Great American Beer Fest: Day 1

I hadn't been to the Great American Beer Fest in over 10 years and this time around I was more prepared for the hours of tasting beer.

I write for Barley's Angels Colorado and for my blog, the colorado beer scribe so with this in mind I have to be careful not to get inebriated. I was here ton assignment o get the female perspective on GABF and on the craft beer explosion.  It was awesome this time around because of the media pass that let me enter to the fest with the brewers and entourage entrance. The next thing was that the line was a fraction amount compared to the one that stretched down the block for the consumer entrance. And entering with the brewery industry, I was in the building 15 minutes early!

The convention hall was so enormous in the space, it seemed to go on for miles. This was especially true for that small amount of time that the hall wasn't yet filled with people. The large space was mind boggling with your head turning left then right looking at all the breweries set up in rows. But I had to remember one of the reasons I was at the fest, to interview Lynne Weaver and Alexandra Nowell from the Three Weavers Brewing Co.

It should have been easy to locate them since they're in the Pacific section, they're brewery is located in Los Angeles. So here I am searching for this brewery in the Pacific region but not finding it. Walked for my 15 minutes looking for it, finally I looked it up on the brewery directory. I know, I should have done that first but anyway, I found them. Three Weavers Brewing was located in the featured breweries section. Lynne Weavers was there and Alexandra Nowell arrived a few minutes later. It was such an inspiration meeting them, two women living their dream. 

Lynne Weaver owner of Three Weavers Brewing Co.

After the interview while waiting for my husband who had the bad luck to be one of thousands of regular consumers that forged through to the GABF hall, I interviewed three women attending the fest. I catch them before they even had one taste of beer which gaurenteed a good interview.  Desiree Duzich, who is videographer/photograher for a community blog called Porchdrinking.com.  She was also waiting for someone at the entrance when I asked for a quick interview. The other ladies, Theresa Williams and Jane Del Carlo who are two friends that have been attending the GABF for the last four years. 

Fest goers coming in after waiting in line.

Theresa Williams and Jane Del Carlo.

The rest of the night was dodging others while I tried to find those diamond in the rough breweries and I found a few. Rare Barrels from Berkely, California, brewed some really nice sour ales. I especially liked the Forces Unseen, a 5.3% ABV that was a blend of three golden sour ales.

There was also Belching Beaver Brewing Co and Beach City Brewing, both these breweries were at the Beer Bloggers Conference in San Diego where I first tasted their beers. The Peanut Butter Stout was really delicious from Belching Beaver.  Beach City Brewing had Triquilo, a Belgian Triple that was aged in Tequila barrels. 

I left the fest with anticipation for the next day, more interviews and more beer tasting.