The Brewer's Association awarded gold, silver, and bronze medals for 145 styles of beer during the Great American Beer Festival last weekend. Over 1,5000 beers were entered into the competition.
Colorado fared very well with 31 breweries earning 36 medals, some in extremely competitive categories. Here are the highlights:
- Cannonball Creek won a bronze medal for its Featherweight Pale Ale in the wildly competitive American-style pale ale category, one with over 160 entries and the fifth-highest entered.
- One of the most notable Colorado wins was a gold medal to Spangalang, a Five Points brewery that's been open for less than six months, in the Other Belgian-style ale category. The beer, Spangalang Table Beer, beat out hundreds of entries including the bronze medal winning entry from Stone Brewing.
- Spangalang's neighbor, Our Mutual Friend Malt & Brew, won its first GABF medal this year- a silver for 24 Frames Per Second in the wood- and barrel-aged sour beer category, beating out Firestone Walker Barrelworks' Sour Opal.
- In the fresh or wet hop ale category, Comrade won a well-deserved silver medal for its Superpower IPA.
- Left Hand is a Colorado brewery that consistently places in GABF, this year being no exception. The Longmont brewery took home three medals: gold in the export stout category for Fade to Black, Volume 1, bronze for its Sawtooth Ale in the ordinary or special bitter category, and bronze in the brown porter category for Black Jack Porter.
- Trinity was awarded a silver medal in the competitive Brett beer category for its beer, Red Swingline IPA Primitif.
- In the Belgian-style witbier category, Avery won a silver medal for White Rascal, a beer that is constantly being adjusted by its makers. Perhaps the good people at Avery will stick to the current incarnation of the witbier, which fared extremely well in the competition.
- Fort Collins Brewery took home gold in another highly competitive category, Dortmunder or German-style Oktoberfest for its Oktoberfest.
- The South German-style hefeweizen category was dominated by Colorado breweries this year. Prost took the gold in the category while Elk Mountain Brewing Company from Parker took silver.
- Ska was awarded a silver medal in another extremely tough category to place in, American-style or international-style pilsner for it's Mexican Logger. The winner in this category was another Colorado brewery, albeit macro- Coors Banquet took the gold.
- Denver Beer Co. Canworks won a bronze medal in the American-style black ale category for King Ink.
- Dry Dock won two coveted medals this year: bronze for the wildly popular Apricot Blonde in the American-style fruit ale category, and bronze for its pilsner in the German-style pilsener category.
- The German-style kolsch category was also Colorado-dominated, with Durango's Steamworks Brewing Company securing silver for Colorado Kolsch, and Fort Collins' Black Bottle Brewery taking bronze for its Friar Chuck.
- Brewery Rickoli earned a silver medal in the barley wine-style ale category for its beer, Statik.
- The American-style wheat beer category was dominated by Colorado breweries. Wiley Roots Brewing Co. from Greeley was awarded a gold medal for its Super 77 Wheat, while Telluride Brewing Co. took home silver for Whacked Out Wheat.
- CODA earned a silver medal for Via Chicago in the American-style strong pale ale category.
- Lone Tree's Mexican Lager took home a silver medal in the American-style lager category and Coors was awarded the gold medal in the same category.
- Greeley's WeldWerks Brewing Co. took home a silver medal for its hefeweizen in the American-style wheat beer with yeast category.
- Pug Ryan's in Dillon won a bronze medal in the Bohemian-style pilsener category for its Peacemaker Pilsner.
- Glenwood Canyon Brewing Co. earned silver for No Name in the English-style brown ale category.
- Grimm Brothers Brewhouse took two medals home this year: silver in the European-style dark dunkel category for Fearless Youth, and bronze in the historical beer category for Snow Drop.
- Former Future's funky side project, Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales, won a bronze medal in the wide-ranging experimental beer category for Ramjet.
- In the vague-ish category of field beer, Breckenridge's Broken Compass Brewing took home a bronze medal for its Coconut Porter.
- Lafayette's Liquid Mechanics was awarded a bronze medal for its Altbier in the German-style Altbier category.
- Niwot's Bootstrap Brewing won a silver medal for Wreak Havoc in the imperial red ale category.
- City Star Brewing in Berthoud took bronze for Night Watchman in the robust porter category.
- AC Golden took home the coveted gold medal in the wood- and barrel-aged strong stout category for Ctayt.
The full list of results is available online.