Drinking in Boston: The Beer Olympics

Okay, so that Michael Phelps kid just won his sixth gold medal in Beijing the other day: he’s about to win the most golds any athlete has ever won in one Olympics. (That’ll be about the thirty-fifth in his collection.) Right. Good for him; he can swim fast. But can he brew a good beer?

Once the Games are finished we have but six weeks to wait impatiently for the Great American Beer Festival. This three-day-long event is half festival, half competition. In other words, no worries: we just have to sample, not brew. The judging and sampling takes place over three 4-and-a-half-hour-long sessions. On Saturday afternoon the gold, silver, and bronze medals are awarded. To any contrarians out there who whine, “But it’s only the US competing, not the whole world,” the Festival shoves over 1,800 beers in their face from nearly 400 brewers and asks for their keys.

Even if you can’t make it out to Denver this year, you can still root on your hometown favorites. Out of those hundreds of brewers, quite a few are from New England, including Maine’s Allagash Brewing and Vermont’s Otter Creek Brewing. Those representing Massachusetts include our own Cambridge Brewing Company, Harpoon Brewing Company, Haverhill Brewing, and (naturally…) Sam Adams.

Just as most of us are watching the events in Beijing from afar, an unfortunate number of us will be supporting the New England brewers from home this year. Since this isn’t a televised event (everyone knows how boring it is to watch other people drink), let’s say we put on our own festival, head out to our favorite bar, and drink ourselves golden with our much beloved local brew.

More info: The Great American Beer Festival, sponsored by The Brewers Association, takes place October 9th through the 11th in Denver, Colo. For more information, visit http://www.beertown.org/events/GABF/. Check out Drinking in Boston next week for a fest closer to home that’ll bring out the Belgian in ya.