Fairfax Brewery Pumped for Great American Beer Fest

One of the world’s biggest events in beer — aside, perhaps, from Munich’s Oktoberfest — is the annual Great American Beer Festival, held each year in Denver. And several area breweries are getting pumped for this year’s proceedings, which takes place Sept. 29 – Oct. 1.

Phil Meeker, assistant brewer at in Fairfax, will make his third visit on behalf of the Center Boulevard brewpub and his eighth overall. He spent six years working in Boulder, Colo., one of the must-stop sites for Great American Beer Festival revelers.

“People out here have no idea how big a deal it is,” he said.

Commonly known as the GABF, the event was first held in 1982, with one five-hour blind tasting session of the 24 beers entered. At this year’s three-day festival, there will be almost 18 hours of official tasting over four sessions, with 466 breweries in competition. Beers will be judged in dozens of vastly different styles, from light pilseners to hearty amber ales to super-potent barleywines.

Iron Springs, under veteran brewmaster , has entered the competition several times and not yet come away with a coveted GABF medals. Meeker said the brewing team is not going just for the gold, so to speak.

“We’ll put our best foot forward and go with a good attitude,” he said.  “It’s just a great opportunity to talk shop with fellow brewpubs and craft beer makers. Everyone’s on an equal plane.”

Iron Springs is entering 11 beers, which might sound like a lot but for a thriving brewpub it’s probably about average. from Healdsburg is entering 29 beers, for instance.

Other area breweries in the competition include Petaluma’s , Larkspur's Marin Brewing Co. and Novato's . Each of them have won multiple GABF medals through the years, but Iron Springs is looking for a breakthrough.

“We try to enter the beers we make the most of, to see how they perform,” said Meeker. Among them are flagship brews like the JC Flyer IPA, Epiphany Amber Ale, and Sless Oatmeal Stout. Some of the others include the Kent Lake Kolsch, Fairfax Coffee Porter and Black Magic Rye.

A featured aspect of GABF is the Pro-Am Competition, in which award-winning amateur craft brewers join with commercial breweries to pit their “home brew” against others. Iron Springs is working with Novato amateur Alan Atha, president of the Sonoma Beerocrats Homebrew Club.

“There doesn’t really seem to be a strong Marin brew club,” Meeker said. “We were looking for something that fit our style, that we could produce here [for the GABF].”

Atha’s entry is Luminesce Belgian Tripel, and the effort of brewing it onsite at Iron Springs was documented by another Beerocrats member in this video on Vimeo.

You can watch a live stream of Saturday’s GABF awards ceremony online at noon Pacific time. And after it’s all over, drop by Iron Springs to try some of the beers they entered, and make up your own mind. You'll probably find a winner.