This past weekend marked the 2009 Great American Beer Festival (GABF) in Denver, Co. In case you’re unfamiliar, the GABF is the largest — and arguably most prestigious — commercial beer competition in the world. The number of entries in this year’s competition crushed the previous record (held by the 2008 GABF) with 3,308 entries from 495 breweries.

Gold, silver and bronze medals were awarded in 78 beer categories. The most competitive of which “was American Style India Pale Ale” with 134 entries. The gold medal went to Firestone Walker Brewing Co. (Paso Robles, CA), for their Union Jack India Pale Ale. This was the second straight year the beer won this award.

The second most hotly contested category was “Wood- and Barrel-Aged Strong Beer” with 110 entries (up from 79 in 2008). The gold medal went to Arcadia Brewing Co. (Battle Creek, MI), for their Cereal Killer Barleywine.

As they do every year, Colorado and California dominated the competition for the most medals won by each state. Colorado came out on top this year with 45 medals and the top five medal winning states were: CO (45), CA (39), OR (22), WA (13), PA (12).

You can view the entire 2009 medal list here (or click here for the PDF version) but the winners of the 2009 Brewery and Brewer of the Year Awards were:

Large Brewing Company and Large Brewing Company Brewer of the Year
Coors Brewing Company, Golden, CO; Dr. David Ryder

Mid-Size Brewing Company and Mid-Size Brewing Company Brewer of the Year
Flying Dog Brewery, Frederick, MD; Robert Malone

Small Brewing Company and Small Brewing Company Brewer of the Year
Dry Dock Brewing Company, Aurora, CO; Dry Dock Brewing Team

Large Brewpub and Large Brewpub Brewer of the Year
Pizza Port Carlsbad, Carlsbad, CA; Pizza Port Brew Guys

Small Brewpub and Small Brewpub Brewer of the Year
Chuckanut Brewery, Bellingham, WA; Will Kemper

Great American Beer Festival 2009 Statistics

• 457 breweries in the festival hall
• 2,100 beers served at the festival
• 49,000 attendees (includes brewers, volunteers and ticket holders)
• 3,000 volunteers
• 495 breweries in the competition
• 3,308 beers judged in the competition
• 78 categories judged + Pro-Am category
• 132 judges from ten countries
• Average number of competition beers entered in each category: 42
• Category with highest number of entries: 134, American Style India Pale Ale

And lastly, I must give a shout-out to the ONLY 2009 GABF winner from Maine – congratulations are in order for Allagash Brewing Co. who took home the silver in the “Belgian-Style Abbey Ale” category (58 entries) for their Tripel. Cheers!

Avast, me Hearties! Alright, it doesn’t have a whole lot to do with beer (although I can assume that pirates, when not swigging rum, enjoyed their fair share of tankards of ale) but today is International Talk Like A Pirate Day and I just wanted to wish you all a happy and prosperous one, full of bounty and booty.

Here are some fun links to peruse while you’re slogging away at some ale this afternoon. First, the official International Talk Like a Pirate Day website, so you can read up on the history of this glorious holiday and practice your Pirate Speak pickup lines; The Pirate Glossary, so you can brush up on your Pirate phrases, in case you’re a little rusty; my absolute favorite: PostLikeaPirate.com, which let’s you post directly to Twitter having translated each of your posts to Pirate speak; and this site produced by Google, which let’s you search the Google databases with everything translated to Pirate. They’re all way too much fun.

So have yourselves some fun today, drink some beer (but be sure and avoid a Grog Blossom) and shiver me timbers! Happy International Talk Like A Pirate Day, Ye Scurvy Dogs!

The folks at Redhook and Widmer Bros. (who run their East Coast operations out of their brewery in nearby Portsmouth, NH) have announced an upcoming Portland (Maine) event, which sounds like a definite do-not-miss!

On Tuesday September 15th, join the Redhook folks at Portland’s new The Salt Exchange (245 Commercial St. Portland, ME) for a “Beer & Cheese Social” featuring the handcrafted ales of Redhook and Widmer Bros. professionally paired with complimenting artisan cheeses. Eat, drink, socialize and learn about beer & cheese pairings from the pros.

