“The Great American Beer Festival was one of my first craft-beer experiences after moving to Colorado. [It's] when I started homebrewing and allowed myself to indulge in the dream of owning a brewery someday,” says Scott Witsoe, the owner, head brewer, and dreamer at Wit’s End Brewing Company in Denver. “I spent many GABF sessions wishing I was on the other side of the table. I still think about this at each GABF and will never forget how lucky I am to be doing this.”
When Witsoe opened Wit’s End Brewing Co. (named as a play on his last name) in 2011, he started brewing one barrel at a time and quickly made a name for himself as one of Denver’s best brewers. This year, Witsoe and Wit’s End Brewer Pat McNerney accepted medals for the Jean-Claude Van Blond Ale—a bronze from World Beer Cup and the most recent gold medal for Belgian-Style Blonde Ale at GABF.
“This is Jean-Claude Van Blond,” Witsoe said proudly when he first poured me a sample in 2012. “It is 6.5 percent alcohol so it is stronger than your typical blonde ale is going to be in a craft brewery,” he explained. “I wanted something that had the complexity that you get from the Belgian yeast but still had the crispness of a blonde ale.”