For most, a trip to the Great American Beer Festival is a dream come true. And why shouldn’t it be? Access to 710 brewers serving more than 3,500 beers and unlimited pours (one ounce at a time) should be reason enough. Yet there is so much more to the weekend, so we at American Craft Beer, along with the rest of the media in attendance, got a special behind the scenes look at all the event has to offer. The real trick was to take enough pictures to remember it all. We tried…

Our weekend began at Deschutes pre-What The Funk!? VIP pouring of their Oregon locations-only barrel aged beers. From there Amber and Eric sampled the best wild and sour offerings on the planet at What the Funk!?, while I headed to the convention floor accompanying a group led by Jeff Mendel of Left Hand Brewing and the Brewers Association to check out the incredible Farm to Table Pavilion and some education on pairing beer with chocolate.

Friday was a culinary delight. We started early with Samuel Adams Beer and Brunch event which celebrated their 30^th Anniversary, an announcement of their annual homebrew Longshot winners and the release of new brews including the Rebel Rouser Double IPA. Having more than our fill of cheesy potatoes and beer infused delights, we waddled our way over to the Brewer’s Association Media Briefing and Luncheon, a five course meal paired with 8 GABF Award Winning beers from 2013.

Once they stopped feeding us, things quickly became a blur. A quick tour to three smaller Denver brewers – Denver Beer Company, Diebold Brewing and Jagged Mountain Brewery – showcased a new canning operation, small batch French beers and big adventurous ales, respectively.

After another hearty meal and tasty artisanals at Freshcraft, we were in cruise control by the time we hit the convention floor for the evening session. We chatted with New Holland and Carhartt who’ve created an excellent Barrel-Aged Session Pale Ale called the Woodsman. Next we hit up Alaskan Brewing’s Andy Klein who touted their new vertical Smoked Porter Box. We were also able to meet up the maker of the Drink Tank, a CO² fed double walled growler made in Bend Oregon – stay tuned for more on this.

Saturday morning we tweeted out as many of the 2013 GABF Award Winners as our malt stained fingers could muster, all while balancing glasses of The Kaiser Imperial Oktoberfest by Avery Brewing on our knees. After a quick lunch, we were back at it on the floor chasing down beers from all over the country. Sure, there are plenty of pictures from the tail end of our adventures yet only fleeting memories of all the amazing things we sampled that last day. I do recall us going to Great Divide and Falling Rock later in the evening, but who knows for sure…