2011 Great American Beer Festival: winners announced

The 2011 Great American Beer Festival (GABF) competition drew an impressive field of competitors, with 2011 topping last year’s entries by 11 percent. GABF remains one of the largest commercial beer competitions in the world, with 3,930 beers vying for medals (compared to 3,523 entries in 2010). A total of 248 medals were awarded.

Competition entries were received from 526 breweries from 48 states plus Puerto Rico.

This year’s GABF competition attracted 167 beer judges from nine countries. The competition was aided by the efforts of 107 volunteers. Award-winning brewers received prestigious gold, silver and bronze medals in 83 beer categories covering 134 beer styles (encompassing subcategories), establishing the best examples of each style in the U.S.

Four new beer styles were judged at the 2011 GABF, including Fruit Wheat Beer (48 entries), Chocolate Beer (30 entries), American-Style Brett Ale (31 entries) and International-Style Pale Ale (20 entries).

Gold, silver and bronze medals were also awarded in the GABF Pro-Am competition, which pairs amateur brewers with professional brewers, who scale up the award-winning homebrew recipes.

Download a PDF list of all 2011 winners at http://506227.cache1.evolutionhosting.com/wp-content/themes/2011/assets/uploads/gabf11_winners.pdf.