FAQ: Breweries

Competition registration for ALL breweries is open June 10 – 27, 2025, at GABFRegistration.com. Festival registration (i.e. Having a booth/pouring beer) is open from May 13 – July 11, 2025

If you wish to enter the competition you will need to complete an application at GABFRegistration.com. GABF festival registration will utilize a new registration platform and will be separate from the competition registration process.

If you own the rights to a brand, but your beverage is produced by another maker, you are still eligible to enter GABF. The facility producing your beers must meet the brewery eligibility requirements. Register the entries under the name of your brand, not the name of the facility at which your entries are produced.
Enter the TTB Basic Permit/Brewers Notice number of the facility producing the entry for your brand. Any award won by a contract brand is property of the company which owns the brand, not the facility producing the entry.

Competition registration takes place online at GABFRegistration.com from June 10 – 27, 2025. Only makers who meet both beverage & brewery eligibility requirements may register (see Eligibility info in FAQ below or the Competition Eligibility page.

Pricing depends on what you’re doing, and if you’re a member of the Brewers Association. Brewers Association members can register for an in-line booth at the festival between May 13 and June 3 for free, including one comped entry to the competition. Non-members can register for a festival pouring space after June 3 at a cost of $300. The cost for BA members to register after June 3 will be $150 (no competition entry included). That cost includes up to four badges for brewery representatives to attend all festival sessions. Sponsorship pricing for endcap spaces varies depending on brewery barrelage. See GABF competition pricing details here.

Breweries and cideries must meet ALL THREE of the following conditions at the time of registration. Breweries or cideries not meeting these criteria, homebrewers, and breweries in planning (i.e. not open, operational, or meeting the criteria below) as of this date are not eligible to enter.
Brewery or cidery must be fully licensed to both produce AND sell beer or cider in the U.S.
Brewery or cidery must have a Basic Permit/Brewers Notice on file with the TTB (U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax & Trade Bureau).
Brewery or cidery must be currently open and operating with at least one beer or cider currently commercially available for sale at retail to the public (e.g. taproom, bar, restaurant, retail store).
Breweries or cideries not meeting all criteria above and that register for the Great American Beer Festival and/or competition are subject to disqualification without further notice or refund of registration/entry fees.

A full refund is given only in the event that your brewery cancels by July 25. No refunds will be given for any cancellations after this date. This includes instances where beers are not shipped for competition and beers that are not received by the shipping deadline for judging. It is the brewery’s responsibility to track their shipments to ensure arrival in a timely manner.

The company admin person for your company’s BA Membership is able to log into the company account at BrewersAssociation.org to view this information. If you are not the admin or do not know who your company admin person is, please request this from our member services team by emailing info@nullbrewersassociation.org or by calling 303-447-0816 ext. 2.

The company admin person for your company’s BA Membership is able to log into the company account at BrewersAssociation.org to view this information. If you are not the admin or do not know who your company admin person is, please request this from our member services team by emailing info@nullbrewersassociation.org or by calling 303-447-0816 ext. 2.

