The 2013 Great American Beer
Festival (GABF) will be held in Denver, Colorado, on October 10-12. This is
widely regarded as the top beer festival in the United States, if not the
world. It was founded by Charlie
Papazian in 1982 at the Harvest House Hotel in Boulder. In its first year
there were 22 breweries participating, serving 40 different beers to 800
attendees.
This year, 49,000 attendees will sample over 3,000
craft beers supplied by 630 U.S. breweries (another 1,800 beers will be judged
and another 100 breweries will be present but not serving in the hall). The
GABF has been in the news this year because of the record-breaking speed both
the brewery sign-up and attendee sign-up sold out. 49,000 tickets sold in 20
minutes this year, faster than the 45 minutes it took in 2012. Just back in
2007 tickets didn’t sell out until the week of the event. Brewery slots filled in
only 1 hour and 40 minutes. The wait list immediately swelled to 375 breweries.
The internet is full of lists now of notable
breweries that did not get in, but here we have the list of Montana
breweries that did get in and will either serve and/or compete in the GABF
competition in which 138 beer styles will be judged in 84 categories and
subcategories. The average number of beers competing in each category will be around
51. Two new beer styles added this year are Grodzisz, a crisp, light-bodied Polish-style
beer that rarely exceeds 3.7% ABV, and Adambier, a dark beer that hails from
Dortmund and averages 9-11% ABV.
So which Montana breweries will represent our
great state of craft beer? They are:
Let’s wish them luck and we will report back
on any medals these fine Montana breweries bring home in October. Cheers!
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