Colorado Brewers Take Home Top Prizes at 2019 GABF

DG2C Staff - October 8, 2019

It’s called the Great American Beer Festival for many great reasons. It’s the oldest beer festival and brewery competition in the US - starting in 1982 - and by many measures 2019 was the greatest so far. 2,295 brewers entered 9,497 beers in 107 style categories, vying for top honors and style distinction. 322 judges from 18 countries tasted them all, and awarded 318 gold, silver and bronze medals to 283 breweries found to be those most worthy.

Photo by Mike Laur © DG2C

Joyride wins Silver for Ice Cutter Kölsch.

Boulder-based Brewers Association stages this mega-festival every year, which attracts 60,000+ attendees to Denver. In the past few years, event tickets were hard to come by, as session passes sold out quickly - sometimes in minutes. This year, though, Thursday night session tickets were still available a few hours before the event began. Call it festival fatigue, brisk competition, too many choices if you wish. There are thousands of other large- and small-scale festivals that attract beer drinkers’ time and money throughout the year. And as the oldest, the biggest, and arguably the best, GABF is the one to imitate and emulate. It’s tempting to say that GABF may be a victim of its own success.

Too Big To Fail?

Nah. Forget that. It’s not just a place to go and hang out with 15,000 beer drinker’s for a few hours, sipping a mind-boggling variety of ales, lagers, ciders, seltzers, meads, teas and kombuchas. It’s place to learn about beer making, beer tasting, beer buying and beer appreciation. For most of us, GABF is the place to leisurely sample one-ounce pours of beers we never get to drink anyplace else, and try hard to remember which ones we liked the best.

Photo by Rick Mazzola © DG2C

Charlie takes a swig from Cellar West.

But if you’re a brewer, GABF can be a tense time. It’s the place to see and be seen, where you learn who makes the best, and if lucky, where Charlie Papazian hangs an award around your neck. Several brewers we spoke with said the most nervous they had ever been was fist-bumping Charlie onstage at GABF (although officially retired, Mr. Papazian returned to the stage for the award ceremony). Most of us will never know that feeling…

Ask David Lin how he felt, when you see him at Comrade Brewing in Denver. His brewery’s More Dodge Less RAM (in the American-Style India Pale Ale category) won Gold, beating out over 341 other beers to be crowned the #1 Best. He also won another gold award for Superpower IPA (an American-Style Strong Pale Ale), and to top it all off, was named Small Brewing Company and Small Brewing Company Brewer of the Year. Stop by Comrade, try their award-winning beers before they run out, and bring along your Drinker’s Guide coupon for a free pint! Congratulations David and Comrade Brewing!

Photo by Mike Laur © DG2C

Westbound & Down won silver medals for their Westbound Double IPA and Double Barrel Louie, and took the award for Mid-Size Brewpub and Mid-Size Brewpub Brewer of the Year.

Not to be outdone, Westbound & Down Brewing Company in Idaho Springs was named Mid-Size Brewpub and Mid-Size Brewpub Brewer of the Year. Two of their beers won silver awards. Congratulations to the Westbound & Down crew!

Colorado breweries earned a total of 40 medals - second only to California breweries who took home 68 awards. There were other notables besides Comrade and Westbound & Down. Cannonball Creek in Golden has a winning streak of medals that goes back eight years - every year since they opened. They were awarded two medals this year, as was Weldwerks in Greeley for two of their juicy IPA’s.

Check out the winners below, and make plans to visit the breweries to put your lips up to a glass of these GABF-award-winning beers before they’re gone.