Great Beers Awarded Great Honors at the 2016 Great American Beer Festival®

286 Medals Awarded to 254 Brewers

BOULDER, Colo.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–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, GABF is the largest commercial beer competition in the
world and a symbol of brewing excellence.

View
the 2016 winners or download
a PDF list of the winners.

Overview: Great American Beer Festival Competition

In a ceremony at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, prestigious
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.

2016 Brewery and Brewer of the Year Awards

Very Small Brewing Company and Very Small Brewing Company Brewer of
the Year
Sponsored by Brewers Supply Group (BSG)
Brown
Truck Brewery, High Point, N.C.
Team Brown Truck

Small Brewing Company and Small Brewing Company Brewer of the Year
Sponsored
by O-I
Überbrew, Billings, Mont.
Über Cru

Mid-Size Brewing Company and Mid-Size Brewing Company Brewer of the
Year
Sponsored by MicroStar Logistics
Fat Head’s
Brewery & Saloon, North Olmsted, Ohio
Matt Cole and Mike Zoscak

Large Brewing Company and Large Brewing Company Brewer of the Year
Sponsored
by Beer Institute
Pabst Brewing Co., Los Angeles, Calif.
Gregory
Deuhs

Small Brewpub and Small Brewpub Brewer of the Year
Sponsored
by Briess Malt & Ingredients Co.
ZwanzigZ Brewing,
Columbus, Ind.
Mike Rybinski and Trent Fleener

Mid-Size Brewpub of the Year
Sponsored by Brewers Supply
Group (BSG)
Karl Strauss Brewing Co. – San Diego, San Diego,
Calif.
Team Karl

Large Brewpub and Large Brewpub Brewer of the Year
Sponsored
by Country Malt Group
The Austin Beer Garden Brewing Co.,
Austin, Texas
Amos Swifty Kim

Overall Competition Highlights

• Most medals won:
• Four (4) medals were won by Überbrew, Billings, Mont. (2 gold, 1
  silver, 1 bronze)
• Three (3) medals were won by each of the following breweries:
  • Karl Strauss Brewing Co. – San Diego, San Diego, Calif. (2 golds,
    1 bronze)
  • Brown Truck Brewery, High Point, N.C. (1 gold, 2 silver)
  • Fat Head’s Brewery & Saloon, North Olmsted, Ohio (1 gold, 1
    silver, 1 bronze)
  • Top three states by ratio of medals to entries by state:
    • Wyoming (.111) with 45 entries and 5 medals
    • Hawaii (.107) with 28 entries and 3 medals
    • Virginia (.07) with 200 entries and 14 medals

    Style Categories

    Since 2002, the most-entered category has been American-Style India Pale
    Ale (IPA), which saw 312 entries in 2016 compared to 336 entries in
    2015. The top five entered categories were:

    • American-Style India Pale Ale (312 entries)
    • Imperial India Pale Ale (211 entries)
    • American-Style Strong Pale Ale (169 entries)
    • Coffee Beer (168 entries)
    • Wood- and Barrel-Aged Strong Beer (159 entries)

    In 2015, the top-five entered style categories included Session India
    Pale Ale and American-Style Pale Ale, which did not make the top five
    this year. New in the top five in 2016 compared to last year are
    American-Style Strong Pale Ale and Coffee Beer.

    The average number of competition beers entered in each category was
    75—up from 72 in 2015— making the 2016 Great American Beer Festival
    competition the most competitive ever.

    The winners in the most-entered (that is, the most competitive)
    categories were:

    American-Style India Pale Ale (312 entries)
    Gold: Bodhizafa
    IPA, Georgetown Brewing Co., Seattle, Wash.
    Silver: Super Cali IPA,
    Riip Beer Co., Huntington Beach, Calif.
    Bronze: Breaking Bud, Knee
    Deep Brewing Co., Auburn, Calif.

    Imperial India Pale Ale (211 entries)
    Gold: Humulus Insani,
    Überbrew, Billings, Mont.
    Silver: Nobility, Noble Ale Works,
    Anaheim, Calif.
    Bronze: Hop JuJu Imperial IPA, Fat Head’s Brewery,
    Middleburg Heights, Ohio

    American-Style Strong Pale Ale (169 entries)
    Gold: Good
    Green, Highland Park Brewery, Los Angeles, Calif.
    Silver: Rippin,
    Sunriver Brewing, Sunriver, Ore.
    Bronze: HFS, Alpine Beer Co., San
    Diego, Calif.

