Here are the rest of our correspondent’s observations from this year’s Great American Beer Festival: (Read Part 1)

Strong Flavors and Higher Alcohol Content – As Americans are drinking more craft beer than ever before, the taste for higher alcohol content and more strongly flavored brews is growing similarly.  In this year’s GABF, it seemed Barleywines were being adopted by more breweries than in past years.  Although the variety of Barleywines differed widely (from ‘barley-wine style’ ales to something akin to thin molasses) in consistency,  it is clear that flavor profile of Barleywines is becoming more popular among the craft beer drinker.  I tried a number of brewer’s renditions and a must say the Sierra Nevada Bigfoot is the most polished, both in consistency and flavor, in my opinion.  Incidentally, a barleywine produced by Rob Miller of Albuquerque, New Mexico won one of the three slots in the LongShot homebrew six pack to be produced by Boston Beer Company (Samuel Adams).

Fruit – New Glarus Brewery in Wisconsin makes an incredibly fruity Raspberry Tart beer which you could put on your pancakes in the morning.  The Cranberry Lambic, although less to my liking was still quite good, and would also be suitable for pancakes.  Pumpkin Ales were more prevelant than in past years, with many of the breweries running out before the Saturday sessions.  It was easy to pick out the crowd favorites (New Glarus, Shorts, Dogfish Head) from the exceedingly long lines.  Other, more mild fruit flavors were also represented by various breweries: pear, apple (see ‘sour’ below), blackberry, blueberry.  These other fruit flavors were often extremely subtle and usually found in very light beers, probably in an attempt to cater to a more feminine palate or the non-beer drinker.

The Oatmeal Stout – The secret is clearly out.  Oatmeal stouts are a winning breed.  I must have tried two dozen oatmeal stouts and I can honestly say there wasn’t a real loser in the batch.  All were smooth and rich, classical aromas, with variation mostly in depth of flavor.  The flavors themselves were quite consistent between the breweries but my preference was the well-balanced, highly quaffable and simply titled Oatmeal Stout from Hays, Kansas.

Packaging – It is interesting to see small breweries struggle with growth.  Also interesting is the prejudice a craft beer drinker shows toward ANYTHING packaged in an aluminum can.  So here we have our conundrum. Will the craft beer maker potentially alienate his customer by stuffing his product into a can?  I talked with many people about this, brewers and consumers and here is the consensus.  Roughly 40% of the consumers I talked to prefer bottles to cans, most did not have a preference or had never quaffed a canned, craft beer.  Some consumers preferring bottles suggested the can seemed to impart a different flavor on the product. Others preferring bottles suggested the visual distinction between craft beers and mass production beers has always been bottles versus cans, making adoption of craft beer in cans a work in progress.  Brewers and distributors prefer the can for obvious reasons such as shelf life, ease of distribution versus bottles, and cost.

Without question the Great American Beer Festival has taken on a life of it’s own from it’s humble beginnings 30 plus years ago.  It is a cornucopia of flavors and good times that is now an integral part of the fall season here in Colorado.  New ideas and flavors, some rehashed after a few thousand years,  are making craft beer more palatable to more people; and with the successful craft beer operations moving toward packaging in cans, distribution of craft beers in can now reach far beyond their home state and perhaps outside the country.