Drink: The Great American Beer Festival celebrates a big birthday after a two-year hiatus

Nearly 40,000 beaming faces flled every corner of the Denver Convention Center Oct. 6-8 for the Great American Beer Festival (GABF). The event marks the 40th anniversary of the festival, the 36th edition of the competition that judges nearly 10,000 brews, and the frst year back in person after its pandemic-related hiatus. The festival has come a long way since original founder Charlie Papazian launched it in Boulder in 1982. Initially held in conjunction with the American Homebrewers Association’s annual conference, Papazian’s event saw 24 breweries and 47 beers being celebrated and scrutinized by a relatively small group of afcionados. By 1987, seven judges were on board, though the number has grown to a whopping 235 presiding over this year’s event. Boulder Beer has been present since day one and entered its Buffalo Gold, Shake Chocolate Porter and a Laws Barrel-Aged Killer Penguin Barleywine in this year’s contest. At least 90 Colorado breweries — including Avery, Twisted Pine and Upslope — graced the foor with some of the best hooch in the house. For attendees, the multi-session beer-drinker’s Shangri-la had all the trappings of a magnifcently curated adult playground. A vast karaoke stage, free chair massages, a bagpipe troupe, a dancefoor, food carts and brightly-hued clothing brands all neatly interspersed the stalls. Costumes were everywhere, with ’80s neon, gnome hats, a full herd of giraffes and plentiful lederhosens joining a nearly endless sea of matching tracksuits. The omnipresent pretzel necklaces — a tradition with no certain origin — were worn and adorned with great relish. Seasoned veterans could be seen sporting intricate chains complete with Froot Loops, Slim Jims, bags of jerky and torso-sized soft pretzels. There were even a few Guy Fieris represented both in style and attitude.

Even with the thousands of patrons, the event’s sheer vastness kept most lines from getting too long. More elaborate stalls belonging to the likes of Dogfsh Head, WeldWerks, Sierra Nevada, Firestone Walker and Russian River would occasionally draw extended waits, but guests seldom found themselves idling for more than fve minutes. Though the best seats in the house were found at the “taprooms”: the partnership-heavy Collaboration Nation, the “Heavy Medal” stall packed with former winners, and the section for absentee participants called Wish We Were Here.

Despite the assembly of over 2,000 breweries, the programming was actually a sizable reduction from the 2019 iteration, which saw more than 60,000 visitors. Most stalls were packing at least fve of the represented company’s best brews, with plenty of special releases and GABF exclusives.

For brewers, the festival is a ferce, albeit jovial, competition in which nearly 10,000 beers — across 177 styles — are judged and awarded over 300 total medals. Local winners included Bierstadt Lagerhaus, River North Brewery, Rock Cut Brewing and Resolute Brewing Company. Left Hand Brewing Company received two medals, cementing it as the most-awarded brewery in Colorado, boasting a total of 29. The state took home a total of 26 medals, with Our Mutual Friend, Jessup Farm Barrel House, The Post, Comrade Brewing Company and Crooked Stave all scoring a gold. Though the majority of the surprisingly well-behaved throng certainly came for the beer, some guests opted to spend their time at PAIRED, a supplementary

Lordy, lordy, food-focused event going on downstairs from the main hall. Formerly known as look who’s 40 the Farm to Table Pavilion, the event was redubbed PAIRED in 2015 and continues The Great American Beer showcasing the incredible delight and nuance

Festival celebrates a that comes when great beer is thoughtfully matched with remarkable bites. Boulder-based big birthday after a Chef Daniel Asher (River & Woods, Ash’Kara) two-year hiatus teamed up with Deschutes Brewery, pairing a Moroccan crunch taco with The Abyss barby Colin Wrenn rel-aged stout, and a chevre tartlete with the Raspberry Champs Quad. Blake Edmunds, of RiNo smoked taco joint Mister Oso, teamed with Cheyenne, Wyoming’s Accomplice Brewing to present a beef tostada and a peach tepache ceviche alongside an imperial IPA and a contemporary gose. Chef Kelly Whitaker (Basta) and Mara Jane King, director of fermentation at IE Hospitality, kept it local, teaming with Longmont’s Wibby Brewing. Chicken salt popcorn with sourdough gochujang furikake and a kimchi-brined watermelon rind were both continued evidence of the group’s knack for the far-out and fabulous. Outlandish attire and pervasive exuberance permeated every corner of this year’s festival. Great beer fowed from what seemed like every tap. And what could have been utter chaos coalesced into a damn near reverent celebration of the meticulous craftsmanship and honest comradery that surround the beer-making culture. It was clear that people were happy to be back. Email: letters@boulderweekly.com

BREWERS ASSOCIATION

DINE-IN OR ORDER ON-LINE FOR TAKE-OUT phocafelafayette.com

1085 S Public Rd. Lafayette (303) 665-0666 Hours: Tues-Sun: 11a-8:30p

Best Asian Fusion

Closed Monday Thank You for Voting us Best Asian Fusion Restaurant for 7 years!

