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Photo © Brewers Association’
The beer biz never sleeps at American Craft Beer. And here’s just some of what’s been happening in the beer world while some of you are still off and drinking your way through an extended Columbus Day weekend.
Highlights From The 2024 Great American Beer Festival Competition
If you care about beer, you probably know that the Great American Beer Festival Competition winners were announced over the weekend. Presented annually by the national craft beer trade organization, the Brewers Association, it remains the nation’s largest professional beer competition and the premier symbol of brewing excellence, that this year included cideries in the event.
If you want to see a COMPLETE listing of all this year’s winners, you need to go HERE. But here are some key stats from this awesome event…
GABF COMPETITION STATISTICS
- 38th edition of the GABF competition
- 8,836 beers judged
- 1,869 breweries & cideries in the competition from all 50 states plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico
- 285 judges
- 250+ volunteers
- Average number of beers entered in each category: 85
- Category with the highest number of entries: Category 102 – Juicy/Hazy IPA (349 entries)
- 326 total medals awarded
- 273 medal-winning breweries
- 280 first-time GABF competition entrants
- 25 first-time GABF competition winners
- Five new cider categories
(Photo @ Brewers Association)
TOP 5 MOST-ENTERED BEER STYLE CATEGORY WINNERS
Category 102 | Juicy/Hazy IPA (349 entries)
GOLD: Professional Human Being | Ambitious Ales | Long Beach, CA
SILVER: Groundswell | Single Hill Brewing Co. | Yakima, WA
BRONZE: Crash of Rhinos | Movement Brewing Co. | Rancho Cordova, CA
Category 100: West Coast IPA (292 entries)
GOLD: Codebreaker | Trademark Brewing | Long Beach, CA
SILVER: Pacific Portal | Alma Mader Brewing | Kansas City, MO
BRONZE: IPA for Aliens | Masthead Brewing Co. | Cleveland, OH
Category 101: American-Style IPA (217 entries)
GOLD: Competition | Highland Park Brewery – Chinatown | Los Angeles, CA
SILVER: One Way | Old Caz Beer | Rohnert Park, CA
BRONZE: Lexical Gap | Pollyanna Brewing Co. | Lemont, IL
Category 50: Dortmunder or German-Style Oktoberfest (210 entries)
GOLD: Festbier | Glenwood Canyon Brewing Co. | Glenwood Springs, CO
SILVER: Festbier | Northwoods Brewing Co. | Northwood, NH
BRONZE: The Cushman | Morgan Territory Brewing | Tracy, CA
Category 52: German-Style Maerzen (195)
GOLD: Pleasantbräu Oktoberfest | Soul Brewing Co. | Pleasantville, NY
SILVER: Marchtoberfest | Galveston Island Brewing | Galveston, TX
BRONZE: Oktoberfest | Left Hand Brewing Co. | Longmont, CO
MOST-MEDALED BREWERIES
Apogee Brewing Company | Grover Beach, CA
Gold, Lucy Loves Rye, Category 76: Specialty Saison
Bronze, Aurora, Category 73: Belgian-Style Ale or French-Style Ale
Bronze, Monks on the Moon, Category 78: Belgian-Style Strong Specialty Ale
Bronze, Monks In Space, Category 79: Belgian-Style Abbey Ale
Highland Park Brewery – Chinatown | Los Angeles, CA
Gold, Competition, Category 101: American-Style India Pale Ale
Gold, Baseball, Category 40: Contemporary American-Style Lager
Gold, Timbo, Category 91: American-Style Pale Ale
Gold, DDH Pillow, Category 98: Juicy or Hazy Imperial India Pale Ale
COLLABORATION COMPETITION (95 entries)
GOLD: Twenty-Fold Sword | New Zealand-Style IPA | No Boat Brewing Company and Obelisk Beer Co. | Snoqualmie, WA
SILVER: Stupid Sticky Fingers | Wood & Barrel Aged Imperial Stout | Werk Force Brewing Co. and Rocky Reef Brewing Co. | Plainfield, IL
BRONZE: Spudweiser | American Pilsner | Live Oak Brewing Company and Hold Out Brewing | Del Valle, TX
PRO-AM COMPETITION (52 entries)
GOLD: Piwo Grodziskie | Kansas City Bier Co. and Mike & Stephanie
Butler | Kansas City, MO
SILVER: Rising Sun | Crooked Lane Brewing Co. and Matt Hall | Auburn, CA
BRONZE: South of Helles | Starr Hill Beer Hall & Rooftop – Richmond and Joel Miller | Richmond, VA
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Congratulations to all of this year’s big winners…Live long and prosper!
