DENVER — Stoutmeister here with our final recap from the final day of the Great American Beer Festival. Yes, VALHALLA has come and gone. We shed a silent tear. Our livers quietly rejoice. And thus, the tale ends.

So first, the news of the day involved the awards ceremony, which took place during the day before us mere plebes could enter the hall. Three New Mexico breweries took home four medals. Sierra Blanca’s Nut Brown Ale claimed gold, a major achievement for any brewery. Il Vicino’s special Milk Chocolate Cherry Stout snagged a bronze medal. Marble picked up a silver for Imperial Red and a bronze for the Double White. Considering that there were even more breweries entered in the awards categories than the 500-plus on the floor of the Denver Convention Center, this was an impressive haul for our little state. Congratulations to these three breweries and we look forward to what they will be producing in the future.

Anyway, back to us, as we walked down again around 4:30, only to find what seemed to be an even longer line than the one we faced on Friday. Things ultimately went smoothly in terms of getting inside the hall, but the crowd seemed to swell more quickly and never let up. I suppose since it was the final night things were bound to seem louder and more chaotic, but it still took us by a bit of a surprise. After a smooth run down one row of the Pacific Northwest, we suddenly found long lines and dwindling supplies of beer.

But hey, who’s really going to complain? I did try to mix it up a bit more than Friday in terms of different styles of beer, though usually the stouts/porters beckoned me more than the rest. Right off the bat in the Pacific Northwest I snagged samples of the Midnight Cascadian Dark Ale from Kulshan (Bellingham, Wash.) and the Hudson’s Bay Cascadian Dark Ale from Mt. Tabor (Vancouver, Wash.). They were fairly different, but both good in their own way as far as variations on the standard black IPA. A more standard, but still hop-tastic black IPA was the Back in Black from 21st Amendment (San Francisco). Betsy’s Brown Ale from Naked City (Seattle) topped the various brown ales I sampled, though the brown-like Reunion Ale ’12 from Terrapin (Athens, Ga.) was also good in a very different way. It was in many ways what Tractor’s “Nut What You Think” Brown Ale was supposed to be, only with one central flavor instead of multiple elements.

There were no true red ales that stood out to me, but a pair of ESB styles would be worth seeking out. The Royal Scandal, from Peticolas, was named one of the top beers in Dallas with good reason. Even burlier than that was the Winter Storm from Heavy Seas (Baltimore), which was an imperial ESB worthy of that name. Also from Texas was the snappy, snarky Ugly Pug from Rahr & Sons (Fort Worth), which was far meatier than most schwartzbiers.

Going on the seasonal front, the top Oktoberfest of the night came from Fredericksburg (Texas) Brewing, though Cigar City (Tampa) also had a solid Marzen ale. On behalf of Cassie, I made sure to seek out some pumpkin-style beers and ended up finding three different, but all excellent varieties in an ale from Shipyard (Portland, Maine), a porter from Redhook (Portsmouth, N.H.), and a stout from Elysian (Seattle) called Dark O’ The Moon. These were three of the best pumpkin beers I have ever tasted, so hopefully they will make their way to Albuquerque if they have not already.

For the porters, the best of ‘fest included Mudshark Porter from Fish Brewing (Olympia, Wash.), the Smoked Porter from Alaskan, and the Porter Pounder, a smoked beast from Ass Kisser Ales (San Jose, Calif.). On the stout front, one of the true standouts was the sweet but tough Rurik from Steelhead (Eugene, Ore.). We of course had to try the Darkside Stout from Silver Moon (Bend, Ore.), which won a gold medal at last year’s GABF. One of the meanest, thickest, smokiest stouts was the Pike 5X Stout from Pike Brewing (Seattle). Down from the southwest, Nightlight Irish Stout from Circle Brewing (Austin) is more like to turn your lights off. The Elda Milk Stout from No Label (Katy, Texas) is a perfect example of the sweet, smooth genre. The Buried Hatchet Stout from Southern Star (Conroe, Texas) could take a chunk out of you. And finally, for my very last beer of the night, I snagged the gold medal-winning Order in the Port, an American stout with oodles of flavor from Pizza Port’s San Clemente, Calif., brewery site.

Once again, E-Rock hit up a lot of the same breweries, but not all the same beers. Here was his take on our second night in VALHALLA: “I made an attempt to try unique beers last night. I enjoyed a great sour beer by Avery (Boulder, Colo.) titled Oud Floris, a tasty chai amber by Rogness called the Yogi, and a dark Belgian-style brewed by Ommegang (Cooperstown, N.Y.) that was christened XV in honor of the brewery’s 15-year anniversary. I also enjoyed Ninkasi Brewing’s Sleigher (Eugene, Ore.), BridgePort’s Hop Czar, Colorado Brewers Guild’s Porter’s Pride, Hops & Grain Brewing’s Alt-eration (Austin), Russian River Brewing Company’s Row 2/Hill 56, Pizza Port San Clemente’s Order in the Port, Alaskan Amber, 21st-Amendment’s Bitter American, Oakshire’s Espresso Stout (Eugene, Ore.), Rogue Brewery’s Hazelnut Brown Nectar, Full Sail’s LTD 03 (Hood River, Ore.), Steelhead Brewing’s Behemoth, Allagash’s Coolship Resurgam (Portland, Maine), Anderson Valley’s Wild (Boonville, Calif.), Pike’s Double IPA, Deep Ellum’s Rocktoberfest (Dallas), and Jester King’s Commercial Suicide Oaked Dark Mild (Austin).”

Now, we know a lot of these beers are not available in Albuquerque or New Mexico in general, but some of them could be, so it would be worth your time if you saw a style you like to go out and search for it. Or, when you have some vacation time to burn off, trek out to another state and visit some of these excellent breweries.

The GABF has taught us, well, more like reminded us, that there is great beer being brewed all across this crazy country of ours. This event was one-of-a-kind, truly one of the epic beer festivals anywhere in the world, if not the most epic of all. Every beer lover should come to Denver at least once in a lifetime.

Do not fret, though, we will return to Albuquerque on Monday and get back to the business of focusing on New Mexico’s breweries and beer scene. We encourage everybody to visit Broken Bottle to try the new Rob Van Winkle Vanilla Stout and come Oct. 26, Bosque Brewing will be open for business. There are more breweries on the way either later this year or next year, from Noisy River in Ruidoso to Roosevelt County Brewing in Portales. This is a grand time that we live in for delicious craft beer.

That is all from VALHALLA, 2012 edition. And yes, the GABF folks have already posted that we should all come back next October. If they insist.

Cheers!

— Stoutmeister