Great American Beer Festival


The Great American Beer Festival is a three-day annual event hosted by the Brewers Association, held in Denver, Colorado. The GABF brings visitors from around the world to sample thousands of different American craft beers. Hundreds of judges from the United States and abroad evaluate beer in the associated competition, ultimately judging several thousand beers entered by hundreds of breweries. Gold, silver and bronze medals in 100+ beer-style categories are awarded, though not every medal is necessarily awarded in each category. 2017 saw its biggest ever panel of judges with 276 beer experts representing 13 different nations. Typically happening in late September or early October, the event is currently held inside the expansive Colorado Convention Center. There are four separate four-hour attendee "sampling" sessions with the first of the two on the Saturday being called the "members only" session which is only offered to BA members as well as special guests such as participating breweries and VIP. The last day is also the day awards are presented which occurs inside the CCC's 5,000-seat Bellco Theatre immediately before the members only session. Judging - which is private and not open to the public nor competitors - occurs during the week leading up to the last day of the 3-day event. The 2018 GABF occupied nearly 600,000 square feet of the CCC, a 100,000 square foot increase from 2017. Also, 2018 was the first year brewers were placed alphabetically according to their name rather than grouped according to the state they come from. Alphabetical ordering of breweries proved to be quite unpopular with patrons so the 2019 GABF organized breweries by their state and its geographic region such as Mountain States & Midwestern States.
Founded in 1982, the GABF was started by Charlie Papazian in Boulder, Colorado. The original GABF had 22 participating breweries, which had increased to over 700 at the 2014 festival. The GABF is the largest ticketed beer festival in the United States and one of the largest in the world.

Statistics

For a list of all medalists, see the List of Great American Beer Festival medalists

2019