Tickets are $12 in advance or $15 at the door. But there is a VERY limited ticket availabilty, so I recommend picking up your tickets in advance (not just to save a couple bucks). Plus, it looks like one lucky ticket holder will go home with an all-expenses-paid VIP night for two in Portsmouth, NH. The prize includes one night’s accomodations at The Sheraton Harborside (Portsmouth, NH), lunch or dinner at the Redhook Brewery and a VIP tour of the brewery itself (but you gotta be present at the social at the time of the drawing to win).

For more information or to reserve tickets, call The Salt Exchange at (207)347-5687. And I will see you there (come say hi, I’ll be wearing my “BlogAboutBeer.com is blogging this” t-shirt)!

As I’m sure many of you know, these days I reside in the beautiful Pine Tree State. But what you might not know is that I actually grew up in Washington D.C. (and still have a good deal of family in the D.C. Metro). And, having grown up in the Nation’s Capital in a big baseball-loving family at a time before there were such things as the Nationals, I went to a lot of Orioles games and am well familiar with the name Boog Powell.

Therefore I was pretty excited to discover a little writeup this morning on the upcoming first ever Baltimore Beer Week. According to The Baltimore Sun,

Boog Powell, one of baseball’s historic sluggers and a longtime friend of beer, will start Baltimore Beer Week with a mighty blow.Powell, who socked 339 home runs in his 17- year career, will crack open a cask of beer aboard the USS Constellation in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

The ticketed event, set for the evening of October 8th will inaugurate the first Baltimore Beer Week — a 10-day celebration from October 8-18th of the region’s strong brewing culture.

It sounds like the folks behind Baltimore Beer Week have some awesome events lined up for the inaugural event. For instance, The Brewers Association of Maryland will hold an Oktoberfest celebration on the 10th which will feature twelve Maryland breweries pouring nearly 75 beers (event to be held at the Timonium Fairgrounds); an event entitled the Wood Chesapeake Real Ale Festival, hosted by the aptly named Society for Preservation of Beers on October 17th, where 30-odd cask-conditioned ales will be tapped, and a Baltimore beer pioneer’s lunch on October 12th at Baltimore’s famous Bertha’s (you’ve probably seen the “Eat Bertha’s Muscles” bumper stickers) where the city’s rich beer history will be discussed.

And just in case there was any doubt as to Powell’s credentials for kicking off such a beer-filled week of festivities (in case Boog’s Barbecue at Camden Yards wasn’t enough to qualify him) he told the Baltimore Sun,

Powell played for the Orioles during the period when the team’s owner, Jerold C.  Hoffberger, also owned Baltimore’s National Brewing Company. ”At the start of a home stand every player would get a case of National beer,” Powell recalled. “Some players didn’t drink so, as a good teammate, I volunteered to relieve them of their beer.”

For more information on and tickets to any Baltimore Beer Week events, check out baltimorebeerweek.com.

If you live in or happen to be vacationing anywhere near the vacinity of the Pine Tree State this week, be sure and get yourself to Novare Res for two of the biggest beer events happening in Maine in two thousand and nine. First, tomorrow (Tuesday August 4th) sees the 2nd annual Dogfish Head Fest with 23 beers from the folks at Dogfish, including

Limited releases and all the rare shit. Pairings of 4 dfh beers with your choice of 4 meats, 4 cheeses, 4 fruits & nuts, or 4 chocolates. Plus a special superstar appearance of Sam Calagione, owner/brewmaster, from 6-8pm. Beers and pairings all day.

And if that wasn’t enough, this weekend (Friday August 7 and Saturday August 8th) checkout the second annual Rogue-a-palooza. This time it will be even bigger than last year, if that’s possible. Again, the most Rogue beers ever poured anywhere at any given time. But this year there are two additional beers being poured, for a total of 30 Rogue brews. Plus plenty of rare kegs and lots of give-aways. See you there!