Not that I didn't try.

My brain is numb and my notebook is a beer-splashed mess of smeared ink, but here are some random observations from the world's largest beer competition.

If you want to win a medal at the Great American Beer Festival, try gaming the judging.

One way to do it: Enter your double bock as a single bock.

Troegs (Harrisburg, Pa.) has won gold in the bock category two of the last three years with its Troegenator Double Bock. Piece Brewery (Illinois) played the same gambit this year and won bronze with its aptly named Fornicator.

Another way: Forget your standbys and enter one-offs and specialties.

For the second consecutive year, Sierra Nevada - which bottles no fewer than a dozen excellent, internationally distributed ales - scored its lone medal with its Kolsch-Style Ale, a thoroughly obscure, draft-only product that I'm guessing was pulled from owner Ken Grossman's personal kegerator.

Coors took silver for its Pre-Pro Lager, a ringer that - if it were actually bottled - might prompt me to retract some of the slurs I've directed toward Golden, Colo., over the years.

Tough luck to those who picked Pabst in their GABF pool. The conglomerate makes 30-plus brands, from PBR to Colt 45, and as recently as 2007 was named the festival's Large Brewing Company of the Year.

This year Pabst was shut out.

Fellow beer writer Stan Hieronymus won one popular online pool by selecting Pizza Port-Carlsbad (Calif.), which raked in seven medals and was named Large Brewpub of the Year.

Brewers continue to take chances with unusual flavors. Here are six that won me over:

Baron Smoked Sour Doppelbock (Washington). Sounds like something went wrong in the fermenter, but somehow this beer works.

The Bruery Autumn Maple (California). Pumpkin pie spices and roasted yams don't exactly come to mind when I think of beer, but in this ale they complement the spicy Belgian yeast.

Cambridge Brewing The Wind Cried Mary (Massachusetts). A gruit made with freshly picked heather instead of hops.

Stewart's Old Percolator (Bear, Del.). A coffee porter made the way Mrs. Olson used to brew Folger's.

Cascade Kriek (Oregon). The flavor of real Bing cherries, not Juicy Juice, in this tart, lambic-style ale.

Shiner Holiday Cheer (Texas). A peach-flavored Christmas beer.

Favorite beer names: Lower De Boom Barley Wine; Dude! Where's My Vespa?; Buster Nut Brown; Hell in Keller; Old Inventory; Bourbonic Plague (aged in a used bourbon barrel).