Great American Beer Festival 2019 – Night One Recap
Thursday, October 3rd marked the official kickoff of the Great American Beer Festival 2019. With over 4000+ beers this year, we have our work cut out for us. This year, we are continuing our focus on quality over quantity as a strategy. You can follow along live on our brand new Untappd. We spend a majority of night one hanging around in the Meet the Brewer section.
PRO TIP: If you are searching for a specific brewery, we recommend you use the GABF program & then you can highlight the beers you try! The GABF APP is great, but with so many people in the same place, it was not always working.
The beers we’ve tried so far at the 2019 Great American Beer Festival have been exceeding our expectations. Here are a few beers and breweries that stood out to us from the first night. If you’re attending Friday night or Saturday sessions, be sure to check them out!
Best Beers
- Mad Tea Party by Pontoon Brewing Company / Meet the Brewer Booth 20-13
- Coffee Table by MadTree Brewing / Great Lakes Region Booth 27-11
- Powder Run Chocolate by Living the Dream Brewing Co. / Meet the Brewer Booth 18-7
- Christmas Ale by Great Lakes Brewing Company / Great Lakes Region Booth 26-34
- Wild Olivia Sour Ale by Brickway Brewery & Distillery / Meet the Brewer Booth 17-15
Beers Worth Trying
- Peanut Butter Graham Cracker Porter by Denver Beer Co. / Meet the Brewer Booth 17-6
- Jalapeño Pineapple Pils by Brickway Brewery & Distillery / Meet the Brewer Booth 17-15
- Good News by Modern Times (Collaboration with Mumford Brewing) / Meet the Brewery Booth 20-20
- Hakuna Matata by Iron Hill Brewing & Restaurant / Meet the Brewer Booth 20-12
- Bourbon/Merlot Barrel Aged Sanctimonium by True Vine Brewing Company / Southwest Region Booth 15-21
Best Breweries
- Living The Dream Brewing Co. from Littleton, CO / Meet the Brewer Booth 18-7
- Iron Hill Brewing & Restaurant from Wilmington, DE / Meet the Brewer Booth 20-12
- MadTree Brewing from Cincinnati, OH / Great Lakes Region Booth 27-11
- Deep Ellum Brewing Co from Dallas, TX / Southwest Region Booth 102
- Against the Grain Brewery from Louisville, KY / Meet the Brewer Booth 151
Event Highlights
We had an amazing start to GABF! The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile made an unexpected & surprise appearance! They have some fun photo props, so be sure to grab your crew, find the wiener, & snag some epic photos!
Melvin Brewing Co. party in the back! They didn’t bring the bus this year, but they certainly still brought the energy & the party back to GABF! The live DJ is spinning epic jams & the beers just keep on flowing!
The food trucks lineup is strong this year! It is important to keep yourself hydrated and fueled to get through this event so we took a quick break and had some amazing BBQ from the SmokeStack 70 food truck! We highly recommend the Pulled Chicken BBQ Sandwich.
We ran into some of our beer friends throughout the evening, and made some new ones. Great beer really does bring great people together. Be sure to follow us on our social channels for live coverage as we head into night two! If you are attending & spot us in the crowd be sure to come say hi! You CAN always drink with us. ?
For more photos from this session, please check out our FACEBOOK ALBUM. CLICK HERE to check out our article on some other fun events that are happening this year!
For more event updates, check out Great American Beer Festival’s WEBSITE and follow them on their social media channels: FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM
Be sure to follow us on our social media and join the conversation with great people around great beers as we cover the 2019 Great American Beer Festival LIVE October 3rd-5th.
