DENVER \u2014 Here\u2019s something to chew on with your breakfast beer: When the Great American Beer Festival got its start in Denver in 1982, there were fewer craft breweries at the festival than there are today in Durango.<\/p>\n
Just four craft breweries participated in that first festival, which was dominated by industrial-brewed lagers such as Budweiser, said Charlie Papazian, the festival\u2019s founder.<\/p>\n
This year, 624 breweries brought more than 3,100 beers to the festival\u2019s 32nd incarnation. For $75, GABF participants can taste all the 1-ounce pours they can handle in the cavernous hall of the Colorado Convention Center. Tickets sold out in a matter of minutes.<\/p>\n
The festival\u2019s explosive growth mirrors that of the craft-brewing industry.<\/p>\n
It seems no town is too small to have its own brewery. Durango now has five, and Pagosa Springs has two.<\/p>\n
But brewers at the festival say there is room to grow.<\/p>\n
Two Southwest Colorado newcomers got into the festival this year, despite a first-ever waitlist for brewers to enter the competition.<\/p>\n
Jason Cox is betting that the craft-brew craze still has room to ferment. He and his partners opened Riff Raff Brewing Co. in Pagosa Springs in May, making it the second brewery in town.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s harkening back to the old public-house days, where people have a local gathering place,\u201d Cox said.<\/p>\n
Cox said he thinks his economic competition isn\u2019t so much other little breweries, like Pagosa Brewing Co., which claimed a gold medal this year. Instead, it\u2019s the industrial lager breweries that still dominate more than 90 percent of the U.S. beer market.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you get people into craft beer, they have a hard time going back to Coors Light, Bud Light,\u201d Cox said.<\/p>\n
Austin Lashley, owner of Avalanche Brewing Co. in Silverton, said the brewery had a great first summer, and he\u2019s hoping for a good winter season. But he doesn\u2019t worry that Colorado might be reaching a point where it is too soaked in breweries.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think in this state we\u2019ve hit the cap yet. I think there\u2019s always room for good brewers making quality products,\u201d Lashley said.<\/p>\n
He brought his entire line of brews \u2013 an India pale ale, a porter, a pale ale and a Belgian wheat.<\/p>\n
The IPA competition is intense, with more than 200 entries. Lashley was hoping that his porter and Belgian wheat would have a better chance in the competition.<\/p>\n
A medal from the nation\u2019s premier beer festival can put a young brewery over the top.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt does a lot. It definitely puts you on the map,\u201d said Chris Fish, brewmaster at Telluride Brewing Co.<\/p>\n
His Facedown Brown ale was the only beer from Southwest Colorado to take home a medal \u2014 a gold \u2014 last year. Within a week, Facedown became his best seller on tap, and Front Range distributors soon were clamoring for six-packs.<\/p>\n
This year, he had hopes for some recognition for his \u201cpride and joy,\u201d Fishwater Double IPA.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the first beer that I thought deserved to have my name on it,\u201d said Fish, who has been brewing beer for 15 years.<\/p>\n
There was still a place at Saturday\u2019s awards ceremony for those mass-produced lagers that dominated the first beer festival 32 years ago. The gold medal for American-style light lager went to Budweiser Select, bringing a mix of cheers and guffaws from the crowd of craft brewers.<\/p>\n
jhanel@cortezjournal.com<\/a><\/p>\n DENVER \u2014 Four Corners breweries shined like gold at the country\u2019s largest beer competition this weekend, bringing home top honors in four categories at the Great American Beer Festival. festival reflects state\u2019s thriving industry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[13,2896],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-56753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-steamworks-brewing-co"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56753\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56753"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=56753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Several regional breweries bring home top honors<\/h4>\n
\n Carver Brewing Co., Pagosa Brewing Co., Ska Brewing Co. and Steamworks Brewing Co. all won gold medals. Last year, Telluride Brewing Co. was the only brewery in the region to win a medal.
\n Carver\u2019s Jeff Albarella won for his Munich Dunkel. He studied brewing in Munich, which he said helped him perfect a style of beer that\u2019s complicated to brew.
\n Carver\u2019s owner Michael Hurst was happy to see so many small brewpubs winning medals.
\n \u201cIt feels great for Jeff to get the recognition, because he\u2019s been making outstanding beer,\u201d Hurst said.
\n Southwest Colorado\u2019s gold-medal beers are:
\n Pagosa\u2019s Peachy Peach, for fruit wheat beer.
\n Ska\u2019s True Blonde, for English-style summer ale.
\n Steamworks\u2019 Slam Dunkel, for German-style wheat.
\n Carver\u2019s Munich Dunkel, for European-style dunkel.
\n Steamworks owner Kris Oyler already had a wall full of GABF medals from previous years.
\n \u201cIt gets harder and harder. People are getting more technical. They\u2019re getting more trained,\u201d Oyler said Thursday, before the awards were announced. \u201cIf you win a medal with this many breweries, you\u2019re doing something right.\u201d
\n jhanel@cortezjournal.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"