Anyone who has been to the Great American Beer Festival before, knows how massive the event is and how overwhelming it can feel when you first walk into the Colorado Convention Center. With so many amazing beer options to try and so little time, where do you even start? The Great American Beer Festival 2022 this year is the first time GABF has been able to be in person since 2019 thanks to the pandemic, we thought we should share some pro tips that we have learned over the years. After all, even the fans who go year after year could use a refresher after a two year hiatus. The best part?! GABF is celebrating it’s 40th Anniversary so it’s bound to be even more EPIC!
Tip #1: CHECK OUT THE BREWERIES/BEERS LIST & THE MAP TO MAKE GAME PLAN
You can check out the full brewery + beers list that was just released on the Great American Beer Festival website HERE. This allows you to have a game plan for your must haves during your session(s) and helps make sure that you don’t miss out on anything you really want to experience. We highly recommend going through and flagging the beers that you really want to try, so when you get inside the festival you have a game plan for which booths you need to get to.
Also, be sure to check out the map of where the breweries are located. This way you can group together ones you want to visit in the same area and not get lost!
Note, there are a handful of breweries that are extremely popular and tend to run out of their most popular beers much quicker. You’ll generally be able to spot them by the long lines so if they are on your list we definitely suggest visiting them first.
Tip #2: DRINK LOTS OF WATER
With unlimited beer samples, water is crucial in setting yourself up for success. Remember to stay hydrated throughout the session to help limit yourself from getting sick. It’s easy to get excited about all the beer samples that you forget to continue to drink water throughout the whole session and end up feeling dehydrated before you know it. The more water you drink throughout, the more you will ultimately enjoy your experience.
Tip #3: FOOD, SNACK, SNACK, & SNACK SOME MORE
Most people know that you should have a decent meal before heading into any beer festival with unlimited samples. On top of doing that, we recommend that you bring plenty of snacks to munch on in-between your beer samples. You can go all out and build a fancy pretzel necklace or you can simply put some snacks in your bag to munch on throughout the festival. Again, the more you snack throughout the more you will keep yourself from getting too drunk and allow yourself to enjoy the experience more.
Tip #4: ATTEND A BEER PAIRING EVENT
With so many beers to try, it’s easy to look past the other amazing events going on during the festival. Don’t get so caught up trying to taste all the beers that you miss out on some of the other presentations that they do. We recommend at least fitting in one beer pairing or cooking with beer event that they have scheduled. It’s a nice break from trying just beer and will give you some new inspiration when it comes to how you can enjoy beer in different ways.
Tip #5: MAKE A LIST OF BREWERIES TO VISIT WHILE YOU ARE THERE
Chances are that at some point everyone who is attending the Great American Beer Festival 2022 will have some down time to explore the Colorado beer scene. We recommend knowing which breweries you would like to visit ahead of time so you can work them into your schedule. There are some great ones throughout Denver, but also a few that are 30 minutes to 2 hours away that you may want to take a drive to experience.
Tip #6: BRING A BAG FOR SWAG
Most breweries are giving away some sort of free keepsake. You’ll want to have somewhere to put those little trinkets as you go from booth to booth. Keychains, stickers, koozies, oh my!
Tip #7: GO TO THE GABF STORE FIRST
You’ll want to go straight to trying the beer, after all that’s why you traveled all this way to the biggest beer festival in the United States right!? We don’t blame you, however, if you are wanting to take home some cool swag from GABF you may want to grab it when you first get there before the lines get even longer or you drink too much beer and forget to stop by on your way out. They have some cool brewery t-shirts and some exclusive GABF merchandise that is worth you stopping by and we bet since this is the 40th Anniversary it will be even more EPIC!
Tip #8: BRING A CAMERA
Can someone say BEERTOGRAPHY!? You’ll have some great opportunities to get some cool shots of the booth setups and the beer that you will definitely want to be sharing on your social media pages to make all your friends at home jealous. Be sure to use #GABF on your photos too so you can also share your photos with everyone else in attendance.
Tip #9: DRESS UP
Here’s your chance to get creative. No one will judge you at the Great American Beer Festival 2022 when it comes to your all out beer themed outfits. We’ve legit seen it all over the years, and honestly it’s one of the things that we look forward to seeing the most. But don’t worry if you don’t want to go all out, you can simply wear your favorite brewery tee or tank with some beer socks and still fit right in.
Tip #10: AVOID YOUR HOMETOWN BREWERIES
We know, we know. You love your home town breweries and want to have all your favorite beers from them and show your support but, you can have them anytime back home! Remember 800 breweries, 2,000+ beers. You won’t be able to get through them all so you should take the time to discover breweries you wouldn’t otherwise have the chance to discover without traveling!
We hope you find these tips useful as you gear up for one amazing beer experience! As you know our philosophy is great beer brings great people together and we hope y’all have a blast!
For more information the Great American Beer Festival, be sure to check out their:
WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | #GABF
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