Bradford on Beer
Rare Beer Tasting Soars
Posted September 26, 2009 2 Comments | Post a Comment
Sometimes everything works out so well you just stand there grinning. Such was the case with the first Denver Rare Beer Tasting held at the Wynkoop Brewery during Great American Beer Festival week.
Twenty-four breweries each presented one rare beer to the 450 lucky ticket holders. There were about 60 brewery reps on hand to talk beer and about 40 volunteers to serve.
The atmosphere was one of continual surprise. Brewers were surprised at the care and attention of the customers. The ticket holders themselves were surprised at how spectacular the offerings were. And Rick Lyke and I, the guys who put it together, were surprised at how much fun everyone was having.
For a couple of hours the world stopped and a room full of beer lovers revelled in their passion.
I think the Denver Rare Beer Tasting event was the highlight of the week for me. The selection, surroundings and people at the DRBT were all top notch. I would definitely go again next year. A couple of the brewers I talked with, Greg Koch (Stone Brewing) and Sam Calagione (Dogfish Head) stated that they would love to do this again next year as well.
And why not! It’s all for a good cause. It may cost a bit more but for what you get for it, it was well worth the money.
What was great to see was the selection guide with the beer descriptions all pre-printed out complete with pen and a nice sized tasting glass.
The volunteers and brewers could pour you up to 3 ounces of beer but in most cases I opted to sample a much smaller size. Some of those beers, like the Sam Adams Utopias were very big ABV brews and you didn’t need more than 1 oz at a time. Still, there were some beers that I wanted to have more of.
An absolutely great event. I even went as far as having a PSA test and a colonoscopy done in August just to be on the safe side.
Then Rick and I achieved our goals. Many thanks for writing!