First and foremost, your brewery or cidery must meet all brewery eligibility requirements. If your brewery or cidery does not meet all of the requirements, you are not eligible for entry.
All beer and cider entries must possess the characteristics generally attributed to and conforming to the consumer understanding of “beer” or “cider”.
Eligible
– Beer entries must have at least 51% of the fermentables derived from grain. Beverages made with malt substitutes, honey, fruit or fruit juices, or anything other than grain as the majority of fermentables are not eligible to participate.
– Beer entries must contain hops. Exceptions to this include gruit or other historical beer styles that traditionally use other herbs or spices (such as heather or yarrow).
– All beer entries comply with all TTB regulations, including formula approval requirements (as stated in Title 27, Chapter 1, Part 25, Subpart F, §25.55 of the Federal Code of Regulations).
All beer entries must comply with the Brewers Association Advertising & Marketing Code. Entries not in compliance will be disqualified immediately. The entry will not be judged, and no refund will be given.
Not Eligible
– Mead, spirits, hard soda, hard water, and flavored malt beverages including kombucha and some shandies and radlers (see first and second bullet point in “eligible” section) are not eligible to be entered in the GABF.
– Beer brands whose volume contains more than 50% of beer liquid manufactured outside the U.S. are ineligible (i.e. collaborations with non-U.S. breweries where the majority of the beer was produced abroad).
– Beer brands that have greater sales of beer imported into the U.S. than sales of that brand produced/manufactured in the U.S. are ineligible.
– Any beer or cider entries that contain any substances not authorized for use in human food, or which are made with ingredients that contain such substances, or which are made in contact with materials not authorized as food contact materials, all in accordance with the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act as interpreted and administered by FDA. Common examples of these compounds and ingredients include, but are not limited to: Coumarin (Tonka Beans, Amburana Wood), Safrole (Motherwort, Sassafras), Thujone (Artemesia/Wormwood/Mugwort), Cannabinoids (THC/CBD/Cannabis). Very rare exceptions may occasionally be made and must get explicit competition approval to be eligible
– Many other ingredients are not considered safe for food and beverage contact by FDA. Brewers and cidermakers are responsible for ensuring their beers comply with all food safety requirements. When asked, brewers must be able to provide an approved Statement of Process from TTB showing the use of any ingredient is approved and possible lab analysis showing beer does not contain any trace of unauthorized compounds.
– Entries that do not comply with the Brewers Association Advertising & Marketing Code will be disqualified from the competition and will not be refunded for competition fees
The Brewers Association retains sole discretion to determine eligibility for the Great American Beer Festival.

In an effort to address concerns regarding sexually explicit, lewd, or demeaning brand names that reasonable adult consumers would find inappropriate, beer names entered into the GABF are expected to meet the guidelines in the Brewers Association Marketing and Advertising Code.
Entering breweries are responsible for knowing these rules as we will not police entry names prior to the competition. A review of past medal-winning brand names finds that very few medal-winning beers will be affected by this rule.
Beer or cider names that do not meet the Marketing and Advertising Code will not be allowed to use the GABF trademark/logos or name to promote any brand that wins a GABF medal. Additionally, those brand names will not be marketed by the Brewers Association.
What you need to know:
GABF will not police brand names prior to competition.
GABF reserves the right to make final determination of approval for any brewery using GABF intellectual property when promoting medal-winning beverages.
GABF reserves the right to make final determination (via an independent advertising code review panel) of whether a brand meets the Advertising and Marketing Code.
If a brand name is deemed to not meet the code, only the style of the beverage (and not the actual beverage name) will be announced on stage and published in the winners list.
In the event that the brand name of a medal-winning beverage entered in the GABF competition is found to not meet the Marketing and Advertising Code, the brewery or cidery that entered the medal-winning beverage is entitled to keep the medal earned within the GABF category in which the beverage was entered but is not allowed to promote the win.

Each brewery or cidery is expected to be allowed to enter up to a maximum of 20 beverages, based on availability (in other words, this could increase or decrease, based on the interest we have in the competition).
Please note: our goal is to accommodate as many breweries and cideries as possible in an effort to host a robust competition; if demand for the competition exceeds capacity, makers with a higher number of entries may be asked to reduce their entry count. Alternatively, if there is additional available competition space after registration closes on June 27, 2025, we may allow makers to enter more beverages, beyond the original entry cap.
No single brewing location is allowed to enter more than the designated maximum number of competition entries determined.
The number of brewery applications by a multiple-location group may not exceed the total number of physical brewing locations in that group
See more info here to help you determine how your company should be entered for Brewery of the Year.

Nope, each brand may be entered only once. Just pick the best category for that beverage.

Yes! As long as it’s not the same beer or cider… that would be weird.

Makers will enter their beverage information directly after they complete their application, during the June 10 – 27 window.

To view your competition entries go to gabfregistration.com and login with your BA login credentials, you will then be rerouted to your competition entries to review and make any needed changes. Changes will be accepted until August 8, based on category availability.

Click on GABF Labels and log in with your brewery 4-digit ID and email address.

