This year’s Paired™ at the Great American Beer Festival is raising the bar on craft beer and food pairings. What’s Paired, you ask? In this foodie haven, just steps away from the main festival, 21 craft breweries have been selected to pour unique beers. Alongside these rare beers are expertly selected small bites imagined by award-winning chefs led by the Brewers Association’s Chef Adam Dulye.

“The menu this year is hands down the best ever created,” said event director Nancy Johnson. “Paired is potentially one of the best places in the country to see and feel the pulse of the current state of Read More

Here are a few helpful hints and tips to help make your trip to the Great American Beer Festival the best it can be.

• New Entrance! Welton Street

There’s a new entrance this year. It’s at Welton Street. This is the only entrance to the festival (change from last year). Check out this handy map to see where to enter the convention center.

Metal Detectors

Once again all attendee entrances will be equipped with metal detectors. See also: Prohibited items.

Will Call

Will Call opens the day of the first session and is located in the lower lobby of the Colorado Convention Center. Find it by entering through the doors to the right of Read More

Head over to the fun zone! The Backyard is full of yard games, music, and exciting photo ops! Located near the festival entrance, you DON’T want to miss The Backyard – it’s basically a festival within the Read More

By Andy Sparhawk

Originally published on CraftBeer.com

I remember the urge to run. The long line that snaked along the side of the Colorado Convention Center in Denver dragged me in the building, up a wide flight of stairs and released me into the cavernous Great American Beer Festival—my first. I’m not sure what I was running to. I almost expected a lifeguard to yell, “No running!”

So I did the same straight-legged, hand flat down my sides speed walk that over-stimulated children do around a pool. I hustled to the first brewery I saw. Little did I know that the first beer sampled at Read More

The Great American Beer Festival got its start in 1982 as just a part of the American Homebrewers Association‘s fourth annual conference. If the name is any indication, however, founder Charlie Papazian had grander ambitions for this remarkable event.

Peruse a copy of the 1982 Program (pdf)—complete with Charlie’s handwritten notes in the margins!

Great American Beer Festival Then and Now 1982 2016 Hours of Tasting 5 over 1 session 17.5 over 4 sessions Breweries at the Festival 24 780 Beers at the Festival 47 3,800+ Festival Hall Size 5,000 square feet 380,000 square feet Attendees 800 60,000 Volunteers ~50 ~3,700 Familiar beers served in 1982 and still available today Anchor Steam and Porter Genesee Cream Ale Killian’s Irish Red Ale Leinenkugel’s Rainier Ale Rolling Rock Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and Stout Stevens Read More

Did you know this year marks the 36th anniversary of the Great American Beer Festival?! Time flies when you’re enjoying delicious beer with friends! Here are some vintage photos from festivals in 1982 (the inaugural), 1983 and 1984. As you can see, hairstyles come and go (and come back!) but the joy of coming together to sample great American beer is constant …

Photos © Brewers Association.

Read More

Well!

Another year, another exceptional showing from our brilliant breweries and awesome attendees.

Give yourselves a hearty pat on the back!

Let’s do it again next year, shall we?

Meeting place: Denver. How about the convention center? Good.

Let’s say October 5-7, 2017.

We’ll announce ticket sale dates in the spring.

Hop on our email list if you’re not already on it.

See you Read More

In its 30th year, the 2016 Great American Beer Festival 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 Read More

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. Read More