Great American Beer Festival Awards medal

Congratulations to all the Florida breweries who brought home medals from the Great American Beer Festival

The Great American Beer Festival Awards were held this weekend in Dever, Colorado, and a few Florida craft breweries brought back medals from the festival competition.

Congratulations to:

Dade City Brew House for their GOLD MEDAL in Dessert Stout or Pastry Stout for Pure Nonsense.

Fort Myers Brewing for their SILVER MEDAL in Chocolate Beer for Chocolate Stout.

Green Bench Brewing / Webb’s City Cellar for their BRONZE MEDAL in Belgian Fruit Beer for Vordrassil.

 

Pitcher of beer at the Great American Beer FestivalAbout the Great American Beer Festival and the Competition:

Press Release: The Brewers Association (BA) revealed the top beers and ciders of 2024 at an awards ceremony during the Great American Beer Festival (GABF®). In partnership with the American Cider Association, the prestigious competition bestowed awards in five new cider categories. With more than 1,200 cider producers in the U.S., the GABF competition keeps consumer drinking preferences and trends at the forefront of the event.

This year, 273 breweries and cideries earned 326* medals. The Great American Beer Festival judge panel evaluated noteworthy brews and ciders across 102 beer categories (including 170 subcategories), five new cider categories, and the Pro-Am and Collaboration competitions.
The competition was made possible thanks to more than 250 volunteers who facilitated the multi-step judging process and 285 beer experts who evaluated 8,836 commercial beer entries, 233 commercial cider entries, 95 Collaboration entries, and 52 Pro-Am entries. Judging occurred in three phases over seven days and included brewery entries from all 50 states plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.
“The Great American Beer Festival continues its commitment to recognizing exceptional beverages from across the country in the 2024 competition,” said Chris Williams, competition director for the Brewers Association. “With the addition of five new cider categories, we’re pleased to recognize the best of the best in beer and beyond. Congratulations to this year’s winners!”
The awards ceremony, live streamed on The Brewing Network on Saturday, October 12, 2024, was held at the Bellco Theatre in Denver as part of the Great American Beer Festival.
 
Great American Beer Festival Awards medal 
GABF COMPETITION STATISTICS
  • 38th edition of the GABF competition
  • 8,836 beers judged
  • 1,869 breweries & cideries in the competition from all 50 states plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico
  • 285 judges
  • 250+ volunteers
  • Average number of beers entered in each category: 85
  • Category with the highest number of entries: Category 102 – Juicy/Hazy IPA (349 entries)
  • 326 total medals awarded
  • 273 medal-winning breweries
  • 280 first-time GABF competition entrants
  • 25 first-time GABF competition winners
  • Five new cider categories
 
TOP 5 MOST-ENTERED BEER STYLE CATEGORY WINNERS
                                                                                                                        
Category 102 | Juicy/Hazy IPA (349 entries)
GOLD: Professional Human Being | Ambitious Ales | Long Beach, CA
SILVER: Groundswell | Single Hill Brewing Co. | Yakima, WA
BRONZE: Crash of Rhinos | Movement Brewing Co. | Rancho Cordova, CA
Category 100: West Coast IPA (292 entries)
GOLD: Codebreaker | Trademark Brewing | Long Beach, CA
SILVER: Pacific Portal | Alma Mader Brewing | Kansas City, MO
BRONZE: IPA for Aliens | Masthead Brewing Co. | Cleveland, OH
Category 101: American-Style IPA (217 entries)
GOLD: Competition | Highland Park Brewery – Chinatown | Los Angeles, CA
SILVER: One Way | Old Caz Beer | Rohnert Park, CA
BRONZE: Lexical Gap | Pollyanna Brewing Co. | Lemont, IL
 
Category 50: Dortmunder or German-Style Oktoberfest (210 entries)
GOLD: Festbier | Glenwood Canyon Brewing Co. | Glenwood Springs, CO
SILVER: Festbier | Northwoods Brewing Co. | Northwood, NH
BRONZE: The Cushman | Morgan Territory Brewing | Tracy, CA
 
Category 52: German-Style Maerzen (195)
GOLD: Pleasantbräu Oktoberfest | Soul Brewing Co. | Pleasantville, NY
SILVER: Marchtoberfest | Galveston Island Brewing | Galveston, TX
BRONZE: Oktoberfest | Left Hand Brewing Co. | Longmont, CO
 
MOST-ENTERED CIDER CATEGORY WINNERS
                                                                                                                        
Category 203: Fruited & Botanical Cider (74 entries)
GOLD: Blackberry Cider | McMenamins Breweries | Portland, OR
SILVER: Ozark Strawberry Rhubarb Cider | Ozark Beer Co. | Rogers, AR
BRONZE: Pacific Pineapple | 2 Towns Ciderhouse | Corvallis, OR
 
MOST-MEDALED BREWERIES
Apogee Brewing Company | Grover Beach, CA
Gold, Lucy Loves Rye, Category 76: Specialty Saison
Bronze, Aurora, Category 73: Belgian-Style Ale or French-Style Ale
Bronze, Monks on the Moon, Category 78: Belgian-Style Strong Specialty Ale
Bronze, Monks In Space, Category 79: Belgian-Style Abbey Ale
Highland Park Brewery – Chinatown | Los Angeles, CA
Gold, Competition, Category 101: American-Style India Pale Ale
Gold, Baseball, Category 40: Contemporary American-Style Lager
Gold, Timbo, Category 91: American-Style Pale Ale
Gold, DDH Pillow, Category 98: Juicy or Hazy Imperial India Pale Ale
 
