Take a sip of Our Mutual Friend Brewing’s golden sour beer, and you get a clean, tart bite with tropical flavors and a good sense of how this won a silver medal in one of the most competitive categories at the .
The silver medalist — second only to well-established Lost Abbey in the barrel-aged sour category— is the first GABF medal for the 3-year-old Denver brewery. And the funny part is that it came as an afterthought.
A Colorado hop grower offered a bounty of Crystal hops that no one wanted, and the brewers thought, “Hey, let’s use these up and make a golden sour … and see what we would get,” recalled Brandon Proff at Our Mutual Friend. The result “is pretty stunning.”
Even a day before the GABF awards ceremony, the brewers talked about tweaking the hops and barrel-aging for 24 Frames Per Second.
“Then that all went out the window,” Proff said.
The initial reaction was “surreal,” followed in the days after by worry — about duplicating the beers and meeting the that a GABF medal generates.
“Now the conversation is maintaining our ability to … make it as good or better next time,” Proff said.
Thirty-one Colorado breweries in the recent festival, the second most for any state, behind only California’s overachieving 67 awards.
More than 6,600 beers were entered from 1,552 breweries across the nation, trying to score one of the 275 medals — the industry’s top prize — in 92 categories, according to the Boulder-based Brewers Association, which hosts the awards and three-day beer festival.
The Colorado medals included 10 first-time winners, which continues a trend from 2014, when 15 breweries won their first GABF hardware.
Steve Kurowski at the Colorado Brewers Guild marveled at the wide range of beer styles and brewers that won.
“It shows our diversity is second to none,” he said. “We are not just a one-trick pony in Colorado.”
Denver’s Spangalang Brewery won gold in a Belgian ale category with beer it submitted after being open only three months.
“We weren’t expecting it,” said Austin Wiley, one of the founders and a Great Divide Brewing veteran. “We didn’t even go to the awards ceremony because we didn’t expect to win.”
Lone Tree Brewing won silver in the light lager category, ending an 18-year sweep of the category by mega beer makers, such as Coors and Budweiser.
And the silver in the barley wine category — with a gluten-reduced beer, nonetheless — went to Wheat Ridge’s Brewery Rickoli which until recently was the smallest brewery in the state.
“I’ve been chasing this puppy for a while,” said Rick Abitbol, a former brewmaster at Rock Bottom. “It’s totally validating for sure.”
The medals offer a particularly significant boost to new breweries and undiscovered gems.
Steve Kaczeus at Bootstrap Brewing in Niwot is just about out of his Wreak Havoc, which won silver in the imperial red ale category — the brewery’s first medal. And it’s making him rethink the plan.
“It was a seasonal beer,” he said. “But now we are having to rethink that just because of all this demand. Everybody’s asking for it.”
John Frank: 303-954-2409, jfrank@denverpost.com or @ByJohnFrank
Staff writer Jeremy Meyer contributed to this report.
Where to find Colorado’s GABF gold medal winners:
Coors Banquet, Coors Brewing Co., Golden: This light lager is everywhere, in every liquor store or grocery in the country.
Super 77 Wheat, Wiley Roots Brewing Co., Greeley: This is the 2-year-old Greeley brewery’s flagship American-style wheat beer and can be found on draft at 30 bars and restaurants and 80 liquor stores from Parker to Fort Collins.
Oktoberfest, Fort Collins Brewery & Tavern, Fort Collins: This fall seasonal German-style Oktoberfest beer can be found in draft in restaurants and bars and in bottles around the metro area.
Fade to Black, Vol. 1, Left Hand Brewing Co., Longmont: This export stout is a seasonal release that is on draft at the brewery and will see full release to liquor stores this month.
Spangalang Table Beer, Spangalang Brewery, Denver: The only place to get this “other Belgian-style ale” is in the taproom, and it’s all gone for now. Check back in a month for a new batch.
Weißbier, Prost Brewing, Denver: This traditional German wheat beer is in bottles and can be found throughout the Denver area. It won in the south German-style Hefeweizen category.
Ctyat, AC Golden, Golden: This big Russian Imperial Stout with a 12 percent ABV is found only in bombers at specialty liquor stores. — Jeremy Meyer
n Imperial Stout with a 12 percent ABV won in the Wood and Barrel Aged Strong Stout category and is only found in bombers at specialty liquor stores.
–Jeremy Meyer, Denver Post
