Great American Beer Festival 2015 Winners, Stats

Unless you turned off your phone the past few days and missed it, the 2015 Great American Beer Festival has been going on in Denver, Colorado. As is with previous years, this is your medal rundown from the festival.

Quick Facts:

• 242 breweries take home medals in 2015
• 275 profesional medals awarded
• 423 new participants this year
• Maine had highest ratio of medals to entry by state: 21% with 14 entries, 3 medals
• Rhode Island: 10% with 10 entries and one medal
• North Dakota: 8% with 12 entries and one medal

Top Medals by Brewery

• Firestone Walker Brewing Co., Paso Robles, Calif. (three medals: two gold, one bronze)
• Sun King Brewing Co., Indianapolis, Ind. (three medals: one gold, one silver, one bronze)
• Port City Brewing Co.; Alexandria, Va. (three medals: two silver, one bronze)
• Left Hand Brewing Co.; Longmont, Colo. (three medals: one gold, two bronze)

New Style Categories for 2015:

• Category 8: Chili Pepper Beer
• Category 16: Session India Pale Ale
• Category 24B: Mixed Culture Brett Beer

Interestingly, there was no gold medal award for Pumpkin Beer this year.

Most entered by category:

1. American-Style India Pale Ale (336 entries) (Still #1 since 2002)
2. Imperial India Pale Ale (208 entries)
3. Wood- and Barrel-Aged Strong Beer (179 entries)
4. Session India Pale Ale (161 entries)
5. American-Style Pale Ale (160 entries)

In the Top 5 most entered categories, these are the Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals:

American-Style India Pale Ale (336 entries)

• Gold: BNS Brewing & Distilling Co., Revolver IPA (Santee, Calif.)
• Silver: Wicked Weed Brewing – Candler, Pernicious IPA (Candler, N.C.)
• Bronze: The Brew Kettle Taproom and Smokehouse, White Rajah (Strongsville, Ohio)

Imperial India Pale Ale(208 entries)

• Gold: Fat Head’s Brewery, Hop Juju Imperial IPA (Middleburg Heights, Ohio)
• Silver: Laurelwood Public House and Brewery, Eazy Duz It IIPA (Portland, Ore.)
• Bronze: Breakwater Brewing Co., Teahupo’o (Oceanside, Calif.)

 Wood- and Barrel-Aged Strong Beer(179 entries)

• Gold: Nebraska Brewing Co., Melange A Trois (La Vista, Neb.)
• Silver: Sun King Brewing Co., Batch 666: Sympathy for the Devil (Indianapolis, Ind.)
• Bronze: Ska Brewing, Ska Face (Durango, Colo.) 

Session India Pale Ale(161 entries)

• Gold: Societe Brewing Co., The Coachman (San Diego, Calif.)
• Silver: Steel Toe Brewing, Size 4 (St. Louis Park, Minn.)
• Bronze: Noble Ale Works, Nose Candy (Anaheim, Calif.)

American-Style Pale Ale(160 entries)

• Gold: Central Coast Brewing Co., Monterey St. Pale Ale (San Luis Obispo, Calif.)
• Silver: Track 7 Brewing Co. – Natomas, Hoppy Palm (Sacramento, Calif.)
• Bronze: Cannonball Creek Brewing Co., Featherweight Pale Ale (Golden, Colo.)

 

2015 Brewery and Brewer of the Year Awards

Very Small Brewing Company and Very Small Brewing Company Brewer of the Year

• Rip Current Brewery (San Marcos, Calif.  – Paul Sangster and Guy Shobe

Small Brewing Company and Small Brewing Company Brewer of the Year
Sponsored by O-I

• Port City Brewing Co. (Alexandria, Va.)

Mid-Size Brewing Company and Mid-Size Brewing Company Brewer of the Year

• Firestone Walker Brewing Co. (Paso Robles, Calif.)

Large Brewing Company and Large Brewing Company Brewer of the Year
Sponsored by Beer Institute

• Pabst Brewing Co. (Los Angeles, Calif.) – Gregory Deuhs

Small Brewpub and Small Brewpub Brewer of the Year
Sponsored by Briess Malt & Ingredients Co.

• Melvin Brewing (Jackson, Wyo.) – Kirk McHale and Jeremy Tofte

Mid-Size Brewpub of the Year

Sponsored by Brewers Supply Group (BSG)

• TAPS Fish House & Brewery (Corona, Calif.)

Large Brewpub and Large Brewpub Brewer of the Year
Sponsored by Country Malt Group

Titletown Brewing Co. (Green Bay, Wis.) – David Oldenburg

2015 Great American Beer Festival Statistics 

• 750 breweries in the festival hall
• 3,800 beers served at the festival
• 60,000 attendees
• 3,400 volunteers (festival and competition combined)
• 1,552 breweries in the competition from 50 states plus Washington, D.C.
• 242 medal-winning breweries
• 6,647 beers judged (not including 91 Pro-Am competition entries), a 20 percent increase over 2014
• 92 style categories judged, plus the Pro-Am competition
• 242 judges from 15 different countries
• Average number of competition beers entered in each category: 72 (excludes Pro-Am beers)
• Category with highest number of entries: American-Style India Pale Ale: 336

Download the entire winning list here.