making HEADlines: Florida Breweries Earn Medals at 2018 Great American Beer Festival

making HEADlines:

FLORIDA BREWERIES EARN MEDALS AT 2018 GREAT AMERICAN BEER FESTIVAL

Denver CO, September 22, 2018: The first day of Fall saw six Florida breweries notch medals at the 32nd edition of the Great American Beer Festival, held September 20-22 in Denver. With 2,404 breweries and 8,496 entries from around the world in this year's competition, the pre-eminent annual beer competition awarded medals in 102 beer categories, covering 167 beer styles.  This year's category with the highest number of entries was the Juicy or Hazy IPA, with 391 entries. While the American-Style IPA category historically notches the highest number of entries, it was second this year (311), just behind the haze-craze IPAs (391).  Three breweries: 10 Barrel Brewing (Bend OR), Alesong Brewing and Blending (Eugene OR), and  Lewis & Clark Brewing (Helena MT) tied for the most number of medals at three each. 

According to the Brewers Association, over 800 breweries participated in the 2018 GABF at the Colorado Convention Center, which spanned over 584,000 square feet. Over 4,000 beers were served to more than 62,000 attendees, and the mega-event was staffed with over 4,000 volunteers. 

Six Florida breweries brought home the hardware of Gold, Silver or Bronze medals. Congratulations to the following:

Escape Brewing, Trinity: Silver: Goofy Footed, American Style Wheat Beer
Walking Tree Brewery, Vero Beach: Silver: Barnacled Manatee, Barleywine Style Ale
Cigar City Brewing, Tampa: Gold: Maduro Brown Ale, Brown Porter
Copperpoint Brewing, Boynton Beach: Gold: Coco for Coxness, Chocolate Beer
First Magintude Brewing, Gainesville: Gold: Drift, English Mild Ale
Big Top Brewing, Sarasota: Bronze: Hawaiian Lion Tosated Coconut Coffee Porter,
Field Beer
Cigar City Brewing, Tampa: Silver: Guayabera,  International Style Pale Ale

Congratulations to these Florida breweries, and to all of the medal winners! 

A complete list of the medal winners can be found here. 

The 2019 GABF takes place in Denver October 3-5, 2019. For a  personal look at this site's visit to the 2015 GABF, take a look here. 

Cheers!

Linda Johnson, Certified Cicerone®
www.brewnymph.com

making HEADlines: Florida Medalists at GABF

making HEADlines:

FLORIDA BREWERIES EARN MEDALS AT 2017 GREAT AMERICAN BEER FESTIVAL

DENVER, CO:   The nation's premier beer festival and competition event, Great American Beer Festival (GABF), took place October 5-7, 2017 at the Colorado Convention Center. Each year, tens of thousands of beer enthusiasts attend the three-day festival to sample beers from across the country. This year, attendance was estimated at 60,000, according to figures released from the Brewers Association. More than 800 breweries served an estimated 3900 beers, and the event was staffed with over 4300 volunteers. 

Florida Beer Events Are Rockin' This Fall

Here we are mid-October (can you believe it?). Fall Beerfest season is rockin' along with

A visual look at a few events
happening around Florida
Oct. 14-16

Oktoberfest celebrations still oompah-ing their way through the calendar month, right there next to area beerfests and other special beer events. From the "biggest" beerfest in Florida happening in Miami to new brewery openings/Grand Openings to brewery anniversaries to Florida-Georgia weekend to Halloween, the next three weekends will see the suds flow. So far, it's been an "interesting" month, to say the least. Hurricane Matthew decided to take a daytrip along Florida's east coast late last week leaving behind a huge amount of damage, especially here in the North Florida area. Hopefully, most of those affected are on the recovery path (including the return of that taken-for-granted thing called electricity). Even the craft beer world was affected as several beerfests and other events already set in place for months were cancelled and/or rescheduled (take a look at the "Making Headlines" page). This writer's calendar included attending several events and/or other visits during the first weeks of October that didn't happen, but it's good to see the positive efforts toward repair and rebuilding. 

GABF Boot Camp ... A Look Back From a Year Ago....

GABF. Ask any beer enthusiast what those four letters mean, and you'll likely hear words like "epic," "ultimate," "unbelievable." And, those words probably still don't convey the sheer magnitude of the three-day mega beerfest that takes place in downtown Denver each year. On Thursday evening, October 6, the masses will again converge upon the Colorado Convention Center for the first of four tasting and sampling sessions. After the bagpipes strike the opening notes, the 2016 GREAT AMERICAN BEER FESTIVAL will officially begin! 

Confessions of a GABF Virgin

Cover of 2015 GABF Program

Brew Bus Brewing and Aardwolf Brewing (Florida) Win Medals at GABF

If you saw my social media feed over this past weekend, you know that I headed west to the Great American Beer Festival ("GABF") presented by the Brewers Association ("BA") at the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver. In its 29th year, the festival consisted of four sessions from Thursday to Saturday, and I attended two: Thursday opening night and Saturday afternoon members session.  But, first things first.  In addition to the beer tasting, there was also a behind-the-scenes beer competition going on.  In fact, 6,647 beers from 1,552 breweries in all 50 states and D.C. were judged!  The winners were announced Saturday morning, and the event was broadcast live via internet stream. All said, the judging panel of 242 beer experts from 15 countries, including the U.S.and 155 volunteers awarded 275 medals in 92 beer categories, including 145 styles.