Colorado Brewers Win Big at GABF 2018

Mike Laur & Rick Mazzola - September 25, 2018

Combine the Super Bowl, World Series, NCAA Basketball Championship, Nobel Prize - mash them all together, stir, let them ferment a while, invite 62,000 people to Denver, and call it the Great American Beer Festival.This year (as expected) was the biggest ever. It just keeps growing.

Boulder-based Brewers Association has hosted the event since 1982. They added another 100,000 square feet to the venue this year, which provided 17% more elbow room overall inside the cavernous Denver Convention Center. Breweries were organized alphabetically, instead of regionally as at past GABF events. This probably worked best for locating who was where, and it made for interesting discoveries of new beers alongside favorites.

It's still the largest beer competition in the world. Some stats to consider:

• 32nd edition of the GABF competition


• 8,496 entries plus 101 Pro-Am and 49 Collaboration entries


• 2,404 breweries in the competition from 49 states plus Washington, D.C. (no Mississippi)


• 293 judges from 13 countries


• Average number of competition beers entered in each category: 83


• Category with the highest number of entries: Juicy or Hazy India Pale Ale (391 entries)


• 280 medal-winning breweries (including Pro-Am and Collaboration)


• 306 total medals awarded plus three (3) each for Pro-Am and Collaboration


• 537 first-time GABF entrants


• 31 first-time GABF winners

Photo by Rick Mazzola © DG2C

Charlie Papazian chats about his passion - homebrewing.

Sadly, this will be the last awards ceremony for Charlie Papazian. He started GABF in 1982, and has been at the helm of the Brewers Association for decades. In January 2019, Charlie will exit the Brewers Association on his 70th birthday. Time to relax and have a homebrew, huh Charlie?

He did get to honor Gov. John Hickenlooper with the Friend in Beer Award before Saturday night's session - in recognition of Hick's contributions to, support of and storied history with the craft brewing community. He was one of the founding partners of Denver's Wynkoop Brewing before being elected governor. Maybe Hick will get his chance to be president of the BA, when Charlie steps down.

If you made it to GABF, good for you. It's always a unique beer experience. And if you didn't, no worries. Here's a list and a few photos of the Colorado brewers who won awards at this year's GABF, and we suggest heading out to visit them and try their award-winners for yourself, without all the crowds, direct from the source. See tasty and how much fun it is to support your local brewer?