COVER PHOTO/FEATURED IMAGE: Photo © Brewers Association
The 2014 Great American Beer Festival (GABF) just completed another colossally successful event in Denver (my hometown). Amazingly, the festival continues to grow. There were 710 breweries in the festival hall compared to 624 last year and 578 in 2013. And there were more than 3,500 beers served at the festival, almost 400 more than last year, which had 400+ more than 2013!
But it’s the competition that is of most interest to beer geeks and hopefully you, too! This year 1,309 breweries entered the competition submitting 5,507 beers. Last year, there were 4,809 entries from 745 breweries. Ninety style categories were judged covering 145 different beer styles; last year 84 categories covered 138 different styles.
Once again the category with highest number of entries was “American-Style India Pale Ale” with 279, compared to 252 last year. Actually, IPA has been the most popular category since 2002.
Colorado breweries continue to make an impressive showing at the GABF. There were 268 medals awarded and 36 Colorado breweries received a total of 40 awards. Left Hand Brewing of Longmont tied with three other breweries for the most medals (three). Coors, AC Golden (the experimental brewery within Coors) and Dry Dock each took two. AC Golden also won the Large Brewing Company of the Year Award. Westminster’s Kokopelli Beer Co. shared the Silver in the Pro-Am Competition.
Also impressive, Colorado breweries actually swept the medals for American-style Brown Ale: Telluride Brewing Co. took Gold for Face Down Brow; Diebolt Brewing Co. of Denver got Silver for Braggarts; and Upslope Brewing Co. of Boulder won Bronze for Upslope Brown.
Clearly Colorado performed very well again at the GABF. And, as if we needed more proof, in an analysis by the association’s economist Colorado would have been expected to win 35-36 medals but over performed by winning 40. And those 40 medals were second only to California.
It’s just amazing to me and just about everyone else how craft brewing continues to grow in this country and at such a rapid rate – double digits annually. In just the past year, the country has added somewhere around 500 new craft breweries and around 40 new ones in Colorado alone, an average rate of almost one per week. Earlier this year, the Beer Institute (the national trade association for the American brewing industry) reported there now are over 3000 craft breweries nationally and over 200 in Colorado.
Belying the concerns of some that all these new breweries could mean a lower standard of quality, many of Colorado’s medal winners were around two years old or less. And I have seen reports of upwards of 150 more Colorado breweries in various stages of planning. For now, there seems to be unending demand for good beer produced in Colorado. Damn straight!
Young Colorado Breweries Winning Medals
- Cannonball Creek Brewing Co. of Golden
- Coda Brewing Co. of Aurora
- Comrade Brewing Co. of Denver
- Crow Hop Brewing Co. of Loveland
- Diebolt Brewing Co., Denver, CO
- FATE Brewing Co., Boulder, CO
- Former Future Brewing Co. of Denver
- Kokopelli Beer Co. of Westminster
- Lowdown Brewery + Kitchen of Denver
- Platt Park Brewing Co. of Denver
- Post Brewing Co. of Lafayette
- Shine Brewing Co., Boulder, CO
- Station 26 Brewing Co. of Denver
- Wit’s End Brewing of Denver
Presented by the Brewers Association, the GABF is the largest commercial beer competition in the world and a symbol of brewing excellence. They put on another smashing success of an event this year. And I already can’t wait for next year!
Colorado’s Winners!
American-Style Fruit Beer
- Silver: Sleepyhead Passion Fruit, Coda Brewing Co., Aurora
- Bronze: Apricot, Dry Dock Brewing Co. – North Dock, Aurora
Fruit Wheat Beer
- Silver: Peachy Peach, Pagosa Brewing & Grill, Pagosa Springs
Belgian-Style Fruit Beer
- Gold: Raspberry Provincial, Funkwerks, Fort Collins
Field Beer
- Silver: 3 Pepper Ale, Rock Bottom Breweries, Broomfield
- Bronze: Elektrick Cukumbahh, Trinity Brewing Co., Colorado Springs
Chocolate Beer
- Silver: Death By Coconut, Oskar Blues Brewery, Longmont
Specialty Honey Beer
- Bronze: Blue Moon Honey Grand Cru, Blue Moon Brewing Co., Denver
Experimental Beer
- Bronze: Black Project #1, Former Future Brewing Co., Denver
Fresh or Wet Hop Ale
- Silver: Fresh Hop Superpower IPA, Comrade Brewing Co., Denver
Gluten-Free Beer
- Silver: Glutart, Bonfire Brewing, Eagle
- Bronze: Liberation Gluten Free, Shine Brewing Co., Boulder
Smoke Beer
- Silver: Smokejumper Smoked Imperial Porter, Left Hand Brewing Co., Longmont
American-Style or International-Style
- Silver: Howdy Beer, The Post Brewing Co., Lafayette
Bohemian-Style Pilsener
- Silver: Patio Pounding Pilz, LowDown Brewery + Kitchen, Denver
Munich-Style Helles
- Gold: Golden Export, Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant, Broomfield
Dortmunder or German-Style Oktoberfest
- Gold: The Weasel, CB & Potts Restaurant & Brewery – Highlands Ranch
- Bronze: Move Back, The Sandlot, Denver, CO
American-Style Lager or Light Lager
- Silver: Coors Light, Coors Brewing Co., Golden
- Bronze: Coors Banquet, Coors Brewing Co., Golden, CO
American-Style Cream Ale
- Bronze: Colorado Cream Ale, Station 26 Brewing Co., Denver
Vienna-Style Lager
- Silver: Gumps, Platt Park Brewing Co., Denver
American-Style Amber Lager
- Gold: Colorado Native Amber Lager, AC Golden, Golden
- Silver: Colorado Native Golden Lager, AC Golden, Golden
German-Style Kölsch
- Gold: Laimas Kolsch, FATE Brewing Co., Boulder
English-Style Summer Ale
- Gold: True Blonde Ale, Ska Brewing Co., Durango
English-Style Mild Ale
- Bronze: S.S. Minnow Mild Ale, Dry Dock Brewing Co. – South Dock, Aurora
Irish-Style Red Ale
- Gold: ‘Rado’s Red Ale, Crow Hop Brewing Co., Loveland
American-Style Brown Ale
- Gold: Face Down Brown, Telluride Brewing Co., Telluride
- Silver: Braggarts Brown Ale, Diebolt Brewing Co., Denver
- Bronze: Upslope Brown Ale, Upslope Brewing Co., Boulder
American-Style Black Ale
- Gold: Black IPA, Cannonball Creek Brewing Co., Golden
Belgian-Style Blonde Ale or Pale Ale
- Gold: Jean-Claude Van Blond, Wit’s End Brewing Co., Denver
Brown Porter
- Black Jack Porter, Left Hand Brewing Co., Longmont
Classic Irish-Style Dry Stout
- Silver: Shaft House Stout, Dostal Alley Brewpub & Casino, Central City
Sweet Stout or Cream Stout
- Silver: Milk Stout, Left Hand Brewing Co., Longmont
Oatmeal Stout
- Bronze: Backside Stout, Steamworks Brewing Co., Durango
Scotch Ale
- Silver: Loch, BRU Handbuilt Ales & Eats, Boulder