That depends on the category, as some categories are full and can no longer accept new entries. To attempt the change, log in using the button below, along with your 4-digit GABF Brewery ID and your associated email address (deadline August 8 – no changes accepted after this date).
GABF Brewer Login

Only certain categories allow for additional notes for judges (see style guidelines). Assuming the category you’ve entered allows for this, log onto www.GABFRegistration.com and make the edits via the online style-builder. If your beverage is entered in a category that does not allow for additional judging info, consider switching to a category that allows for this if this information is crucial to judging, or leave it where it is without the additional information for judging.

Yes, breweries will receive tasting notes either electronically or via snail mail within 1 month after the competition ends.

Learn more about the competition.

Learn more about the Brewery of the Year categories.

See more info here to help you determine how your company should be entered for Brewery of the Year.
Both scenarios allow you to enter beverages from all locations, but they differ in how this all factors into Brewery of the Year awards.
Have all locations compete together for Brewery Group: individually register each location (i.e. submit an application for each location that is competing), but opt to have them “compete as a group” during registration. Each location enters a selection of beers, and any awards won by any location in the group count towards “Brewery Group”
Choose one location to compete for Brewery of the Year: each location can enter their own set of beers (same totals restrictions apply), but only beers from one location will count towards a Brewery of the Year award for the size of that location. Beers from the other locations, regardless of medals one, will not count towards any sort of brewery of the year award.

Nope, read closely: the winner for the “Brewery Group” Brewery of the Year category is winners are determined by total number of points awarded (Gold = 6 pts | Silver = 5 pts | Bronze = 4 pts), divided by total number of beers entered by that brewery or brewery group. This is different from the single-location Brewery of the Year groups, where winners are determined by total number of winning points.
For example, if a brewery enters 2 sets of beers from their 2 locations (let’s say a total of 10 beers for the group), and wins 2 gold medals, that’s 12 points / 10 beers. They have a winning total of 1.2. If another brewery enters the max of 20 beers across 4-5 locations, and wins 2 gold medals, that’s 12 points / 20 beers. Their winning total is .6. So the smaller 2-location brewery wins in this scenario.

It depends on the size of the individual format you’re sending (12oz bottles/cans, 22oz bottles, crowlers, etc.), as well as the category the beer or cider is entered in (large categories, such as IPA’s and some wood/barrel-aged categories require more since there are more rounds of judging needed).
See a complete breakdown of how much you should be sending.

Yes, specific competition labels that should be used may be found at the login below. To ensure accuracy in sorting and judging, please only use these labels.
GABF Brewer Login

Nope, judging for GABF is done blind, meaning there’s no need to remove your labels from your bottles/cans before sending in. Just make sure you’ve put our competition labels on each bottle/can and be sure to review all labeling info here.

By far, the best bet is to team up with other nearby breweries or even your local guild to create a freight shipment direct to Colorado. Barring that, UPS and FedEx are acceptable options, but know that unless you have a business account that allows for shipping alcohol, they may not allow you to ship your beer or cider. DO NOT ship entries using the US Postal Service as it is illegal. More information here.

You may find it easier to schedule a pickup from your home, instead of taking it into a store or having it picked up from the brewery. It may also help to remove any mention of your brewery or beer on the box (instead of Great American Beer Festival, use “GABF”).

Remember to put your 4-digit GABF BreweryID number on your box, as well as the “Package Number of Total” (i.e. 1 of 3, 2 of 3, 3 of 3, etc.)
Place all bottles standing upright in the shipping container. All bottles should be placed in the same direction (lids up) wrapped in bubble wrap. Use your standard four- or six-pack holder to help keep bottles secure.
Fill the shipping container to the top with packaging materials. Packing peanuts are NOT recommended. If used, make sure peanuts are enclosed in a plastic bag.
Wrap the original box in a plastic bag to avoid possible leakage and then place the box in a strong shipping box filled with more packing material.
If more than one box of entries is being shipped, be sure to keep the samples of each brand in the same box and to label each box as “box 1 of 2,” “box 2 of 2,” etc.). Do not split bottles of the same brand/entry into separate boxes.
Coolers or other special containers will not be returned, however the beers that arrive in specialized containers will be judged and tend to withstand the rigors of shipping.