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(Photo © Brewers Association)
The 2022 Great American Beer Festival competition awarded 303 medals to the best commercial breweries in the US over the weekend.
Presented annually by the national craft beer trade organization, the Brewers Association, the GABF as its affectionately called in the brewing biz, remains the nation’s largest professional beer competition and the premier symbol of brewing excellence.
Winning breweries were awarded gold, silver, and bronze medals in 99 beer categories covering 175 different beer styles for being the best examples of each style in the country.
In addition to that three GABF Collaboration medals pairing two professional breweries and three GABF Pro-Am medals pairing homebrewers with professional brewers were announced.
The competition took place in three phases over a period of nine days and was judged by 250 beer experts from 10 countries, including the US, plus Washington, DC and Puerto Rico.
In addition to 9,904 commercial brewery entries, the judging panel also evaluated 50 Pro-Am entries and 96 Collaboration entries.
So yeah, that’s a lot of beer drinking.
The awards ceremony was held on Saturday at the Bellco Theatre in Denver as part of the Great American Beer Festival.
If you’d like to view ALL this year’s winners you need to go HERE
And here are more highlights from his year’s competition…
GABF COMPETITION STATISTICS
- 37th edition of the GABF competition
- 9,298 beers judged
- 2,033 breweries in the competition from all 50 states plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico
- 250 judges
- 300+ volunteers
- Average number of competition beers entered in each category: 92
- Category with the highest number of entries: 65: Juicy or Hazy India Pale Ale (365)
- 303 total medals awarded
- 263 medal-winning breweries
- 325 first-time GABF entrants
- 16 first-time GABF winners
TOP 5 MOST-ENTERED STYLE CATEGORY WINNERS
Category 65: Juicy or Hazy India Pale Ale (365 entries)
GOLD: Away Days | 1852 Brew Co. | Visalia, CA
SILVER: Juicy Mid-Tones | Corn Coast Brewing Co. | Lincoln, NE
BRONZE: Make It Rain | Side Hustle Brewing Co. | Hilton Head Island, SC
Category 66: West Coast-Style India Pale Ale (301 entries)
GOLD: Westbound Select | Westbound & Down Brewing Co. | Idaho Springs, CO
SILVER: Untold Prophecy | Slice Beer Co. | Lincoln, CA
BRONZE: Bright Side IPA | Uprise Brewing Co. | Spokane, WA
Category 36: Light Lager (284 entries)
GOLD: Nashville Light | Nashville Brewing Co. | Nashville, TN
SILVER: Mexican Lager | Lone Tree Brewing Co. | Lone Tree, CO
BRONZE: Legendary Lager | MadTree Brewing | Cincinnati, OH
Category 45: German-Style Pilsener (228 entries)
GOLD: Prodigal Pils | Lazarus Brewing Co.-Laz 2 | Austin, TX
SILVER: Prost Pilsner | Prost Brewing Co. | Denver, CO
BRONZE: Don’t Fear The Answer | Tenma Beer Project | Oakland, CA
Category 64: American-Style India Pale Ale (206 entries)
GOLD: Head Hunter | Fat Head’s Brewery & Saloon | North Olmsted, OH
SILVER: Breakside IPA | Breakside Brewery & Taproom | Milwaukie, OR
BRONZE: Downtown Tom | Three Mile Brewing Co. | Davis, CA
MOST-MEDALED BREWERY
Third Eye Brewing Co. | Sharonville, OH
GOLD: Herb and Spice Beer (Cat.7)
GOLD: Chocolate Beer (Cat. 8)
SILVER: Pumpkin Beer (Cat. 5)
SILVER: Collaboration Competition
COLLABORATION COMPETITION (95 entries)
GOLD: Luna Mexican Export Lager | Cheluna Brewing Co. & Prost Brewing Co.
SILVER: Mounds of Importance | Third Eye Brewing Co. & Narrow Path Brewing Co.
BRONZE: Two’s Daze | Attic Brewing Co. & Two Locals Brewing Co.
PRO-AM COMPETITION (50 entries)
GOLD: She Fancies Herself A Little Bit French | CooperSmith’s Pub & Brewing and Mark Pennick
SILVER: Rob’s Baltic Porter | New Belgium Brewing Co. and Rob Hardisty
BRONZE: What Is That? | Decipher Brewing Co. and Joel Miller
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Congratulations to all of this year’s big winners…Live long and prosper!
