DENVER, CO - For the first time, enthusiastic beer drinkers at the 16th Annual Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colorado, not only found all four brands of Hoppy Brewing's current portfolio available to sample, but they were also treated to an unexpected medal winner as well.
"This year there were 853 breweries, 1848 different different beers, and 50 categories that the judges had to deal with. That's alot of beer to taste," comments an excited Mr. Troy Paski, Hoppy Brewing's President. "Anyway, after watching the winners in the "real" beer categories, I'd basically given up hope of winning a medal this year. So I was giving tours of winning breweries to some guests when it got close to our last entry [number 46 out of 50] when I figured I'd better go check to see if we'd won something. I was talking with Peter Coogan [from the Tied House] about the Herb/Spice category, when we see the Frederick Brewing Company's - Hempen Ale win the Bronze, and then Hoppy Claus comes up winning the Silver! Talk about being totally surprised," adds an ecstatic Mr. Paski.
"The neat thing about the Hoppy Claus, is that it is made with a reduced amount of hops, and in place we used a rather large amount of an herbal tea," comments Mr. Bob Utley, Hoppy's Consumer Sales Manager. "In addition, Troy found some cases in a distributors warehouse after the holiday season and brought them back and stored them during the year to see how they would age out, and as you can see by the medal, they appear to have aged out wonderfully," finishes an excited Mr. Utley.
"Unfortunately, because of our recent acquisition of American River Brewing, along with our desire to regrow the American brands and production constraints, we just won't be able to brew up a fresh batch of it this year in time for the holiday season. However, who knows maybe by next year we'll be able to make a batch of it again," concludes a still excited Mr. Paski.
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HOPPY HITS DENVER - short chronicle by Troy Paski...
Day One Arrival in Denver...
Walking through DIA I heard my name being called, and after a few attempts at zeroing in on its source, I realized that Tom Daldorf (owner/editor of the Celebrator Beer Magazine), and Jay Brooks (corporate beer buyer for Beverages & more!)> were trying to get my attention. They asked if I was going to rent a car, and after telling them that I was just going to take the shuttle, they insisted that I just ride into town with them...
Upon arriving, Tom asked if anyone had plans, and if not, would we be interested in stopping by Wynkoop for a beer and lunch on his "tab". Well Jay and I weren't in the mood to disagree at this point...
There were a couple of beers that were [really] good, and Tom said that it's been rumored that they "tune" their beer up for the week of the GABF... After leaving, checking into my hotel, watching the Giants lose painfully in Game 2, and hooking up with my friend Rob (from Boulder) and his friend Toby (my ticket to Monday Night Football), we proceeded to head towards the Adams Mark Hotel where the Brewers Reception Dinner was being held.
This was quite a site to see all of the brewers in the industry there under one roof actually socializing with one another. I wonder what other industry one could get all of the competition together and have them get along??? When Rob brought this point up, I told him that there were basically brewer's there - not the Sales & Marketing forces, which I feel is responsible for creating those abrasive feelings out there in the industry...
Anyway, after a stop at Rock Bottom, and a stop at the Cruise Room (a perfect Art Deco bar), and losing Rob and Toby to their bus-ride home, I stopped at the Falling Rock (36 handles on tap) to check the place out. I ran into, and then got into a lengthy conversation with Marcia Schirmer (former director for the GABF). Her mission this year is to try all of the beers...
Day Two - The Awards Ceremony...
See the above story if you have not already done so...
Anyway, after three years of tasting medal winners, I've come to this conclusion... The IPA winners use Columbus hops... Most medal winners brew "in your face" beers... I've thought the Hoppy Face was a "in your face" beer when we got into the business, but now it is [way tame] in comparison to what's out there on the market. The Hoppy Claus [is] a "in your face" type of beer...
Day Three - The Industry Session and the first Public Session.
The Industry Session Friday afternoon is great, because there's not many people and you get a chance to visit with people and try some good beer. I ran into David Gausphol, who used to be in charge of the Beer Camp in Kentucky, and now has several stores in Kentucky and Ohio specializing in craft-brewed beers... He expressed great interest in wanting to be able to carry our beers in his stores, which is GREAT since this guy is greatly respected at the top of our industry!!! We'll definitely work on a relationship here. Anyway, the packaging awards started at 3:00pm. We didn't win any awards, but those who did, all had high profile advertising agencies behind them.
The weather in Denver the whole time was just absolutely awesome, so I chose to sit outside at Champion's Brewery for an early dinner between between session breaks...
