The kegs have been emptied and the floors wiped down in Denver, where the Great American Beer Festival wrapped up on Saturday. That was the day winners were announced in dozens of different beer style categories, from the lightest of American-style lagers to the richest of Russian Imperial Stouts. The numbers are impressive: a record 4,338 beers were submitted by 666 American breweries. Of those beers, less than 6% earned a medal.

While not all breweries poured their beers for the public on the festival floor, the awards ceremony had to be moved elsewhere in order to accommodate the record number that did. Indeed, the festival’s growth mirrors the nationwide growth of craft beer, and some New York breweries were lucky enough to take home coveted GABF medals.

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We’re probably off getting sloshed in the afternoon at some bar or brewery in Denver. But we’re not bragging or anything. Actually, seriously, we’re not - there’s a lot of great beer events happening right here in New York this weekend, Great American Beer Festival (obligatory photo above) be damned! 

Check out our rundown of the weekend’s beer events after the jump.

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The floor of last year’s Great American Beer Festival featured several hundred brewers, including a handful from New York (Photo © Jason Kaplan)

The annual Great American Beer Festival kicks off today in Denver, and several local brewers will help to put the New York beer scene on the map for a crowd of 50,000 beer drinkers from all across the country. 17 breweries from New York State will have booths at the festival this year, up from 12 last year. An additional four breweries with beers pouring in the festival’s “Support Your Local Brewery” pavilion. That means nearly a quarter of the state’s breweries are represented, including three from New York City.

But representation is light here compared to out West, as East Coast brewers realize that pouring in Denver is not nearly as important as pouring at home. “We’d probably only pour out there if our beer got out there,” one co-founder of a local brewery told us last month. And that’s the reality of GABF: the vast majority of attendees aren’t ever going to be exposed to small brewers’ beer in any other place but one festival session in Denver. So why sink money to send beer, premiums, banners, and people out to Denver?

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It’s Wednesday, October 10th. Here’s our list of recommended beer-related events in and around New York after work tonight:

• Idle Hands Bar (25 Avenue B, at 2nd St., East Village) hosts their weekly $10 Bourbon and Beer Tasting Series. This week’s theme is All-American Oktoberfest beers, with choices like Flying Dog Dogtoberfest, Victory Festbier, Left Hand Oktoberfest, and Narragansett Fest. From 7-10pm, $10 gets you 2 full beers, a 3-beer tasting flight, a shot of Jager, a shot of Barenjager, and an order of tater tots with an Oktoberfest-themed dipping sauce!
  
  
• Brooklyn Brewery is giving out free pint glasses tonight from 6-8pm to celebrate the release of the Comic-Con themed beer Defender IPA at New York Beer Company (321 W. 44th St., at 8th Ave., Midtown West). Taste a brand-new beer and get a free Tony Millionaire-designed pint glass!
  
  
• Taproom 307 (307 3rd Ave., at 24th St., Murray Hill) hosts Blue Mountain Brewery tonight at 6pm. Get your hands on some of the first beer from this Virginia brewery to hit Manhattan!

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In terms of food, what screams fall more than apples, sausages, and beer? The Tour De France Restaurant Group throws their weeklong festival of fall fruit, tubed meat, and fermented brew next week, and they’re doing it in style with their Apples, Sausages, and Beer Festival Kickoff next Thursday night, October 18th at the 404 Event Space (404 10th Ave., at 33rd St., Chelsea). The kickoff features great beer-and-food pairings from 11 different restaurants with some hard-to-spot brews.

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