Central City’s Beer Fest better than GABF

Brewers and patrons weigh in on favorite festival and brews

By David Josselyn

The Great Central City Beer Fest transpired on Saturday, August 24 where twenty local brewers erected tents along Main Street and tapped their chosen varieties for guests to sample. Colorado is home to the Great American Beer Fest (GABF); the largest ticketed beer festival in the United States and one of the largest in the world.GABF started in 1982 in Boulder, Colorado with 22 breweries and today attracts thousands of breweries from over the world and more than 60,000 attendees. In contrast, the Central City Business Improvement District introduced the Great Central City Beer Fest eight years ago which has grown to about twenty breweries and hundreds of attendees. The Central Beer Fest will never be much bigger without changing venues, but that’s just the way the brewers seem to like it. Asking each brewer which event is better, the majority did not hesitate to say Central City has the better festival. The GABF gives brewers the opportunity to win awards for their products, see friends from outside the state, and taste beers from around the world that they would not normally have access to. However, GABF also tends to be overwhelming, does not allow brewers to have conversations with people sampling the beer, and most attendees don’t seem to care about the beer, all in all not a great venue. Central City; on the other hand, is a low-key, intimate setting with a better crowd. Steve Fletcher of Colorado Native says he “loves coming to this festival, the people are great” and he gets to hang out with his “brewing buddies.” Tom Hail of the Sandlot Brewery says Central City has “better people” and you can “hold a conversation” with the attendees. John Law of New Terrain Brewing hesitated to say Central City was his favorite because, “If it were warmer, it would be better.” The day started mostly cloudy and stayed in the mid-60s until the mid-afternoon when it warmed up to the 70’s, but the sun barely made an appearance before the cold shadows enveloped the street.