Another year of Great American Beer and the Festival that celebrates it, is now past. Brewers and craft beer fans are heading to the airport for flights home. Now it is time to see what was awarded in Denver at the GABF and what I think about it.
For L.A. fans, the two big pieces of news are the brace of silvers that are coming home Smog City nabbed their second medal since opening with their Kumquat Saison in the Belgian-Style Fruit beer category. Julian Shrago and Beachwood added to their trophy case with Mocha Machine in the Coffee beer category.
There were a whopping 92 categories this year plus the Pro-Am beers. The smallest category was the American style Dark Lager with only 21 entries. Fifteen of the categories had over 100 entries with IPA’s again dominating the proceedings with an astounding 336. Followed by Imperial IPA’s with 208! And California wrested the IPS crown back from Oregon as BNS Brewing from Santee took the gold with their Revolver IPA.
Speaking of state bragging rights, California was in the forefront again with 66 total medals (by my count). Including a sweep of the Cream Ale category with Pabst of Los Angeles brewing Washington Iconic beers of Rainier (gold) and Olympia (silver). Dale Brothers from Upland took bronze with Nuff. Colorado parlayed its home field advantage to 35 medals including a gold in the hotly contested Wood and Barrel-Aged Strong Beer category that was won by AC Golden. Oh and Coors Banquet struck gold as well. Oregon hauled in 19 medals and Washington State 12 and it seemed whenever the ABInBev owned 10 Barrel would win that another Bend based brewery would win the next higher medal. A bit of karma perhaps?
Firestone Walker and TAPS were named mid-sized winners and Rip Current from San Diego was tabbed for Very Small Brewing company awards. If you prefer your beer brewed or owned by a large corporation, the Pabst of Los Angeles should be your choice, at least the Brewer’s Association thinks so…
Other assorted notes:
Feral One and Sour Opal picked up medals for Barrelworks in Buellton.
Ritual won big with two gold medals as did Bottle Logic.
Session IPA’s debuted this year and had the 4th highest entry count.
My college town of McMinnville was mentioned with a gold from Golden Valley .
Best beer name was in the Belgian Quadrupel category: Quad Damn It.