Tastes like crow

On Oct. 6, President Joe Biden made an announcement that caught many of us off guard. Although, in hindsight, it probably shouldn’t have. “As I’ve said before, no one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana,” the president tweeted. “Today, I’m taking steps to end our failed approach. Allow me to lay them out.” Both the president and I are eating crow this week, it seems. Joe Biden has been a staunch anti-drug crusader since the ’80s. He was one of the authors of the infamous 1994 crime bill that ramped up drug-related incarceration, targeting impoverished and minority communities with harsh sentences for specifc drugs like marijuana, heroin and crack. Biden has never been in favor of regulating any scheduled narcotic, even one as harmless as marijuana. But, in his tweet, Biden laid out three progressive steps: first, to pardon all prior offenses of federal marijuana possession (a move that would help some 6,500 convicted people at the federal level). Second, encouraging all governors to pardon all state marijuana possession offenses (a move that would help potentially hundreds of thousands of people). And third, requesting Attorney General Xavier

Becerra to initiate the process of “reviewing” how cannabis is scheduled as a narcotic. All that from the same guy who said in 2010, “I still believe it’s a gateway drug,” and “legalization is a mistake.” Politicians can actually change their tune, I guess — especially when midterm elections are on the horizon. “I think coming from [Biden, this] is a huge step forward,” says Lenny Freiling, a former municipal court judge for the City of Lafayette and drug-defense attorney with more than 45 years of experience. “As far as the timing, I don’t think it’s subtle. He timed it to boost the elections. Both by not being voted against, because he hasn’t kept his campaign promise, as well as to get additional votes.” On the campaign trail, Biden promised to both decriminalize cannabis and expunge the records of all marijuana possession offenses. While Biden’s recent maneuver doesn’t actually fulfll those pledges, Freiling says it does about as much as Biden can do to end prohibition on his own. “I think in many ways, manipulative as the timing may be, he took it about as far as a president could take it at this point,” Freiling says. It’s not actually within a president’s power to decriminalize a substance and expunge records of federal convictions. It is within his power, however, to issue pardons, encourage state governors to follow suit, and initiate a review of cannabis’ status as a Schedule I controlled substance. Still, Biden’s plan won’t help some 3,000 people convicted of high-level marijuana crimes who remain in federal prisons, and as many as 30,000 who are in prison in several states, according to criminal justice reform group Last Prisoner Project. In this columnist’s humble opinion, Biden could have

taken more steps to urge Congress to pass any of the Weeks before midterms, Biden orders pardons numerous cannabis bills that seem interminably stalled for all cannabis-possession convictions on Capitol Hill (the MORE Act, the SAFE Act, the State’s Reform Act, the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity by Will Brendza Act, etc.) He could have spoken more openly about the injustice of cannabis convictions and how he planned on righting the wrongs our government’s drug war has caused. He could have done this earlier, and not out of election favor. But frankly, I didn’t think he was going to do anything (Weed Between the Lines, “From Russia with hash,” July 21, 2022). I thought Biden had used cannabis as an empty campaign promise, that he’d fooled all us pro-pot Americans with a shiny political gambling chip only to reveal after his swearing in that it was just a cheap chocolate coin — a classic bait and switch. So I’m eating crow too. Despite all the political chess strategy involved in this announcement at this particular time, it’s a signifcant step forward. Not since the ’70s has a president made a declaration pardoning so many convicted criminals (when Carter pardoned more than 9,000 Americans who dodged the Vietnam Selective Services draft). Never in American history has a president demanded a federally illegal narcotic’s scheduling be reviewed. It’s a step that will change the political landscape surrounding cannabis, and maybe, just maybe, those stalled marijuana bills will start moving. “The message to Congress from [Biden] should be, ‘Here’s what you need to do. Get it to my desk and I’ll sign it,’” Freiling says. “All they have to do is put [those acts] in the hopper ... There’s just no reason to wait on those.” Whether or not that’s what happens remains to be seen, of course — no action has been taken yet. As of now, it’s just a pre-midterm performance routine. There’s just as much potential in it for inaction as there is for progress. I’ll hold my cynicism for now, though. At the moment, I’m too full of crow to speculate any more.

This opinion column does not necessarily refect the views of Boulder Weekly. Email: letters@boulderweekly.com