Great American Beer Festival 2010 notes, starting with the winners list http://www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com/the-competition/winners/
I see that Blue Moon's Chardonnay Blonde won the Fruit Beer category. I remember trying this, and yes, it tastes like wine. So, why drink this instead of wine? As a trend, there seemed to be more of these wine-beers and more scotch beers. Not a lot, but more than previous years. (unless comparing to previous years shows I'm wrong)
A Boulder brewery I hadn't heard of (that won) is Twisted Pine Brewery. (but the Big Shot Expresso Stout sounds familiar. Hmmmm)
New Planet Beer Company of Boulder, advertising Gluten Free beer, got Bronze for 3R Raspberry Ale. Didn't taste any different than Gluten beers. Still, great news for getting drunk if you have IBS.
Of course, there's this category full of WIN:
Category 30: American-Style Specialty Lager or Cream Ale or Lager (42 Entries)
Hamm.s Miller Brewing Co. Milwaukee, WI
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Rainier Pabst Brewing Co. Woodridge, IL
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Old Style Pabst Brewing Co. Woodridge, IL
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I guess there's a reason they're still around. Last year a blog (Life in the Great Midwest) did a crappy beer challenge. (http://lifeinthegreatmidwest.blogspot.com/search/label/Crappy%20Beer%20Challenge) None of the winning beers were in that challenge. The closest would be PBR. I wonder if these day's they're small enough to be Craft Beers? I went to C.B. & Potts Sunday, and they won bronze in European-Style Dunkel for their Dark Side Lager
I'll be in Keystone for Thanksgiving, and a local there, Pug Ryans Brewery, got Gold for their Bock, Hellats Good Beer
Bristol's Laughing Lab Scottish Ale won an award AGAIN. It had also won Silver in the Scottish Ale category at the 1996 World Beer Cup, the 2000 and 2006 Gold Medals, the 2007, 2002, 2001, and 1996 Silver Medals and the 1994 and 2005 Bronze Medals in the Scottish Ale category at the Great American Beer Festival
Wow, Equinox in Ft Collins, a new brewery, won bronze for Eclipse Brown Ale. Equinox was started by a home brew store.
Sun King Brewing Co in Indianapolis won two awards. They're just east of downtown. Strangely, on their website, they don't list either of their winners as currently being on tap. It'll be a place to hit after the Auto Show this Christmas.
Durango, a city of 14,000, won 4 awards from 2 breweries, and they have 4. My count puts Ft Collins at 7 breweries. We have a LOT of breweries in Colorado.
Misc notes
I drank less beer this year, but had more fun.
I wasn't as concerned that I pass by all the tables.
Many booths took down or covered up their sign listing their name, location and beers offered. This made it harder to figure out if I wanted something from them.
I never felt I had a buzz. I was full, so I know I was drinking.
Even though we got in line later and were much furtherback, the line moved so quickly I don't think it mattered.
Pretzels worked for me, and my necklace was about the right amount. Still, there has to be other foods that would work too.
