coconut, and the Brew 3000, a barrel-aged English-style barleywine with enough caramely boozy goodness to make any lover of Life find their jaw on the floor. For those looking for something a smidge lighter, Field to Ferment, their fresh hop pale, was about as fresh as any hoppy beer we tried all day.

Overall, we stopped by nearly thirty booths, the majority of which were sublime— but we felt after Day 1 that featuring the breweries whose lines deserve to be longer was the way to go. Russell will be back for the Friday evening session, so if you see him, say hello! We were grateful for those we got to meet and chat with tonight, so here’s hoping Day 2 is just as rousing a success as Day 1. If you were there last night, please leave in the comments what your favorite beers were— we’ll be sure to track them down in the next couple of sessions! Cheers!