2016 Great American Beer Festival Winners Announced #GABF

Congratulations to the 2016 Great American Beer Festival Winners!

In its 30th year, the 2016 Great American Beer Festival (GABF) competition awarded 286 medals to some of the best commercial breweries in the United States, plus three GABF Pro-Am medals to teams of amateur homebrewers paired with professionals. Presented by the Brewers Association, the GABF is the largest commercial beer competition in the world and a symbol of brewing excellence.

Every year the GABF celebrates United States breweries. The GABF is not only about sampling quality beer but is also a beer competition. Breweries enter their beers to be judged by the festival’s Professional Judge Panel.

The GABF invites industry professionals from around the world to sit together in small groups and, without knowing the brand name, taste beers in specified style categories. The goal of the Great American Beer Festival Judge Panel is to identify the three beers that best represent each beer-style category as described and adopted by the GABF.

This year Gold, Silver and Bronze medals were awarded to winning breweries in 96 beer categories covering 161 different beer styles (including all subcategories), establishing the best examples of each style in the country. Neither a gold nor a silver medal were awarded in the Pumpkin/Squash Beer category.

Winners were chosen from 7,227 competition entries (nearly 9 percent more than the 6,647 entries in 2015 and surpassing all previous participation records) from 1,752 breweries hailing from 50 states plus Washington, D.C.

The competition also saw its biggest-ever panel of judges, with 264 beer experts from 12 countries, including the U.S., and 170 competition volunteers. The panel also evaluated 88 Pro-Am entries, which were judged in three rounds over four days.

The 2016 Brewery and Brewer of the Year Awards are shown below.