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The Great American Beer Fest (GABF) crowns the best beers in America each year and it’s this festival is like an annual Mecca for beer enthusiasts. The 2018 GABF awarded 102 gold medals, meaning there were 102 different categories.
I see the craft beer industry taking a lot of flack online these days. Likewise, America’s biggest breweries seem to be taking hits year after year. It’s unclear where everyone’s going to get their beer fix but the GABF brings together every type of beer from the biggest breweries to the mom and pop outfits.
The 2018 Great American Beer Fest wrapped up in Denver last weekend. It was held from September 20-22 and when the dust had settled the latest and greatest beers in America had been crowned alongside established champions.
Each category awards a Gold, Silver, and Bronze to the best beers in America. You can check out the complete winner’s list on the GABF website (link at the bottom of this article) but I wanted to share all of the relevant gold medal winners with you bros so that you know what to look out for next time you’re drinking at the pub.
It’s amazing how much West Coast breweries dominated the awards. California took home 72 medals while California/Oregon/Washington managed to steal 36% of all medals awarded. Colorado had 30 medals with 16 golds. In total, 280 breweries won awards across 37 states.
I’m not including all of the 102 categories where medals were awarded. I’ve listed A LOT below, but mostly I’ve included the ones I think you bros would be interested in hearing about.
Here are some of the gold medal winners on the lighter side.
Category 23: American-Style Sour Ale – 53 Entries
Gold: Kveik 1, Shades of Pale Brewery, Park City, UTCategory 22: American-Belgo-Style Ale – 51 Entries
Gold: Whitewall Wheat, Crank Arm Brewing Co., Raleigh, NCCategory 35: American-Style Pilsener – 91 Entries
Gold: Rocket 100, The Austin Beer Garden Brewing Co., Austin, TXCategory 36: International-Style Pilsener – 86 Entries
Gold: Wooden Teeth, Turtle Mountain Brewing Co., Rio Rancho, NMCategory 37: Light Lager – 63 Entries
Gold: Altitude Banquet, Altitude Chophouse and Brewery, Laramie, WYCategory 38: American-Style Lager or American-Style Malt Liquor – 65 Entries
Gold: Lager, Appalachian Mountain Brewery – Boone, Boone, NCCategory 40: American-Style Amber Lager – 91 Entries
Gold: Pecos Amber Lager, Texas Beer Co., Taylor, TXCategory 41: German-Style Pilsener – 159 Entries
Gold: Netflix and Pils, Cannonball Creek Brewing Co., Golden, CO
Now let’s check out the best IPAs because you know that’s a big collection of categories. It’s amazing how many more entries there are in the IPA categories compared to the others. There were 311 entries alone for the American-style IPA category.
Category 62: American-Style India Pale Ale – 311 Entries
Gold: Bine, Root Down Brewing Co., Phoenixville, PACategory 63: Juicy or Hazy India Pale Ale – 391 Entries
Gold: Le Jus, Alarmist Brewing, Chicago, ILCategory 64: Imperial India Pale Ale – 157 Entries
Gold: Nobility, Noble Ale Works, Anaheim, CACategory 65: Juicy or Hazy Imperial or Double India Pale Ale – 150 Entries
Gold: New England Style Double IPA, Black Market Brewing Co., Temecula, CACategory 66: American-Style Amber/Red Ale – 124 Entries
Gold: West Coast Swing Amber, The Mitten Brewing Co., Grand Rapids, MICategory 67: Double Hoppy Red Ale – 56 Entries
Gold: Midwest Red IPA, Masthead Brewing Co., Cleveland, OHCategory 68: Imperial Red Ale – 45 Entries
Gold: Happy Days, Claremont Craft Ales, Claremont, CA
There it is, the ‘best’ IPA in America according to the GABF.
This collection of categories focuses on flavored beers. Beers with spiciness or sweetness incorporated in some form or another.
Category 1: American-Style Wheat Beer – 54 Entries
Gold: Sweet As Pacific Ale, GoodLife Brewing Co., Bend, ORCategory 3: American-Style Fruit Beer – 140 Entries
Gold: Raspberry Twist Lager, Garage Brewing Co., Temecula, CACategory 6: Pumpkin/Squash Beer or Pumpkin Spice Beer – 38 Entries
Gold: Gordgeous, NoDa Brewing Co. – NE, Charlotte, NCCategory 8: Chili Beer – 96 Entries
Gold: White Legs Jalapeno Wheat, Tribute Brewing Co., Eagle River, WICategory 9: Herb and Spice Beer – 130 Entries
Gold: Pendragon, Royal Docks Brewhouse and Cannery, Massillon, OHCategory 10: Chocolate Beer – 59 Entries
Gold: Coco for Coxness, Copperpoint Brewing Co., Boynton Beach, FLCategory 11: Coffee Beer – 92 Entries
Gold: Coffee Cream Ale, Kiitos Brewing, Salt Lake City, UT
These categories keep going on and on, with 102 Gold Medals awarded in total. You can check out all of the various ale categories I didn’t include by clicking here to visit the Great American Beer Fest’s website where they’ve got a list of Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners as well as a PDF that’s easy to scroll through showing all the winners in order by category.
In the meantime, I want to send a shout out to Root Down Brewing in Pennsylvania for taking home to coveted IPA category.