The stream of accolades continued for local brewers and breweries at last weekend’s Great American Beer Festival.
A number of Aurora and Denver-metro suds makers went home with medals when the winners of the 2015 edition of the perennially sold-out brew fest were announced.
Aurora’s Dry Dock Brewing Co. took home the bronze prize out of 87 entries in the American-Style Fruit Beer category for its Apricot Blonde. Dry Dock would also land a bronze place in the German-Style Pilsener category for its pilsner, finishing third out of 100 total entries.
Dry Dock previously was named best Small Brewing Company and Small Brewing Company Brewer of the Year at the 2009 GABF. The Apricot Blonde also took home a gold medal at the 2012 GABF, when they also secured a bronze medal for the S.S. Minnow Mild Ale.
Fresh off the victory, the South Dock location on Monday tapped their Half Moon Pumpkin Ale, brewed with a pumpkin spice blend from Aurora’s Savory Spice Shop. The autumnal offerings will continue at the South Dock on Saturday, Oct. 3, for Dry Dock’s annual Docktoberfest, which will including the tapping of Dry Dock’s Märzen beer, German music from Denver’s Rhinelanders, and the announcement of the winners of The Brew Hut’s homebrew competition.
In the particularly strong American-Style Strong Pale Ale category, Aurora’s Coda Brewing Co. won silver out of 134 entries for its Via Chicago Pale Ale, which is available in bottles now. It marks the second-straight year of Coda going home with a silver medal after scoring in last year’s American-Style Fruit Beer category for their Silver Sleepyhead Passion Fruit.
Coda brewer Luke Smith said the weekend is hard to compare to any other event on the beer calendar, not just in Colorado but anywhere.
“It’s one of the biggest weeks of the beer industry all together,” he said last Thursday as he got Coda’s booth ready at the Denver Convention Center.
Left Hand Brewing Co. in Longmont was the most-decorated Centennial State brewery for the 2015 GABF, taking home three medals in total: a gold in the Export Stout category for its Fade to Black Volume 1, and two bronze finishes: One in the Ordinary or Special Bitter category for their Sawtooth Ale, and another in the Brown Porter category for the Black Jack Porter.
Interestingly enough, the proximity of GABF to the autumn rise in popularity of all things pumpkin-spice did not lead GABF judges to pick a top pumpkin beer; that category went without an elected gold medal winner. The festival’s award criteria states that a gold medal connotes “a world-class beer that accurately exemplifies the specified style, displaying the proper balance of taste, aroma and appearance.”
Tour time running out
If you weren’t one of the many beer drinkers to score a ticket to GABF, some local brewers are offering a few sips of consolation.
Nine breweries — Caution Brewing Co., Coda, both Dry Dock locations, Fiction Beer Co., Launch Pad Brewing Co., Mu Brewing Co., Peak to Peak Tap Room and Two22 Brew — are teaming up for a sort of east-side brewery tour. Stop by any participating brewery through Oct. 3 to earn money off beer, growler fills and other goodies.
On the first visit, ask for your passport card and bartenders at each stop will mark your visit and give you a buck off your first pint. Stop by five of them and get a growler and fill; stop by all nine and get a swag basket.
Elsewhere
• Copper Kettle Brewing Co., just west of the Aurora line, unveiled a Vanilla Chai Pumpkin Porter and Colorado LocALE — a hoppy American pale ale — last week, and over last weekend they released their Framboise Sour Ale, a tart, Belgian lambic brewed with fresh raspberries and aged in red wine barrels for 22 months.
• Mu Brewery also is getting into the fall spirit with the return of their Pumpkin Peace Ale, which became available on Tuesday. The brewery is offering the ale for half price on Thursday, Oct. 1.