Photo © Brewers Association
Five Washington breweries brought home medals from the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) this past weekend. Held annually in Denver, CO, GABF is the country’s largest beer festival and commercial beer competition. Breweries from all over the country submitted beers for judging in 84 categories, which were evaluated by 188 judges from 11 countries. A total of 676 breweries competed, including 28* from Washington. Bellingham’s Chuckanut Brewery and Woodinville’s Redhook Brewery both brought home two medals each, while American Brewing (Edmonds), No-Li Brewhouse (Spokane), and Elysian Brewing (Seattle) each brought home a medal as well.
Redhook won a silver medal for their Pilsner and a bronze medal for Winterhook. Chuckanut took home silver medals for their Kolsch and their Vienna Lager. No-Li scored with a gold medal for their Crystal Bitter Ale, while Elysian was awarded a silver medal for Men’s Room Original Red Ale and American Brewing got bronze for their Polska Porter. You can see the full list of GABF winners from this year and the past here.
Chuckanut is no stranger to the stage at GABF. Since opening their doors in 2008, Chuckanut has now won a total of 12 medals in the four years they have entered beers to the competition. Elysian adds another medal to their impressive trophy case, bringing them to 15 total medals at GABF over the years. Redhook earned their 6th and 7th medals this year. This is American Brewing’s second medal at GABF and No-Li’s first ever medal at the event.
A trip to GABF should be on every beer geek’s “bucket list”. While the competition is the reward for the breweries, 578 breweries served more than 2,700 different beers at the festival, which was attended by 49,000 people over 3 days. Mark your calendar now for next year’s festival, which will take place October 10 – 12. You’ll have to be on top of things to get tickets, though. This year’s festival sold out in less than an hour the day tickets went on sale to the public.
Congrats to all the winners! With so many great breweries across the country these days, bringing home a medal from GABF is quite an accomplishment.
*Note that there were 28 breweries from Washington listed as pouring beer at the festival. There may have been other breweries that submitted beer for judging but were not pouring beer at the festival.