COLLABORATION COMPETITION (95 entries) See criteria here.
GOLD: Twenty-Fold Sword | New Zealand-Style IPA | No Boat Brewing Company and Obelisk Beer Co. | Snoqualmie, WA
SILVER: Stupid Sticky Fingers | Wood & Barrel Aged Imperial Stout | Werk Force Brewing Co. and Rocky Reef Brewing Co. | Plainfield, IL
BRONZE: Spudweiser | American Pilsner | Live Oak Brewing Company and Hold Out Brewing | Del Valle, TX
 
PRO-AM COMPETITION (52 entries) See criteria here. Sponsored by Briess Malt & Ingredients Co. & White Labs
GOLD: Piwo Grodziskie | Kansas City Bier Co. and Mike & Stephanie
Butler | Kansas City, MO
SILVER: Rising Sun | Crooked Lane Brewing Co. and Matt Hall | Auburn, CA
BRONZE: South of Helles | Starr Hill Beer Hall & Rooftop – Richmond and Joel Miller | Richmond, VA
*Out of 327 possible awards, 326 were conferred. Bronze was not awarded in Category 15 for Amber to Dark Non-Alcohol Beer.
The 2024 Great American Beer Festival was made possible in part by the generous support of its sponsors and in partnership with the American Cider Association.
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About the Brewers Association
The Brewers Association (BA) is a not-for-profit trade association dedicated to small and independent American brewers, their beers, and the community of brewing enthusiasts. The BA represents 5,000-plus U.S. breweries and more than 30,000 homebrewers. The BA’s independent craft brewer seal is a widely adopted symbol that differentiates beers by small and independent craft brewers. The BA organizes events, including the World Beer Cup®Great American Beer Festival®Craft Brewers Conference & BrewExpo America®Homebrew ConNational Homebrew Competition, and American Craft Beer Week®. The BA publishes The New Brewer® and Zymurgy® magazines, and Brewers Publications® is the leading publisher of brewing literature in the U.S. 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®. Follow us on FacebookTwitter and Instagram.
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 13672 and the rules, regulations, and relevant orders of the Secretary of Labor.
Sun Lab Brewing logo painted Interior

Bradenton’s Sun Lab Brewing launches in a familiar space – to Grand Open soon

Over the summer, Magnanimous Brewing transitioned away from their Bradenton taproom and brewery and into a new home in their Seminole Heights facility. Into the Bradenton facility came Sun Lab Brewing – a previously wandering brewery that had been looking for a home. Now that Sun Lab Brewing is at home in the Bradenton facility, they will be Grand Opening soon. (The previous Grand Opening is being moved due to Hurricane Milton.)

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Zephyrhills Brewing Company has been sold

Lately, when a post begins by saying that a brewery has been sold, that post also gives patrons and fans a week (if lucky) to come and say goodbye to a beloved brewery or establishment. So, when Zephyrhills Brewing Company owner Steve Bahorski began a post that way, it felt like bad news was coming. Thankfully, the news changed for the better.

TBBC Silo Society

Tampa Bay Brewing Company’s Silo Society Signup is coming soon

Like many breweries, Tampa Bay Brewing Company (TBBC) has their membership club, The Silo Society. The Silo Society was founded to give a group of dedicated enthusiasts access to exclusive benefits from the brewery. 2024/25 includes new benefits not featured during the previous year’s membership. Signups only happen once yearly, and those are coming soon, starting this week on Friday, September 20th.

From TBBC:

TBBC Silo SocietyIt’s almost that time of year again! Our exclusive beer club, ??? ???? ???????, will reopen for ??????? ????????? ????-????

Signups will be online all 10 days, with an ??-?????? ?????? ??????????? on ????????? ???? ???? ???-???
Silo Society will max out after the first 100 signups! Membership cost is $200 up front & benefits include:
– $1 off all draft beer
– 20% off all merch
– 10% off to go beer
– early access to beer releases
– exclusive 24/25 Silo Society merch
– 1 General Admission Ticket for Bad Ass Beer Fest
– commemorative membership card
– plus access to the private Facebook page and events

Mark your calendars days, signups will be here beginning this Friday, September 20th!

 

Want to learn more about Tampa Bay Brewing Company? Click here to hear owner Dave Doble as a guest on the BeerWise Podcast.

 

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About Tampa Bay Brewing Company
Tampa Bay Brewing Company is one of Florida’s first & premier Craft Breweries. TBBC opened at the tail end of the last “Micro-Brew” Boom. Our philosophy then and now is simple: Brew beer we love to drink! Thank goodness there were plenty of like-minded people around to support our endeavor. Today, TBBC thrives within the incredible brewing community of Tampa, Florida which was once just a two brewery town…we were lonely back then! We currently operate an Ybor Brewpub and a Production Brewery in the northern part of Tampa. We are organically growing distribution with the end goal of being a Florida-only brand with a driving vision of Beer Crafted for the Florida Lifestyle.