    Coffee Beer (168 entries)
    Gold: Gusto Crema, Georgetown
    Brewing Co., Seattle Wash.
    Silver: Dusk ‘til Dawn – SC, Pizza Port
    San Clemente, San Clemente, Calif.
    Bronze: Zumbar Chocolate Coffee
    Imperial Stout, New English Brewing Co., San Diego, Calif.

    Wood- and Barrel-Aged Strong Beer (159 entries)
    Gold: Silent
    Warrior, TAPS Fish House and Brewery – Corona, Corona, Calif.
    Silver:
    Mélange À Trois, Nebraska Brewing Co. – Papillion, Papillion, Neb.
    Bronze:
    15^th Anniversary Ale, Island Brewing Co., Carpinteria, Calif.

    • This year’s GABF competition saw seven new style categories:
      • Pumpkin /Squash Beer (category 6)
      • Four new historical beer categories were added: Finnish Sahti,
        Swedish Gotlandsricke, and Pale and Dark Breslau Schoeps
        (categories 21e, 21f, 21g, 21h)
      • German Leichtbier (category 36c)
      • Specialty Saison (category 79)

      2016 Great American Beer Festival Pro-Am Competition
      Sponsored
      by Briess Malt & Ingredients Co., The Country Malt Group, Yakima
      Chief-Hopunion and White Labs

      Gold, silver and bronze medals were also awarded in the GABF Pro-Am
      competition, which pairs amateur brewers with professional brewers, who
      scale up the award-winning homebrew recipes. The medal winners,
      including the winning professional brewers and American
      Homebrewers Association (AHA) member homebrewers are:

      Gold: Just Rye’te, Panther Island Brewing Co., Fort Worth, Texas
      Panther
      Island Brewing and AHA member Clifton Ellis

      Silver: Vernal Equinox, Starr Hill Brewery, Crozet, Va.
      Starr Hill
      Brewing Team and AHA member Gary Layton

      Bronze: The Kolsch Experiment, Altitude Chophouse and Brewery, Laramie,
      Wyo.
      Jesse Brown and AHA member Shawn Miller

      Summary: 2016 Great American Beer Festival Statistics

      • 35th anniversary of the festival; 30th edition of the GABF competition
      • 780 breweries in the festival hall
      • 3,800+ beers served at the festival
      • 60,000 attendees
      • 3,600 volunteers (festival and competition combined)
      • 1,752 breweries in the competition from 50 states plus Washington, D.C.
      • 254 medal-winning breweries
      • 286 total medals awarded
      • 7,227 beers judged (not including 88 Pro-Am competition entries), a
        nearly 9 percent increase over 2015
      • 96 style categories judged, plus the Pro-Am competition
      • 264 judges from 12 different countries
      • Average number of competition beers entered in each category: 75
        (excludes Pro-Am beers)
      • Category with highest number of entries: American-Style India Pale
        Ale: 312

      2016 Great American Beer Festival Official Sponsors

      Carhartt
      DRAFT Magazine
      MicroStar Logistics
      Red
      Robin Gourmet Burgers and Brews
      CraftBeer.com

      Additional GABF sponsors are recognized on the festival website.
      Photos
      for media use are available on the GABF
      website.

      About the Brewers Association

      The Brewers Association is the not-for-profit trade association
      dedicated to small
      and independent American brewers, their beers and the community of
      brewing enthusiasts. The Brewers Association (BA) represents more than
      70 percent of the brewing industry, and its members make more than 99
      percent of the beer brewed in the U.S. The BA organizes events including
      the World
      Beer Cup^SM, Great
      American Beer Festival^®, Craft
      Brewers Conference & BrewExpo America^®, SAVOR℠:
      An American Craft Beer & Food Experience, Homebrew
      Con, National
      Homebrew Competition and American
      Craft Beer Week^®. The BA
      publishes The
      New Brewer magazine and its Brewers
      Publications division is the largest publisher of contemporary and
      relevant brewing literature for today’s craft brewers and homebrewers.

      Beer lovers are invited to learn more about the dynamic world of craft
      beer at CraftBeer.com and
      about homebrewing via the BA’s American
      Homebrewers Association and the free Brew
      Guru™ mobile app. Follow us on Twitter.

      The Brewers Association is an equal opportunity employer and does not
      discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender,
      religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, or
      marital/familial status. The BA complies with provisions of Executive
      Order 11246 and the rules, regulations, and relevant orders of the
      Secretary of Labor.

      Contacts

      Brewers Association
      Barbara Fusco, 303-447-0816 ext. 152
      Sales
      & Marketing Director
      or
      The Rosen Group
      Abby Berman
      Cohen, 646-695-7044
      Vice President