Great American Beer Fest Roundup: In The End, We're All Winners

We're All Winners At The Great American Beer Fest (PHOTOS)

Beer Here! The 30th annual Great American Beer Festival (GABF) wrapped up this weekend to much acclaim. And while we were honored to attend, after tasting so many flavorful beers we lament that good old PBR will never taste quite the same.

This year GABF received competition entries from 526 breweries -- 3,930 beers at the festival were vying for medals, with only 248 medals awarded in total.

Colorado breweries took home a total of 44 medals, and though that counts for nearly 18% of all awarded medals, the states that took home the most medals per entry were Indiana (10 medals out of 52 entries), Minnesota (3/21), New Mexico (4/31), Wyoming (5/39), and Alaska (2/16).

A full searchable database of the winners reveals medals awarded to many of the Colorado Breweries you'd expect (New Belgium, Oskar Blues, Ska) and notable wins for newer breweries as well (Funkwerks, Strange, Dry Dock).

The top five entrants that won the most medals? Sun King Brewing Co. (8 medals), Firestone Walker Brewing Co. (6 medals), Pizza Port Carlsbad (6 medals), Rock Bottom Brewery (6 medals), and Boston Beer Co. (4 medals).

The GABF's roots go all the way back to 1979. That year, only 22 breweries attended; thankfully, GABF founder Charlie Papazian and the Brewers Association took some pictures:

First Great American Beer Festival

Great American Beer Festival: Through The Years

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