We'll be at this annual beer mecca, and, if you choose to follow our progress on Facebook and Twitter, you can be there, too (virtually). iPhone in hand, we'll be sending photos and updates about what we're drinking, eating, seeing, and learning–as much as we can each day until the combination of heightened elevation and alcohol take hold. If you have any tips to help us keep our wits about us or suggestions for places we should go–let us know in the comments section. Details on our trip after the jump.

Much like DC put on an unofficial beer week for Savor, Denver builds its own beer week around GABF so all the beer fanatics like us in town have plenty to do. Events on our beertinerary include a progressive Great Divide beer dinner and brewery tour, a rare beer tasting at Wynkoop, and the Boulder County Brews Cruise, an all-day trip with tours and tastings at Avery, Oskar Blues, Left Hand and Boulder Beer. We are planning a day trip to Fort Collins to tour New Belgium Brewery, and we hope to drop by Falling Rock and Cheeky Monk, two great beer bars in Denver, if our livers hold out.

So, if you're looking for a beer staycation, bookmark us now and then check in later for updates. Cheers!

Photo by Herkie used under a Creative Commons license.

At some point, everyone has wondered why the latter three Belgian beers have been named in relation to each other. Is there math involved? If so, what factor is being multiplied? Speculation runs high, and we have heard claims of all kinds. "The styles have twice, three times, and four times the alcohol content of the monks' basic brew." "No, it's the malt that's doubled, tripled, and quadrupled in the recipes." "It has nothing to do with ingredients. Most people couldn't read back then, so the barrels of types of beer were marked with one, two, or three X's." "It's how many times the beer has been fermented."

Each account has a bit of truth to it, but none is entirely correct. The simplest (while still accurate) answer is that the names have to do with the amount of malt used. However, the full explanation has more to do with an old brewing process in which the same malt was used for multiple batches of beer than it does with simple math and the unique characteristics that each style has come to exhibit today.

Hopefully those of you who attended the "Hitting for the Cycle" Belgian beer event at Marvin last night got a proper account. Sly Fox brewmaster Brian O'Reilly, who the Lagerheads got to meet during a Pennsylvania brewery tour a few weeks ago, has written what appears to be the most succinct and accurate explanation of the origin of the names available online. (Scroll down to the "From the Brewer" section.) It gets a little technical so you may want to check this out to brush up on the  steps of the brewing process and basic brewing terminology before reading it. (Beer Snob Warning: In the video, they use hop pellets instead of flowers and refer to two weeks of conditioning as "aging." Don't hate.)

Historically, the enkels (the monks' basic brew, which the Belgian blonde style most closely resembles), dubbels, and tripels had much more in common with each other. The image above from La Trappe, the Dutch trappist brewery that took the nomenclature one step further by brewing the first "quadrupel," shows how the types of beer compare color-wise today. Below is a bit of information on the three styles and some less obvious examples of each (that is, examples that don't have the word for the style in their name).

THE DUBBEL

• History: First brewed as early as 1856 by the monks at Westmalle
• Characteristics today: rich, malty, some spice aromas, mildly hopped, caramel flavors, decent carbonation
• Alcohol content: 6% to 9% ABV
• Examples: Chimay Premiere/Red, Ommegang (their straight up abbey ale), North Coast Brother Thelonious, Corsendonk Brown, Maredsous 8, Brewer's Art Resurrection

THE TRIPEL

• History: First brewed in 1934 by Westmalle (Belgium)
• Characteristics today: spicy, fruity, sweet, often clove and citrus aromas and flavors, sometimes banana and/or pepper
• Alcohol content: 8% to 12% ABV
• Examples: Chimay Cinq Cents/Tripel (White), Unibroue La Fin du Monde, Victory Golden Monkey, Weyerbacher Merry Monks' Ale, Maredsous 10

THE QUADRUPEL

• History: First brewed in 1991 by La Trappe (Netherlands)
• Characteristics today: rich, malty, very sweet, strong alcohol presence, often dark fruit aroma and flavors
• Alcohol content: 9% to 13% ABV
• Examples: Rochefort 10, Ommegang Three Philosophers, Avery The Reverend, Victory V-Twelve, Allagash Four, Mikkeller Monk's Brew

Now that we've cleared that little matter up, which do you prefer? Tammy was hooked by her first quad, Kasteel Bruin, but not many other folks are into them. Bruce can't get enough of the tripels, with Tripel Karmeliet being his favorite. Had a specific brewery's attempt at any of these Belgian beauties and been particulary smitten (or completely unimpressed)? Let us know.

