Thursday in Denver

Well Thursday was the first day of the GABF and it all started with a party at Great Divide Brewing Compay. The party was already going pretty will when we arrived. They had set out trays of food for everyone and had the brews flowing. We got a quick tour of the place which is in an old building in downtown Denver. They are clearly growing as we could see signs of construction everywhere. James wanted to do a tasting of their beers on camera, and with the party going on the only place we could get away from the crowd was in the walk-in cooler. It was then time to head over to the Convention center to check in and pick up our press passes. We where still feeling the effects of our trip to Boulder the day before, so we decided to head back to the hotel for a little rest before the GABF kicked off at 5:30. We arrived at the GABF shortly before the doors opened. They allowed us to stand at the top of the stairs and video and take photos of the crowd at the bottom of the stairs waiting to get in. They told us that at 5:30 the would "release" beer lovers and they would come running up the stairs to be the first to get in to the event. Some of the very rare beers can run out quickly, so if you want some of them you better get there early. To my suprise when I stepped to the top of the stairs to take some pictures someone in the crowd below shouted my name. It was some of my friends from Fayetteville, AR - Ash Goodwin and Ryan Haley, who had driven out for the festival. As always the festival was a blast. I got to sample so many different beers from all over the country. Some of my favorites where Pliny the Elder from Russian River Brewing Company and the Smoked Porter from Alaskan Brewing Company. Unfortunatly I was feeling pretty poor as the evening wore on - allergies, I think. This is the reason this and the next post are hitting the blog a little bit out of order, sorry about that. We headed back to the hotel with a short stop at a drug store to pick up some meds to help clear my head.

Cheers