GABF Notes

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
-
Rainier Pabst Brewing Co. Woodridge, IL
-
Old Style Pabst Brewing Co. Woodridge, IL
-
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.

Downtown Vegas

Freemont st

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PKA 2010 down, G2 to go

Last weekend was the Professional Knifemakers Show in Denver. It's a 3 day show, which seems a day too long for a show of its size. Show was full this year, or at least all the tables setup were sold. I heard there were seven new makers. Spyderco was a no show, as were the Drapers. Took time off on Saturday to go to the Spyderco factory store. I was tempted to buy a few knives, including the Bug, Honey Bee, Grasshopper, and the brand new Native 3.5 . However, I left with just the Bug.

If I have to give a reason, it was that I had a discussion with a collector back at the show who was pruning back his collection. He came to the conclusion that he had too many items just sitting in drawers doing nothing. This made me think about the above listed knives. Would I carry any of them (maybe the 3.5)? I have a group of knives I carry regularly, as I do with watches. Some rotate in and out, but there's a style I gravitate to: 3.5" blade, slim handle, any lock I can operate with one hand. The knife I carry the most is a Benchmade 940. I has all these qualities. I wish the handles had more grip, and wish there was something keeping my hand on the handle if I were to thrust at something hard and fast. The 940 sister knife, the Gaucho fixes these problems, but adds a weird recurve/tanto blade shape. I've heard you can swap the blades, but never tried.

Got off on a tangent there. It was a fun show, see a lot of knife friends, picked up 2 lefties: an Eddie Baca custom and a ProTech Doru. I should trim the collection, but it's hard.

three rails

none electrified. Two gauges of rolling stock.

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At Colorado Railroad Museum

Very nice layout. Lots of important stock

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the visible steam engine

@ colorado railroad museum

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a better ending to the weekend

Sunday was much better. Got out early to shoot the Glock Sport Shooting Association local match. I've never bought a Glock, so I borrowed a friend's Gen1 Glock 17 (9mm). It's a match designed for non shooters. The match is designed where accuracy is more important than speed, but I can't shoot that way well. I came in 50th out of 92. The friend I went with came in 24th, and shot twice as well as I did.

Sunday Evening went to a customers house and watched Summerslam. A great pay-per-view. A number of surprises, good matches.

These made up for the Mini disappointment.