Topic Archives: Great American Beer Festival
Great American Beer Festival partners with Jameson Whiskey on a new barrel-aged pavilion
When The Great American Beer Festival returns to Denver, Colorado this fall, there will be a new pavilion – the Jameson Caskmates Barrel-Aged Beer Garden.
The Jameson Caskmates Series was created by the Irish distillery a few years ago. Inspired by various craft brewers aging their beers in Jameson Whiskey barrels, the distillery started a new ale finished whiskey program. The Caskmates Series is now home to both a stout and India pale ale finished whiskeys.
The Brewers Association has announced the addition of the Jameson Caskmates Barrel-Aged Beer Garden to GABF this fall. The garden will feature 17 different Jameson craft brewery partners that have aged beers in Jameson barrels. Participation breweries include 8th Wonder, Bale Breaker, Big Dog’s Brewing Co, Black Abbey, Captain Lawrence, Cigar City, DC Brau, Fat Heads, Foolproof, Fulton, Great Divide, Green Flash, Harpoon, Heavy Seas, Parish, Revolution and River Horse Brewing.
The Brewers Association mentions sales of Barrel Aged beers have increased 20% over the last three years alone.
The Jameson Caskmates Barrel-Aged Beer Garden will take up 12,600 square feet of the 100,000 square foot addition to the festival in 2018. Tickets to the festival go on sale August 1st.
Image: Jameson
Official List of 2013 Great American Beer Fest Winners
The Great American Beer Festival award ceremony kicked off today at 12:30pm EST. Below is a list of winners by style, and more.
2013 Brewery and Brewer of the Year Awards
Very Small Brewing Company and Very Small Brewing Company Brewer of the Year
Baker City Brewing Company
Marks Lanham and Eli Dickison
Small Brewing Company and Small Brewing Company Brewer of the Year
Sponsored by Microstar Keg Management
Devils Backbone Brewing Company – Basecamp
Jason Oliver
Mid-Size Brewing Company and Mid-Size Brewing Company Brewer of the Year
Sponsored by Brewers Supply Group
Firestone Walker Brewing Company
Matt Brynildson
Large Brewing Company and Large Brewing Company Brewer of the Year
Sponsored by Beer Institute
Sandlot
John, Tom, Bill & Addison
Small Brewpub and Small Brewpub Brewer of the Year
Sponsored by Briess Malt & Ingredients Co.
Gella’s Diner & Lb Brewing Company
Gerald Wyman
Mid-Size Brewpub of the Year
Beachwood BBQ & Brewing
Julian Shrago and Ian McCall
Large Brewpub and Large Brewpub Brewer of the Year
Sponsored by Brewers Supply Group
Pelican Brewing Company
Darron Welch and Steve Panos
Brewpub Group and Brewpub Group Brewer of the Year
Sponsored by Brewers Supply Group
Rock Bottom Brewery
Team Rock Bottom
Overall Competition Highlights
Reflecting craft brewing’s increasing popularity nationwide, across state and regional borders, overall competition highlights include:
- Twenty-four first-time entering breweries won awards. During the registration process, 230 breweries self-identified as first-time entrants.
- There was a tie for most gold medals won, three each for Left Hand Brewing Co. (Longmont, Colo.) and for Firestone Walker Brewing Co. (Paso Robles, Calif.).
- New Jersey topped the list of ratio of medals to entries by state, with one medal won among seven entries, a 14.3% ratio. Delaware had a 13% winning ratio, with three medals won among 23 entries. California, the state with the highest number of beer entries—at 885—won 52 medals for a 5.9% ratio of medals to entries.
Style Categories
Since 2001, the most-entered category has been American-Style India Pale Ale (IPA), which saw 252 entries in 2013.
