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Along with a convention floor that sees hundreds of breweries pour for tens of thousands of people, the festival consists of one of the industry's more coveted awards shows. (The fortunes of Auburn's Prison City Pub & Brewery arguably began at the festival, where its Run Like an Apricot sour earned raves on the floor and its Bleek Worden Belgian pale ale won a silver medal at the awards.)

But the festival's awards have drawn scrutiny for their rigid style guidelines and categories. Gold medals have gone unawarded because the submitted beers didn't satisfy those guidelines, and popular new styles have gone unrecognized because the festival doesn't have a category for them. For instance, this is the first year there will be medals for "juicy or hazy" pale ales, some of the most popular styles of craft beer in the country. Indeed, The Chicago Tribune has already that this year's Juicy or Hazy IPA category has set a festival submission record with a staggering 414. But until last year, juicy and hazy pale IPAs could only be submitted in the American- and English- IPA categories, where their lack of bitterness and hazy appearance surely disqualified them.

Anyway, I'm not writing to criticize the festival's awards, but to point out the subjectivity at the foundation of the process. Its scientifically credible, sure, but for all that rigidity, tastes still vary from person to person. It can surely be heard on the convention floor of the Great American Beer Festival this weekend: two people sampling the same beer and tasting entirely different flavors. One person's balanced IPA is another's bitter hop bomb. One person's modest pastry stout is another's diabetes in a bottle. And let's not even get started on the Rorschach blots that are sours. 

Tastes are what make craft beer a modern-day Tower of Babel. However trained or novice the palates, they're what make craft beer unpredictable.

So as brewery after brewery hauls home medals from Denver this weekend, I just wanted to stop and appreciate the volatile little sensory input that makes craft beer so fun.

What's on tap

Lunkenheimer Craft Brewing Co.

's Weedsport brewery will mark four years in business Oct. 27 with an event that'll feature at least four barrel-aged beers on tap, as well as food from Tonzi's Catering Co. For more information, visit . Additionally, Lunkenheimer is set to expand to a second location when the Slocums open a tasting room on Sodus Bay. They recently signed a letter of intent, Derric said, and should open in the spring of 2019.

Next Chapter Brewpub

Scott and Michelle DeLap's Genesee Center brewpub, which opened last month, has recently added house-crafted salads, small plates, soups and paninis to its menu of beer by Scott and other local breweries, as well as local wines and ciders. The brewpub is now offering live music at least once a week, too. For more information, visit .