A sizeable proportion of the attendees, however, make their way to the stage at the back of the huge hall. Over the next couple of hours, Chris Swersey of the Brewers Association will read the names of the award-winning breweries whose beers have taken bronze, silver and gold medals in the GABF Beer Judging competition. Delighted brewers mount the stage to collect a medal, shake the hand of Brewers Association president Charlie Papazian and pause for a photograph, as a perfectly-coordinated PowerPoint slide displays the category winners overhead.

Swersey reads with speed: there are over 200 awards to go through. The audience applauds, even whoops occasionally for popular breweries, but sections of the crowd peel off as he announces the winners in highly competitive categories. There will be a run on those award-winning beers as the afternoon wears on.

“I know those beers will be gone before I even get off the stage,” sighs Swersey, who is the competition manager, as well as the emcee for the awards ceremony.

The highest honors come at the end, though, when Swersey announces three awards for Brewery of the Year in the small, medium and large brewery categories. These medals are based on points allocated according to the number and types of medals won over the course of the whole competition.

“The coolest experience I’ve ever had here was probably first time I saw a really good friend, someone I’d brewed with, walk across the stage to accept Brewer of the Year,” he recalls.

Then it’s over until next year. The crowd disperses in search of newly-decorated brews to taste. Printed lists of award-winners are ready, as are electronic press releases and an on-line searchable database of winners. The final, public session of the festival on Saturday evening will drink the winners’ booths dry. By Sunday, the coveted medals will be generating buzz among beer lovers across the country.

And it all looks so easy.

Looking Back

“The Great American Beer Festival” was a pretty gutsy name to give to the early beer gatherings that were held in Boulder, CO nearly 30 years ago. “American” they were: greatness would wait. But these events established a new, singularly American approach to beer appreciation and, later, to beer evaluation.

The festival’s first professional beer competitions were held in 1987. Organized by Daniel Bradford, GABF festival director at the time and now the publisher of this magazine, the competitions had the same purpose 21 years ago that they have today: to educate consumers in the diversity of beer by recognizing the finest examples of different beer styles. The goal today remains to honor “three world-class beers that best represent each beer style category as described and adopted by the GABF.”

In the world of beer taxonomy, there are splitters and lumpers, as there are in any system of categorization. The GABF represents the splitters’ school, with the number of styles proliferating over the years to more than 70. European brewers are often amazed, even dismissive, being accustomed to competitions with far fewer groupings. Yet the finely partitioned categories reflect the fascination American brewers have had with the beer styles they have both borrowed and shaped: there is English IPA, for example, but there is also American IPA—a new and distinct style. The two can’t be evaluated by the same criteria.

The categories have shifted over the years as some beer styles have lost their luster and others have become the new darlings of the craft beer world. This year, for example, Fresh Hop Ale, American Belgo-Style Ale and Leipzig-Style Gose have joined the category list, just as various sour beer styles did in recent years.

The GABF judging tracks the changes in American brewing culture, sets guidelines for the widest range of styles, then aims to tell the beer-loving public where the finest examples are being made. It’s a straightforward mission—and one that requires organizational skills befitting a military commander, thousands of hours of volunteer and paid effort, and six months to execute.