Over the weekend, the 2019 Great American Beer Festival awarded 318 medals to 283 breweries in Denver, Colorado. More than 9,400 entries were submitted by 2,295 breweries across 174 different beer styles in the 33rd edition of the biggest beer festival in America.
“This year’s GABF competition was the largest and most competitive to date,” Chris Swersey, competition manager of the Great American Beer Festival, said in a press release.
The GABF is part-beer competition and part-ticketed beer festival, and though not all of America’s most-hyped brewers are in attendance, it’s still viewed as one of the most important beer festivals in beer and a GABF medal still carries weight.
This year, the category with the most entries was not surprising: the Juicy or Hazy India Pale Ale. There were 348 hazy, New England-style IPAs submitted to be crowned the top dog in what’s become the most competitive style in all of beer. Below are the gold medal winners of the five biggest categories. To view all the GABF winners, check out the full winner’s list here.
- Juicy or Hazy India Pale Ale — Old Irving Brewing Co., Beezer
- American-Style India Pale Ale — Comrade Brewing Co., More Dodge Less RAM
- Fruited American-Style Sour Ale — St. Elmo Brewing Co., Roxanne
- German-Style Pilsener — Blind Owl Brewery, Parliament Drive
- Imperial India Pale Ale — Alvarado Street Brewery, Double Cone
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