Brewery collaborations are much in vogue these days. Dogfish Head recently teamed up with Three Floyds. Three Floyds with Mikkeller. Avery has mixed things up with Russian River. And most recently, Bell's got together with De Proef. There are probably numerous other examples of brewers cross-pollinating. (If you know of more, please let us know in the comments section.) But the purpose of this post is to praise as effusively as possible the collaboration between Garret Oliver at Brooklyn Brewery and German brewgod Hans-Peter Drexler at Schneider. We tasted the result at Quarry House in Silver Spring over the weekend. It was nothing short of a revelation. The Brooklyner-Scheider Hopfen-Weisse is exactly what it sounds like: a brilliant mix of a classic German wheat beer, full of malty pleasure, with the bitter hops that American brewers love so much. An unlikely pairing, yes, but one that works to perfection.

The beer came about when Drexler visited Oliver's brewery to make the beer using Brooklyn's facility. An earlier collaboration took place in which Oliver visited Drexler in Germany. The result of that trip was the logically named Schneider-Brooklyner Hopfen-Weisse. We haven't had the pleasure of sampling it yet, but based on the quality of its American incarnation, we have high hopes.

There are only three drawbacks about the Brooklyner-Schneider Hopfen-Weisse: (1) as far as we can tell, it comes only in 750-ml bottles–at 8.5 percent ABV, we think less really is more; (2) it costs $22 per bottle; and (3) you have to go to Silver Spring to get it. That is, of course, unless you know of a place in the District that carries it. We hope you do...

When I was little I once saw a Family Circus cartoon in which the father, on Independence Day, thanked China for their fireworks, Germany for their picnic of sausages and coleslaw, and so on. It was about as funny as, well, Family Circus — but the message stuck with me.

So on that note, I remind those of you stuck in the imports section of your beer store that America is home to the world's most diverse beer selection, including many of the finest and certainly the freshest. This Independence Day weekend (I'm starting mine today), buy American beer. If you have a friend who thinks Stella Artois is the gods' gift to Belgium, send 'em this way for a list of proper American substitutes.

• Heineken (or Stella Artois) — Of the imports on this list, Heiney's the one I'm least offended to get for free at a party. But it's still just the Budweiser of Europe. If crisp, clean lagers are your thing (and in July, they're certainly mine), try Stoudt's Gold Lager or Sierra Nevada Summerfest.

• Guinness — Stout in the summertime is a bold move anyway, so go whole hog with Stone Imperial Russian Stout, a black hole of a beast. For something on the sweet side, Founders Porter is possibly the best American porter I've ever tasted, with huge chocolatey flavors and a hint of roastiness to balance.
• Corona — Sigh. White wine, I guess. I hear they sell that stuff in juice boxes now.
• Newcastle or Amstel Light — Brown ales, like the sweet Ellie's Brown Ale from Avery, are perfect for introducing newcomers to good craft beer. For something a bit hoppier, I turn to Troegs Hopback Amber Ale again and again.
• Chimay (and Belgians in general) — Of course, there are imports out there that don't come from giant conglomerates and even taste like beer. And guess what? America's got that style down. Jolly Pumpkin excels in many Belgian styles, with beers like their Bam Biere saison. (Check De Vinos in Adams Morgan.) For some that are more widely available, Brooklyn Local 1 and Allagash Confluence are two complex Belgian-style ales made just up the East Coast.

That's just a quick list. What are y'all drinking this coming weekend? Any other imports you'd like a recommendation on? Fill up that there comments section, and I'll get right back at you.

Photo by cristinabe via Flick, Creative Commons Attribution License

There's a beer for every season, and thanks to the folks at the Brewer's Association in Boulder, Colorado, you can get a heads up on what to expect as the days grow longer. One recent market survey found that last year craft beer seasonals exceeded pale ales in sales volume for the first time, with supermarket sales up 15.7 percent in 2008 versus the previous year. That's big business, even if it is atomized among the hundreds of craft breweries around the country.

Now, thanks to the Seasonal Beer and Food search engine on the Brewer's Association page, you can keep track of what will be hitting the shelves in the DC metro area in the coming months and get suggestions on food pairings. A quick perusal of this month's offerings reveals some interesting candidates, including Shmaltz Brewing Company's "Rejewvenator," described as "a half doppelbock, half Belgian-inspired dubbel, infused with both figs and dates." Then there's Avery's "Karma Ale," which the brewery characterizes as "a decidedly fruity and estery ale, intricate in body and nose, all driven by a unique Belgian yeast strain." The Avery table was a favorite at last year's Savor, so if you were lucky enough to score tickets to this year's event, maybe you'll also be able to score a sample of Karma Ale, or two, or three.