The Great American Beer Festival celebrates its 27th year, and this city takes its suds very seriously.

The significance of the GABF
This year, the Great American Beer Festival will attract 46,000 people to the Colorado Convention Center. It’s possible to bump into someone there from just down the street — or from California or Belgium. Beer fans from far and wide know about and attend the GABF.

The GABF is part Oktoberfest; part Olympics of beer and ale (with gold, silver and bronze medals awarded in dozens of stylistic categories); and part whooping, Mardi Gras–like party, complete with costumes.

Festival-goers can sample more than 1,000 different beers — regulation-size one-ounce pour after one-ounce pour — from all across the United States. Sometimes the actual brewer will be there to pour it for you, him- or herself.

People throughout the entire hall hoot, howl, holler and screech whenever someone accidentally drops a tasting glass. Given all the commotion, you’d think the Broncos had finally won another Super Bowl.

Bagpipers play at the opening of each night’s session. The wailing might cause you to need a drink. Perhaps an Old Chub — a thick, malty-sweet Scottish-style ale made with smoked grains from Oskar Blues?

The Great American Beer Festival takes place October 9, 10 and 11. For more information, go to beertown.org/events/gabf.

Preparations
Charlie Papazian is looking forward to his 27th GABF. Papazian founded the festival in 1982, serves as the president of the Boulder-based Brewers Association and writes extensively about beer.

Papazian says, “Any time you put together almost 1,800 beers on tap all at one time from over 400 breweries, there are lots of logistics: from getting the beers to Colorado, to making sure the beers are cold and delivered to the proper space and poured at the proper temperature and under the proper conditions. The focus is on the beer. Months of effort go into making sure the beer arrives in great condition and is served to the beer drinker the way it was meant to be by the brewer. We are already planning for next year’s event.”

“We literally prepare year-round,” says John Legnard, the master brewer at the Sandlot Brewery at Coors Field. In 2005, Legnard won the GABF’s Small Brewing Company Brewer of the Year award.

Each year, Legnard waits for the detailed critique of his beers that the GABF judges — his peers — prepare for him. The tasting notes help him to adjust his recipes for the next go-round. Legnard says, “When you win a medal at the festival, it tells you that you’ve done a lot of things right.”

The State of Colorado Beer
Colorado makes “some of the best beers brewed in the world,” according to Papazian.

Denver has earned a reputation as a “microbrew mecca” (as a recent welcoming sign at DIA declares) and has been called “the Napa Valley of the beer world.” The state even experiences beer tourism. “We definitely have noticed that there are people traveling to Denver and to Colorado to tour breweries,” says Brian Dunn of Denver’s Great Divide Brewing Company, “and I think that’s amazing.”

Many Colorado brews have earned a vaunted reputation nationally. The following beers wound up, respectively, at the top of three different specialty tastings that The New York Times conducted: Ellie’s Brown Ale from Boulder’s Avery Brewing; Sawtooth Ale (an English-style bitter) from Longmont’s Left Hand Brewing; and Dale’s Pale Ale from Lyons’ Oskar Blues Brewery.

Each year, Colorado breweries bring home — or, rather, keep here in the state — medals awarded at the GABF. Winning breweries come from all over the map: Durango’s Steamworks, Idaho Springs’ Tommyknocker, Gunnison’s Gunnison Brewery, Colorado Springs’ Bristol Brewing and Denver’s Wynkoop Brewing Company. From small, mountain towns to Front Range cities, Coloradans make outstanding suds.

Recent Gold-Medal Winners
La Folie from the New Belgium Brewing Company in Fort Collins won in the “Belgian-Style Sour Ale” category in 2006. Papazian says of La Folie, a barrel-aged brew, “It’s an essay on the Old World Belgian-style tradition of fermenting beer in the wood with other microorganisms besides yeast.” He calls the beer “refreshingly acidic” and recommends it with dinner — although some enjoy the brew’s elegant, pucker-up tartness on its own.

The IPA from Odell Brewing Company in Fort Collins won in the “American-Style India Pale Ale” category in 2007. Papazian says of this generously hopped, smooth brew, “Unlike some IPAs, this one, in my opinion, does not leave a bitter impression. It leaves a floral-aromatic impression. The bitterness is so well-balanced and integrated with the other characters of the beer that you don’t remember it as bitter but as something that is full of flavor.”

Old Ruffian from the Great Divide Brewing Company won in the “Barley Wine-Style Ale” category in 2006. Barley wines are super-potent concoctions: Old Ruffian is 10.2% alcohol by volume with a strong nose of caramel, a cherry note on the tip of the tongue, and long-lasting hop and malt flavors. It’s aggressive, yet refined. Papazian says, “It’s not one of those beers that you knock down. It’s a beer that is meant for slow times when you really have to force yourself to take a moment to relax and enjoy the complexity of something special that a brewer has made especially for a beer drinker to savor.”

Tips for enjoying the GABF
Buy tickets ASAP. The festival is known to sell out. If possible, go on Thursday night when it’s less packed. Friday and Saturday draw huge crowds.

“Make sure you get something to eat before you go to the festival or as soon as you enter the festival,” says Papazian. “Having food in your belly will certainly help you appreciate and extend your experience.”

Know your limits. Some of the beers — such as Great Divide’s or Avery’s — are as strong as wine. At 27 percent alcohol by volume, Samuel Adams Utopias is even stronger.

Be polite, but not timid when navigating alongside other festival goers to the front of a crowded serving table.

Papazian says, “Have a plan: whether it’s visiting breweries by region, by beer style, by past winners. But don’t feel bad if you get off plan because that’s the way it is at the beer festival. There are so many exciting diversions.”

Some beers run out quickly. Some crowd favorites are the luscious, dessert-like raspberry and cherry beers from Wisconsin’s New Glarus Brewing Company and limited offerings such as 120 Minute IPA, a potent “extreme beer” brewed with a massive amount of hops, from Delaware’s Dogfish Head.

Try a great beer from a can: Oskar Blues’ Gordon (like the brewery’s impressive Dale’s Pale Ale on steroids), the watermelon wheat beer from San Francisco’s 21st Amendment or the milky coconut porter from Maui Brewing Company.

Many breweries now age beers in barrels that previously held wine or whiskey, imparting additional flavors. Check out, for example, the offerings from Santa Rosa, California’s Russian River or Chicago’s Goose Island.

Final Thoughts
Take it from beer expert Charlie Papazian, who earned a degree in nuclear engineering and has also taught art classes. He says brewing outstanding beer “brings out a blend of the best between science and art.” Get ready. It’s time, once again, to salute Colorado’s beer and ale alchemists at the GABF.