Play Some Heavy Medal
Play Some Heavy Medal
Six NY breweries win at GABF and more takeaways from the nation's biggest beer fest
I’m back from another trip to Great American Beer Festival in Denver — by my count, my 14th — and it was equally exhausting and invigorating.
It was exhausting because I made several poor decisions: visited several breweries on an afternoon before a session, mixed two of Colorado’s most popular substances (no, not the one the state recently decriminalized, which was coincidentally having its own conference at the same convention center at the same time), and took a Saturday night redeye home with a brutal 5:40am arrival at JFK.
It was invigorating because every visit to this festival re-energizes my passion for this industry, all the kind people, new angles, and excitement that people still have for good beer, despite all the obituaries that have been written for the industry this year. There were a lot of changes to the festival this year, most of which I recapped last week, but whatever vibe that the festival’s organizers were trying to curate this year definitely seemed to work. There was an energy on the convention center floor this year that was definitely lacking last year. Was there one thing that changed it, specifically? Not really. I saw plenty of beer in people’s glasses despite fears about welcoming cider and seltzer into the event. I saw lots of costumes from attendees, volunteers, and even brewers who embraced its more permanent timing during Spooky Season. And even if there were fears about “Sober October,” it was hard to miss the plentiful options for non-alcoholic beer and hop water in every area of the festival.
It was also great to connect with old friends in the beer (and beer writing) industry, even in passing, and I loved finding new-to-me breweries that I need to visit in the future, including Vine Street Brewing Co. in Kansas City, Helper Beer in Utah, and Milieu Fermentation in Aurora, Colorado. GABF, after all, is still about discovery, because there’s always more to discover in American beer.
New York breweries win six medals at GABF
Six New York state breweries, including one in New York City, took home medals at this year’s Great American Beer Festival in Denver last weekend. Strangebird Brewery, Heritage Hill Brewhouse, New York Beer Project, Hudson Valley Brewery, Soul Brewing Co., and Brooklyn Brewery all scored wins in the 38th annual edition of the competition, which featured nearly 9,000 beers from breweries in all 50 states, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico in 102 categories. This matched New York’s strong showing at the festival last year, when the state’s breweries also took home six medals.
Of note, three of the six winning breweries were first-time GABF winners, and one of the winning breweries hasn’t won a medal in more than a decade.
Strangebird Brewery won bronze in the American Fruit Beer category for their Bird Light Yuzu. They competed among 108 entries. It’s the first GABF medal for the Rochester-based brewery that opened back in 2021, and it will hang next to their World Beer Cup bronze from earlier this year and their 2022 Brewery of the Year award at the New York Beer Competition.
Heritage Hill Brewhouse in Pompey, southeast of Syracuse, won silver for their Coconut Cluster in the Dessert Stout or Pastry Stout category, among 50 entries. It’s the second GABF medal for Heritage Hill (their first came in 2019), and it’s the third medal for this particular beer this year — it also won gold in the Pastry Stout category at the New York State Beer Competition this year, and in the same contest was awarded Best New York Farm Beer.
New York Beer Project’s Beer Lodge in Orchard Park won gold in the Experimental India Pale Ale category for their Hazy Crush. The category had 86 entries. It’s the second medal for New York Beer Project, which has multiple locations across two states, and the second year in a row one of their breweries has medaled.
Winning a medal in the Fruited American Sour Ale category was Hudson Valley Brewery in Beacon, who won gold for their Peach Silhouette among 165 entries. It’s the first medal for the acclaimed farm brewery that specializes in sours, which has been brewing beer since 2017.
The state’s biggest win came in the form of a gold medal in the German-Style Maerzen category, the fifth most competitive category in the festival, with 195 entries. Soul Brewing Co.’s Pleasantbräu Oktoberfest was awarded gold. It’s the first medal for the Westchester County brewery (located, not surprisingly, in Pleasantville) since they opened in March of 2020.
Finally, Brooklyn Brewery won a bronze medal in the Specialty Non-Alcohol Beer category for its Special Effects Grapefruit IPA, among 37 entries. It’s the state’s first win in a non-alcoholic beer category, Brooklyn’s first GABF medal since 2013, and Brooklyn’s 12th GABF medal overall.
Great American Beer Festival will return next year, October 9th through 11th in Denver.
Beer Events of Note This Week
Bronx: Bronx Brewery Tattooed Pumpkin Release, Friday 10/18 from 6pm, free entry
Brooklyn: Barcade 20th Anniversary Party, Saturday 10/19 from noon-close (all ages from noon-5pm), free entry
Staten Island: Flagship Roggenfest, Saturday 10/19 from 2pm-midnight, free entry
Brooklyn: Smorgasburg Beer Fest, Saturday 10/19 from 11am-6pm, free entry
Brooklyn: Hops Hill Joctoberfest, Wednesday 10/23 from noon-close, free entry
Brooklyn: Fourth Avenue Pub 18th Anniversary, Thursday 10/24 from 5pm-close, free entry
Brewery Tracker
Total brewery count: 3,544
Total breweries visited in 2024: 260
Total breweries visited in New York: 293
Brewery Visit of the Week
Brewery #2361, Soul Brewing Co., Pleasantville, New York (Visited 11-Sep-2021)
I finally made it to Soul Brewing Co. in September of 2021 after being a huge procrastinator. After all, they opened just a few days before the March 2020 lockdown. I shamed myself for missing out at the time. The brewery is just a stone’s throw from the Pleasantville Metro-North station, which is less than an hour from Grand Central. Pleasantville hadn’t had a brewery since Captain Lawrence left their somewhat run-down original digs just south of downtown in 2012, so Soul was a welcome addition to the town.
There was a steady stream of drinkers enjoying the outdoor seating on a sunny Saturday when I first visited, but the vibe inside at the long bar is just as relaxed. On my first visit, I started with the enjoyable Sly West Coast IPA (named for Sly Stone of Sly and the Family Stone), a clean, bitter palate assault with a touch of caramel malt character. The Soulstice, a Belgian Dark Strong Ale, shined with its 8.5% ABV heft and the addition of figs and cinnamon. On my next visit, I enjoyed Freya’s Weizen, a dialed-in hefeweizen that was a welcome revisit with a style you don’t see around these parts too often. And the El Tropical Hazy IPA lived up to its name in every way.
Congrats to Soul on winning gold at GABF! I’ll be back again soon, and I won’t procrastinate as much next time.
The Doom and Gloom Tracker
At least 2 breweries I’ve visited closed or announced their closure this week:
Brewery #1524, Temperance Beer Company, Evanston, Illinois (Visited 3-May-2019)
Brewery #3471, Historically Hoppy Brewing Company, Jacksonville, Florida (Visited 25-Jul-2024)
The Weekly Reader
News from Jersey: Montclair Brewery is expanding to East Orange [Kristin Wald, Montclair Local]
The evolution of American IPA [Joe Stange, Craft Beer & Brewing]
Baby born in brewery parking lot, hilarity ensues [Katie Rosendale, Josh Sanchez, WOOD]
Oktoberfest beer is something completely different in the US [Jeff Alworth, Beervana]
One Last Thing
It was really nice to hang out last night at Gold Star Beer Counter for Pints for Zillicoah, an event that helped support the Asheville brewery rebuild. Another effort has emerged to help brewers in Western North Carolina recover from Hurricane Helene: Higher Calling, a beer collaboration with several partners helping to raise money for the NC Craft Brewers Foundation, which has a hardship grant program to help support breweries impacted by the storm. Here’s hoping we can see some of our local breweries help chip in by brewing this beer!
Cheers,
Chris