The Great American Beer Festival attracted 46,000 visitors
The 26th GABF saw attendance up 12 percent from 2006.
This year’s GABF featured a record 1,884 different beers from 408 breweries across the United States. The Brewers Association (BA) sold out every session in advance this year, making it the first advance sellout in GABF history.
The BA said that the festival and competition are not only growing in size, but that the craft beer industry also continues record growth. According to scan data from Information Resources Inc., craft beer had a 17.8 percent increase in supermarket sales for 2006—more growth than any other alcohol beverage category in the supermarket sales channel. Craft beer sales have grown 31.5 percent over the past three years.
The GABF Competition is an important part of the festival. This year brewers from across the U.S. were awarded gold, silver and bronze medals in 75 beer style categories, up from 69 categories in 2006. The awards ceremony for the GABF competition took place during the Members Only session Saturday afternoon 13 October 2007. New style categories this year included: Pumpkin Beer, Other Low Strength Ale or Lager, Gluten Free Beer, American-Style Sour Ale, Wood and Barrel-Aged Sour Beer, and American-style Imperial Stout. This year’s entries came from 474 breweries. A total of 2,832 beers were judged by more than 100 professional judges.
