Congratulations to all the breweries that brought home medals from the Great America Beer Festival this year, but let’s face it, the huge news coming out of Denver last Saturday morning, when the winners were announced, involved the most highly coveted medal of all: the gold medal in the American IPA category. Georgetown Brewing’s Bodhizafa IPA beat out 311 other entrants in the category and secured the gold medal. Of all categories judged, American IPA had the most entrants.
Judges awarded gold, silver and bronze medals to winning breweries in 96 beer categories covering 161 different beer styles (including all subcategories). It was the largest field of competition in GABF history. Winners were chosen from 7,227 competition entries 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.
All Washington winners are shown below. But first, here are some highlights.
In all, 14 medals were won by Washington breweries. In a competition of this size and scope, winning any kind of medal is very impressive. Note that not all breweries enter beer in the competition.- Of the three medals awarded for Gose, the gold and silver were awarded to Reuben’s Brews and Kulshan Brewing respectively.
- Georgetown Brewing brought home the gold in two of the most hotly contested categories (the categories with the most entrants). In addition to the IPA gold for Bodhizafa, Georgetown won gold for Gusta Crema in the Coffee Beer category, which saw 169 entrants.
- The numbers game: Oregon breweries outscored us again, bringing home 21 medals. Thing is, we have no idea how many Oregon breweries or Washington breweries submitted beer. Colorado breweries won 38 medals. Yes, they make good beer in Colorado but it is also a lot easier for them to submit beer to GABF. California won nearly 70 medals. Of course they have a lot more breweries than any other state and presumably had more beer in the competition than any other state.
Here is the list of Washington Breweries that won medals this year. Also below, the complete list of all 2016 GABF winners.
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Category 2: American-Style Wheat Beer With Yeast – 31 Entries
- Bronze: Boulder Bend Dunkelweizen, Fish Brewing Co., Olympia, WA
Category 12: Coffee Beer – 168 Entries
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- Gold: Gusto Crema, Georgetown Brewing Co., Seattle, WA
Category 16: Session Beer – 52 Entries
- Gold: PSB Session IPL, Perry Street Brewing Co., Spokane, WA
Category 22: Gluten-Free Beer – 37 Entries
- Bronze: Grapefruit IPA, Ghostfish Brewing Company, Seattle, WA
Category 31: Fruited Wood- and Barrel-Aged Sour Beer – 82 Entries
- Bronze: Pi, Propolis Brewing, Port Townsend, WA
Category 41: Bohemian-Style Pilsener – 62 Entries
- Silver: Polaris Pilsner, Chainline Brewing Co., Kirkland, WA
Category 42: Munich-Style Helles – 84 Entries
- Gold: Chuckanut Helles, Chuckanut Brewery, Bellingham, WA
Category 53: English-Style Summer Ale – 68 Entries
- Gold: Hometown Blonde, RAM/Big Horn Brewery – Lakewood, Lakewood, WA
Category 59: American-Style India Pale Ale – 312 Entries
- Gold: Bodhizafa IPA, Georgetown Brewing Co., Seattle, WA
Category 66: Extra Special Bitter – 71 Entries
- Gold: Redfeather, Black Raven Brewing Co., Redmond, WA
Category 72: German-Style Sour Ale – 141 Entries
- Gold: Gose, Reuben’s Brews, Seattle, WA
- Silver: Gose, Kulshan Brewing Co., Bellingham, WA
Category 89: Export Stout – 43 Entries
- Bronze: Starway Stout, Barrel Mountain Brewing, Battle Ground, WA
Category 96: Barley Wine-Style Ale – 60 Entries
- Silver: Barley Wine Ale, Dick’s Brewing Co., Centralia, WA
THE COMPLETE LIST OF WINNERS
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