Bottoms Up

The bottom’s falling out of the Dow, our 401k’s are in the toilet and the economy looks scary,  but for this one weekend here in Denver, the 46,000 or so of lucky enough to score tickets to the  completely sold-out, 27th annual Great American Beer Festival are having a ball.

Denver for this weekend’s become Beertown USA. The streets of downtown Denver are filled with craft beer tourists: formal attire not required.  The only place in town that is not in the spirit is the bar in the Crowne Plaza where I’m staying. I wandered in there late last night and asked innocently “What beers to you have?”

How about Bud,  Bud Light, Coors, Coors Light and Stella Artois. Yuk.  Then I asked about bottles and the bartender brightened, “We have Fat Tire.”  Ohmygawd.  Middle America lives and they’re still drinking light lagers and er Fat Tire.

But outside the bar, Denver’s rocking.

The one really important event that I missed because I couldn’t come on Thursday was SF Beer Week Thursday afternoon at the Falling Rock  Tap House.  Lots of Bay Area brewers were present and pouring their beer. Dave McLean of  Magnolia Gastropub, and 21st Amendment from San Francisco,  Gordon Biersch, San Jose,  Marin Brewing, Larspur, Moylan’s, Novato.

Tom Dalldorf of the Celebrator Beer News said the place was jammed. “I don’t know if we drew the crowd or the crowd or the crowd was ready-made,” Tom said. “But we had a good time.”

SF Beer Week is the Bay Area’s answer to Philly Beer Week.  Craft beer lovers in Philadelphia have declared the city “The Beer Drinkingest City in America.”  We love the town, but here in the Bay Area, we really think it started all here, ergo: SF Beer Week,  10 days of beery events from Feb. 6 - 15. Here’s a quote from the site:

• America’s craft beer movement began in the San Francisco Bay Area. With Anchor Brewing’s rescue by Fritz Maytag in 1965 and the founding of New Albion Brewing in 1976, craft beer grew into the Silver Age of American brewing, with over 1400 small craft breweries today. Northern California alone has more than most states and enjoys an unrivaled reputation for the quality and diversity of its craft beer.

• SF BEER WEEK will be a ten-day celebration of that legacy, showcasing the Bay Area’s brewing heritage with as many as 150 events. The week will be anchored by the Bistro Double IPA Festival, the Toronado Barleywine Festival and will end with a new full-blown Bay Area Beer Festival. In between there will be beer dinners, cheese and beer pairing events, other gourmet food events savoring our world-class cuisine, meet the brewer evenings, homebrewing demonstrations, music, films, and even a museum exhibition exploring the history of Bay Area brewing, from Monterey to Sacramento and beyond.

But to even things out, I went to the Philly Beer Week celebration this afternoon at the Corner Office, a fancy new bar in downtown Denver not far from the Colorado Convention Center.  Two of the founders of their big event, which runs from March 6-15, 2009, were pouring beer,  Don Russell, who writes the Joe Sixpack column in the Philadelphia Daily News (and has a new book on Christmas beers coming out this month), and Tom Peters,  proprietor of Monk’s Cafe, the first Belgian-style cafe in America. (I visited  in June and loved it. Check out my report here.)

OK, they were pouring some great beer.  Don Russell poured me a glass of Stoudt’s Sweet Hoperator, which he described as a hoppy, double bock. Damn good beer: Hops in the nose, mouth-filling malt. It starts out with a hit of ripe fruit like an ale, then there’s a bit of malt sweetness and a mild, aromatic hop finish. THREE AND ONE HALF STARS. It’s a beer we’ll never see, but if you go east, it’s worth a hunt.

Carol Stoudt, the brewer, started out two decades ago making traditional German lagers, but has she ever branched out. This was a beer I wish I could take home with me. Stoudt’s is in Adamstown, PA. They have a restaurant, an antique shop and the brewery. Carol has long been one of America’s great brewers. My hat’s off to her on this one.

Gregg Wiggins, Virginia Correspondent for Mid-Atlantic Brewing News, steered me to  Troeganator Double Bock, a rich, chewy, 8.2 percent beauty from Troegs, Harrisburg, PA. Thick, chewy, delicious. THREE STARS.

To read more about Philly Beer Week, go here.  On to the GABF…

Photos: Top: The GABF Sweatshirt.Took the photo on the 16th Street Mall and the young woman wearing it made me promise not to use here face so anyway. I am a trustworthy guy.

Middle:  Carol Stoudt’s Smooth Hoperator.

Below: Some of the beers that will be poured during Philly Beer Week: left-right, Flying Fish Hopfish India Pale Ale, Victory Brewing Primo Pils, Stoudt’s Smooth Hoperator and Iron Hill Saison. (OK, OK, Pennsylvania’s got some great beer.