I shouldn’t be surprised that plain old boring IPA has been dethroned by the “IT” beer of the moment. But the fact that 131 Hazy Pale Ales, 414 Hazy IPA’s and 161 Hazy Double IPA’s have been entered into Great American Beer Festival competition (706 total for those checking their calculators) is still mind blowing. The fact that American style IPA is way back at a mere 331 is crazy.
If I were judging (call me GABF!), I would run away from the three Hazy categories and head back to IPA which has been a gauntlet the last few years. The big question I have is, How long will the Hazy beers be sitting before judging and how will that length of time be factored into the judging. I mean, the category names have HAZY in them. My guess is that if I were coming from far away, I wouldn’t enter the category. It’s hard enough with the sheer volume of entries to break above the crowd but a super fresh option from Denver would have a definite home field advantage. As long as they have consistent haze of course.
Official competition statistics will be published after the GABF Awards Ceremony on Saturday, September 22.