Registration for the 2026 Great American Beer Festival® (GABF®) competition opens June 23, and with it comes a bevvy of exciting updates for brewers, from new style categories to Brewery of the Year changes to a refreshed registration platform. Here’s what’s in store!
Style Category Updates
The 2026 GABF competition style guidelines include several entirely new award categories, including:
- Craft Malt Category (one-time category)
- Rice Lager
- Hop Water
- Multi-Adjunct Beer (subcategory of Specialty Beer)
- Hybrid/Crossover Beer (subcategory of Specialty Beer)
- Gluten-Free divided into 3 standalone categories (Classic Ale or Lager, Hoppy, Specialty)
Additionally, a number of other styles were reclassified. See a detailed breakdown of 2026 style guideline updates here.
Enhanced Judge Feedback
You may already know that every GABF entry gets detailed first-round feedback from each judge, but this year you’ll see even more detailed feedback as your entry progresses through the competition. For each round of judging after the first round, you’ll receive summarized judge panel feedback on how your entries fared against other entries at the table and in accordance with the style guidelines. Whether your beer moves forward or not, this is feedback you can take back to the brewhouse to make the best beer possible.
Brewery of the Year Refresh
For 2026, all breweries will compete for Brewery of the Year based on their company’s total combined annual production volume across all locations.
As part of this change, the former “Brewery Group” award has been replaced with >100,000 BBL Brewery of the Year. This update helps simplify what was consistently a confusing distinction while continuing to recognize breweries among peers of similar size and resources.
No Entry Limits
2026 registration will open with no entry limit for participating producers.
With the removal of the “Group” Brewery of the Year category mentioned above, producers can register all competition entries under one banner (no need to split out entries for your taproom and pub separately to maximize entries).
A Simpler Registration Experience
We’re excited to debut an updated competition registration platform this year. Developed with direct feedback from participants, the new system aims to make registration more intuitive and efficient from start to finish, all the way through to how your entries present at the judging table. Registration opens June 23. Get tips for making the most of every entry:
We can’t wait to see the creativity, innovation, and world-class brewing that this year’s competition brings. Good luck, and we’ll see you at GABF!