There was a noted uptick in positive feedback following this year’s Great American Beer Festival. After years of being stymied by the pandemic, drinker apathy, and diminished attendance, the Brewers Association (BA), which organizes the annual gathering in Denver sought to shake things up a bit. This included themed areas that celebrated sports, Halloween, biergarten parties, and outer space.
Offerings extended beyond beer to include canned cocktails, hard seltzer, and other beverages that small brewers have expanded into in recent years. Informal conversations after the three (down from four in previous years) sessions ended indicate that there was more energy in the room and that rumors of the four decade old festival’s imminent demise might have been premature.
There is always room for improvement, however, and there are things the BA can do to continue to modernize the festival, get more in line with beer today, and add some pizazz back to the Colorado Convention Center. Avid festival attendee and All About Beer editor John Holl offers his thoughts.
1. Offer Larger Pour Sizes
The one ounce pour size at the festival is ridiculous as are the small cups the fest offers attendees. For years the BA had a craft beer program that extolled the virtues of properly pouring a beer, how to experience taste and aroma, and to appreciate the artistry in the glass. The fest has not lived up to that lesson for a long time. It’s hard to evaluate or appreciate a beer an ounce at a time and ultimately does brewers a disservice, especially when served in a cup that gets warm over the course of an evening and can’t quite rinse out that thick pour of coconut imperial stout.
An alternative is to go to the ticket system. Earlier this year at Notch Brewing’s Forever Lager festival attendees were given a real glass – a 20 ounce Willi Becher pint – and had the opportunity to buy tickets each worth different pour sizes, which were marked on the glass at 4 ounces, 8 ounces, and 16 ounces. If someone wanted just a taste, they could do that, or go mid-range, or a full pour. It was civilized and fit in with how beer should be enjoyed. Implementing a plan like that for GABF would get more drinkers interested. Attendees would all still have to adhere to the old adage of be good or be gone.
One simply needs to look to the Great British Beer Festival which allows for one-third-pint, half-pint and pint options. The fest is also roughly the size of GABF, having attendance in the 60,000 range before COVID-19. It’s worked for that festival in the past, surely it can work in Denver.
2. Vet The Brewery List
There’s a lot of mediocre beer being made in America these days and it seems like a decent amount shows up at the GABF. After 40 years of competitions, it’s time to put the “great” back in the name of the festival, and look into giving breweries that have medaled in the past priority to pour. Simply being a dues-paying member of the BA isn’t enough, the breweries that serve at the fest should be of top quality. That might keep some of the riff raff out of the mix, and attendees ultimately happier. Better quality beer means fewer disappointing pours.
3. Curate The Beers
There’s no shortage of hazy IPA on the floor, but as the fest expands into other beverage categories, brewers should also be encouraged to go beyond their core offerings, or predictable selections. Attendees are willing to try new things when in a festival setting, so cultivating a list that has true diversity in style can help open eyes and expand palates and maybe even grow the overall beer category.
4. Grow The Geography
Look at the brewery list each year and you’ll see that it heavily skews towards the Mountain Region and parts of the West Coast.The East Coast is usually largely underrepresented on the floor. The “American” part of the fest name should include multiple breweries from all 50 states. It might be as simple as holding at least four spots for each state open until they are filled. I know there have been outreach efforts in the past for greater geography diversity, but a new tact is needed to find a way to make it happen.
5. Buy The Beer
The BA asks brewers to donate the beer for the festival. That’s usually the lowest expense that a brewery traveling to GABF has to incur. Between festival registration, travel, hotel, meals, and bar tabs at Bierstadt Lagerhaus, the weekend in Denver can be a pricy endeavor. Buying the beer would be an important symbolic gesture to the breweries that they care about and see the value in the beer being made by brewery members.
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