During the first week in October, Denver again played host to the Great American Beer Festival, the largest celebration of craft beer in the United States. The competition portion of the event gives breweries large and small a chance to show how good their beer really is, at least in the eyes of seasoned beer judges. Most judging categories had dozens of entries, and some had more than 300 this year. A number of first-year Colorado breweries came away with a medal, and one of them is Platt Park Brewing Company. This south Denver brewery took a silver medal for Gump's Vienna-style Lager, and I was able to try a glass when it was re-released this weekend.
Platt Parking Brewing has had an exciting and interesting year since it opened in late spring. The brewery opened as Denver Pearl Brewing Company, but quickly ran into issues with its name. Two other breweries had claims to the words "Denver" and "Pearl," respectively, so rather than try to fight a legal battle, the owners of Denver Pearl decided to change names. The new name was unveiled in early September, and it's been smooth sailing for the brewery ever since. I had stopped in when the brewery first opened to try some of their beers, and finally made my return visit on Friday night to get a taste of their medal-winning Gump's Lager.
The GABF judges are not obligated to award medals in each of the 90 beer categories if they don't think enough entries are worthy of such prestige, so a silver medal means that Gump's Lager really is an excellent beer. As a Vienna-style lager, it pours a clear golden brown with a prominent white head of foam. It has an aroma of cracker, biscuit, and earthy, floral hops. Gump's Lager has a very clean lager taste, with malty flavors of bread and biscuit, and a strong noble hop flavor that gives it a spicy, earthy quality. Substantial bitterness comes through on each sip, along with a clean, dry finish. It's a balanced, crisp, delicious lager that would go well with many different foods, or is just fine on its own.
Along with Gump's Lager, Platt Park Brewing has a really nice variety of beers on tap right now. Several others I sampled on this visit are a smooth and creamy pumpkin ale on nitro, a sour Berliner Weisse that's more tart than most of its kind, an excellent schwarzbier, a very tasty barrel-aged amber ale, and an imperial IPA that's loaded with crisp citrus hop flavors. Platt Park Brewing is located in the heart of a hip, historic Denver neighborhood, and its taproom that's friendly for families and dogs makes for a great place to spend a couple hours socializing and enjoying some great beer. Give it a try soon if you have the chance!
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