The top five entered categories were:
1. American-Style India Pale Ale (252 entries)
2. Imperial India Pale Ale (149 entries)
3. Herb and Spice Beer (134 entries)
4. American-Style Pale Ale (124 entries)
5. American-Style Strong Pale Ale (120 entries)
The winners in the most-entered (that is, the most competitive) categories were:
American-Style India Pale Ale
Gold: Barley Brown’s Brew Pub, Pallet Jack IPA
Silver: Firestone Walker Brewing Co., Union Jack
Bronze: La Cumbre Brewing Co., Project Dank: Operation Pharoah’s Return
Imperial India Pale Ale
Gold: Fat Heads Brewery, Hop Juju
Silver: Three Floyds Brewing Co., Permanent Funeral
Bronze: Smartmouth Brewing Co., Notch 9 Double IPA
Herb and Spice Beer
Gold: Namaste Brewing at the Whip Inn, Bitterama
Silver: Yak & Yeti Restaurant & Brewpub, Chai Milk Stout
Bronze: Black Star Co-op Pub and Brewery, Elba
American-Style Pale Ale
Gold: Lumberyard Brewing Co., Lumberyard American Pale Ale
Silver: Cannonball Creek Brewing Co., Featherweight Pale
Bronze: Joseph James Brewing Co., Citra Rye Pale Ale
American-Style Strong Pale Ale
Gold: Monkey Paw Brewing Co., Bonobos
Silver: Four Peaks Brewing Co., Hop Knot
Bronze: Pizza Port Ocean Beach, Kung Fu Elvis
The 2013 GABF competition featured two new categories: Grodzisz, with seven entries, and Adambier (no entries). There were three categories in which one of the three possible medals was not awarded:
- American-Style or International-Style Pilsener—No gold awarded
- American-Style Amber/Red Ale—No silver awarded
- Imperial Red Ale—No gold awarded
2013 Great American Beer Festival Pro-Am Competition
Sponsored by Briess Malt & Ingredients Co., Country Malt Group, Hopunion and White Labs
Gold, silver and bronze medals were also awarded in the GABF Pro-Am competition, which pairs amateur brewers with professional brewers, who scale up the award-winning homebrew recipes. The medal winners, including the winning professional brewers and American Homebrewers Association (AHA) member homebrewers are:
Gold: Poblano, Cigar City Brewing
Brewmaster: Wayne Wambles, Cigar City, and AHA member Jeff Gladish
Silver: Charlie’s Brown, New Belgium Brewing Co.
Brewmaster: Peter Bouckaert/Grady Hull, New Belgium Brewing Co., and AHA member Mike Formisan
Bronze: Oatmeal Stout, Upslope Brewing Co.
Brewmaster: Alex Violette, Upslope Brewing Co., and AHA member Derek Ordway
Summary: 2013 Great American Beer Festival Statistics
- 624 breweries in the festival hall
- More than 3,100 beers served at the festival
- 49,000 attendees
- More than 2,800 volunteers
- 745 breweries in the competition from 49 states, plus Washington, D.C.
- 4,809 beers judged (includes 100 Pro-Am competition entries), a 12 percent increase over 2012
- 84 style categories judged, plus the Pro-Am competition
- 201 judges from 11 countries
- Average number of competition beers entered in each category: 51
- Category with highest number of entries: American-Style India Pale Ale: 252
Full List of Winners available in this PDF.
A Beer with Chocolate & Lobster [VIDEO]
Dogfish Head (Milton, DE) brewed an oyster stout for a special event years ago, and thanks to the weather, they got stuck drinking all 85 kegs. Not wanting to drink another oyster stout again, founder Sam Calagione goes back to his Maine roots, and brewed a different beer featuring a different crustacean – the lobster.
That, plus cocoa nibs creates Choc Lobster, a brewpub exclusive that will also be at the 2013 Great American Beer Festival.
GABF Ticket Sales. What Would You Do Differently?
The Great American Beer Festival responds to complaints about a growing secondary market (scalpers, etc) for tickets to the Denver, Colorado event. It took just 20 minutes to sell out off all 79,000 plus tickets this year.
Hi Everyone. We’re reading your comments, and we hear your frustration about scalpers and the secondary market. We share those concerns and wish there was a feasible fix. Unfortunately, there’s no perfect way to successfully avoid a secondary market for hot tickets–whether for popular concerts, sporting events or festivals like the GABF.
There are measures in place to decrease access for scalpers, including ticket limits we set for GABF ticket purchases (enforced by Ticketmaster), and Ticketmaster’s anti-bot and other security measures. Does this prevent scalper access? No, but it does decrease it. We will continue to evaluate options and solutions going forward.
What about you? How would you handle folks who purchase tickets solely for the resale value? Many individuals were locked out of the opportunity to purchase tickets, seconds after logging on. Re-sellers are asking up to 5x the original face value. A few instances, these tickets were posted within an hour of the link going live.
Sound off. What would you change?
GABF Sells Out In An Hour
You should have expected it. The Great American Beer Festival has sold out. This year it took about 1 hour to sell out all the sessions. Ticket resale sites are already buzzing with overpriced resales. (Read: Jerks) Not sure what else to say, other than this is further proof of the rise and desire of craft beer.
Great American Beer Fest Tickets Go On Sale at 12 Noon
Tickets to this years Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colorado go on sale at 12 pm EST today. The fest runs October 10th – 12th. This is your official heads up.
Great American Beer Festival 2013: Oct 10-12
You might as well mark this down. The Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colorado will be October 10-12, 2013. You’ve been pre-warned.
