One of the things I really love about fall are fresh hop harvest ales — the perfect panacea for a craft beer-loving Cleveland Browns fan.

By my totally unscientific calculations, It’s been about the past five years or so that craft brewers have really embraced the virtues of making fresh hop ales — and getting them on the market ASAP so we can enjoy the ultra fresh aroma and flavors newly picked varieties of the humulus lupulus plant imparts on to our favorite beverage.

To honor the hop harvest, Boise’s best beer bar, Bittercreeek Alehouse (246 N. 8th Street) currently has nine such fresh hop ales on tap. Sweet.

Congratulations to Ram brewmaster Kevin Bolen, who won a silver medal today in the 2009 Great American Beer Festival for his Clearwater Kolsch in the German Style Kolsch category.

That marks the fourth medal Bolen as won at the GABF since 2000. Congrats to Kevin and the Ram for representing so well for Boise.

Bolen's Koslch bested 39 other entries in the German Style Kolsch category.

Outside of family stuff (Christmas, birthdays, anniversary, etc ...) it is now my favorite time of the year. Yes folks, it’s time for the coolest convention known to man — the Great American Beer Festival.

Seriously. A convention totally focused on American craft beers. A convention where you can sample over 2,000 craft beers (from about 450 different breweries) with over 40,000 fellow imbibers.

For the next three days, there will be not better place to be than the Denver Convention Center for a beer freak — and you can read about the GABF right here at the Beer Nut.

People love to drink their craft beer, even in a crap economy — 2009 marks at least the third year in a row the Great American Beer Festival sold out in advance.

Considering the tickets are $55 each for the cheapest sessions and hotel rooms in Denver are expensive, I was wondering if the economy would keep people away from the GABF this year. The answer? No.

So if any of you guys were planning on making a last second decision to go to the GABF, you are out of luck. Plan for next year, when the biggest and best American beer festival returns to Denver on Sept. 16-18, 2010.

There is a lot to discuss about last weekend’s first Boise BeerFest in Ann Morrison Park, but there is one thing organizers can do for sure next year that will exponentially improve the event.

Get signs. Lots of signs.

There was plenty of beer to drink, food to eat, sun to bask in, and grass to chill in.

But there were no signs anywhere. As in signs for what kind of beer you were standing in line to sample. Signs clearly specifying what food was for sale where. Signs on where to get tickets so your kids could play on the inflatable slides.

Signs. That’s the key — especially in the beer tents.

Good news from the Boise Co-Op for all you Stone Brewing loving hop freaks in Boise. 13th Anniversary Ale — an Imperial Red style — is finally available for the reasonable price of $5.99 a 22 ounce bottle.

I don’t know about you guys, but I look forward to the Stone Anniversary beers every year because they are so good. The 11th Anniversary black IPA style was so beloved it has entered into their regular beer rotation as the Sublimely Self Righteous Ale, which, unfortunately, hasn’t made it to the Boise market. Yet.

But you can get the 13th Anniversary Ale, which I drank last week and loved the crap out of. It’s a hop lovers masterpiece, Stone’s self-described “hoppiest beer ever.”

Here is some good news for the Russian Imperial Stout lovers in the Treasure Valley.

For the first time, you don’t have to drive all the way to Fort Bragg’s North Coast Brewing Co. on California’s Mendocino Coast to buy a bottle of the super-rare Old Rasputin anniversary stout, which spent over a year aging in bourbon barrels.

All you have to do this year is drive over the the Boise Co-op, with $15.89 ($14.99 plus .90 cents tax) in your pocket, and you can walk out with a 500 ml (16.9 ounces) bottle of Old Rasputin XII.

Yep. You read it right. Sierra Nevada has a new fresh hop beer on the market right now, which may have you scratching your heads since the hop harvest won't happen until fall. Well, that’s in the U.S.

In New Zealand, however, the hop harvest ended earlier this year as scheduled — with it's backwards seasons and all.

So the hop freaks (and I mean that in the nicest, most complimentary way) at Sierra Nevada went down under, loaded up a plane with bales of fresh hops, and flew back to Sierra Nevada’s Chico, Calif. brewery within a week after they were picked this spring.

Thus, the Southern Hemisphere Harvest Fresh Hop Ale was born.

The organizers of the just completed 15th Annual Mountain Brewers’ Fest (at Sandy Downs in Idaho Falls) report that a good time was had by all — despite lots of rain and wind.

Preliminary results indicate about 5,000 imbibers attended Idaho’s biggest and best beer festival and raised as much as $60,000 for local charities (Breaking Boundaries, Camp Discovery, Crime Stoppers, the Bonneville County Sheriff’s search and rescue unit, and the Snake River Animal Shelter). Nice.

The festival coincides with the annual North American Brewers’ Association awards. Click here for the list of winners, which includes’ Boise’s own Sockeye and the Ram.

There are still tickets left for the 15th Annual Mountain Brewers’ Beer Fest at the Sandy Downs Racetrack this Saturday.

Yes, I know Idaho Falls is a long haul from Boise (280 miles — about four hours or so, depending how you drive).

But if you can swing it, it’s a chance to sample the beers of over 80 brewers from all over the U.S. for $20 ($25 at the gate). There is none of that ticket nonsense going on here, either. For $20, you get unlimited 3 ounce samples of whatever you want to try.