The Great American Beer Festival (GABF) celebrates the wild diversity of commercial beer. Tiny operations looking for exposure may find themselves next to a big mega-brewery or maybe a heavy hitter in the craft world. In recent years, one of my favorite parts is the Pro-Am booth, where they serve commercial beers made from homebrewers’ recipes.
These pro-am partnerships are great deal all around. The breweries can step outside their normal routine, taking inspiration from the creative homebrew recipes. They also build goodwill with their local homebrewing community. For the homebrewers, there’s the excitement of playing on professional equipment, plus the recognition and the chance to to share their beer with a larger audience. Seeing your beer on tap at the local tasting room is an ego boost, but it’s even more thrilling if it makes it to the big show at GABF.
This year’s winners (2017) showcase the different directions these collaborations can go. First place went to “Just Another Pretty Face” American barleywine, from the Denver Beer Company and homebrewer Doug Thiel, while second and third went to a sour smoky beer (Lichtenhainer, Black Bottle Brewery/Daniel Tomkins) and a dark sour aged on raspberries (Eluxansis, Odell Brewing/Mark Boelman). Only three beers could medal, but there were plenty of interesting, tasty choices at the Pro-Am booth.