The Public Session was literally a crowded zoo... At one point Mark and I left to go to Rock Bottom, just to get out of the crowd and watch the Giants go down in flames... We also ran out of tattoo's...
Day Four - Two Public Sessions.
Saturday's first session was light and tame in comparison to the previous nights crowd. However, Saturday evenings show saw Paul and I working our butt's off helping our volunteers, talking about our beers and etc... Upon closing we packed everything up so that we didn't have to return in the morning to claim our banner and stuff...
Day Five - The trip to Boulder.
Picked up stuff left at Tommy's and headed to Boulder at Rob and Beth's place on Sunday for a deep fried BBQ Turkey via Rob's new 60 quart cooker, and some of the best damn smoked pork via Paul's smoker that I've ever had... Activities were relatively calm compared to last year, and our interest in watching Sunday night football...
Day Six - Mile High Stadium.
Talk about a structure of steel and 70,000 something plus fans hell bent on supporting their team... That place rocks when it comes to devotion of their Broncos... Even though they'd put the game away, there was nary a fan who'd left until the game was over...
Day Seven - The Flight Home.
Upon arrival, Josh whisks me away to do some TV "man about town" thing being filmed at the Arena by Dan Orloff's PR firm and being conducted by Jamie Carr...
After several phone conversations, going through mail, and basically trying to catch up, bed ensued. Upon waking, I realized that I just wasted two tickets to the Sharks game the night before... :( Sorry Guys!!!
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HOPPY TALES OF RECENT EVENTS!!!
SAN JOSE, CA - The Hoppy Crew made a stop on Thursday, October 02nd at the Camera Three Theater (288 S. Second St.) in San Jose for an intimate little tasting in their cafe, all while the acoustic sounds of CarboNation kept your ears in tune from 9-11pm. Josh Williams (our mad brewer about town) put this unique event together with David Leyson, who is in charge of Special Projects at the Theater. Josh was on hand to answer most any question about brewing, and him and Mr. Bob Utley got real time news from Troy about the Hoppy's winning a silver medal.
For more information about the Camera Theater, please visit their web site at http://www.cameranet.com, or phone them at 408.998.0932.
SAN JOSE, CA - Thursday, October 09th found the Hoppy Crew and the Mission Ale House (97 E. Santa Clara St.) in San Jose had a [very] special "pint night" with Hoppy Face pints for only $2.50 from 7:00pm until they closed (about 2:00am). Members of the Hoppy Crew were on hand spinning out trivia questions throughout the evening, and for those who were hip on Hoppy, they won some very special prizes too.
For more information about the Mission Ale House, please visit their web site at http://www.missionalehouse.com, or phone them at 408.292.4058.
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NOTE: The following excerpts are from a book called "The Fifth Discipline, by a group of authors from the Center for Organizational Learning at MIT's Sloan School of Management.
The core of learning organization work is based upon FIVE "learning disciplines" - lifelong programs of study and practice:
* Personal Mastery - learning to expand our personal capacity to create results we most desire, and creating an organizational environment which encourages all its members to develop themselves toward the goals and purposes they chose.
* Mental Models - reflecting upon, continually clarifying, and improving our internal pictures of the world, and seeing how they shape our actions and decisions.
* Shared Vision - building a sense of commitment in a group, by developing shared images of the future we seek to create, and the principles and guiding practices by which we hope to get there.
* Team Learning - transforming conversational and collective thinking skills, so that groups of people can reliably develop intelligence and ability greater than the sum of individual members' talents.
* Systems Thinking - a way of thinking about, and a language for describing and understanding, the forces and interrelationships that shape the behavior of systems. This discipline helps us see how to change systems more effectively, and to act more in tune with the larger processes of the natural and economic world.
To practice a discipline is to be a lifelong learner on a never-ending developmental path. A discipline is not simply a "subject of study." It is a body of technique, based on some underlying theory or understanding of the world, that must be studied and mastered to put into practice. As you develop proficiency, your perceptual capacity develops; you gradually surrender to new ways of looking at the world. For example, once you begin to master team learning or systems thinking, it is very difficult to play the old office game of optimizing your position at the expense of the whole.
Some people have an innate gift for a discipline, but an innate gift is not the key to mastery: many people have great artistic talent but never produce any art of consequence because they do not follow a lifelong process of honing and developing their talent. In organizations, we believe the people who contribute the most to an enterprise are the people who are committed to the practice of these disciplines for themselves - expanding their own capacity to hold and seek a vision, to reflect and inquire, to build collective capabilities, and to understand systems.
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