3 Days.
400 breweries.
1,800 beers.
That about sums it up. Three days of yeast, love, and hoppiness. The 2009 Great American Beer Festival is heading to the mile high city and if pre-event ticket sales are any indicator (which I’m pretty sure they are) this one promises to be a blowout.
The annual Great American Beer Festival is a true celebration of all things beer. Where else can you get the chance to sample such a wide variety of beers from all over the US? Nowhere. This is the granddaddy of beer shows and if you are even remotely interested in beer you owe it to yourself to be there.
The way it works is pretty simple: There are four sessions (two on Saturday) during which you get to run around like the malt maniac you are, sample cup in hand, getting your taste buds on just about any kind of beer you could imagine. (Sorry, I had to wipe some drool off of my keyboard.)
The cost of a session ticket is $55. You can also get a 4-pack to get
into all four sessions for $230. With each ticket you get a festival program, admittance to the session(s) of your choice, and a commorative 1-oz tasting cup. There are also discounts for members of the American Homebrewers Association (
www.beertown.org for info).
Did I mention that you get unlimited 1-oz samples of over 1,800 different beers? Tickets are selling out fast so you'd better get yours while the getting’s good.
One more bit of GABF trivia:
If you wanted to sample all 1,800 beers once in the 17.5 hours of sessions time you would have to average 102.86 samples per hour or just over 8.5 12-oz beers per hour. Pace yourself.
www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com