Great American Beer Fest Winners

This years Great American Beer Fest has come and gone. Based on the tweets and Facebook status updates, it seems a great time was had by everyone. To be honest, I tried to limit my exposure to these since I knew it would do nothing but cause extreme jealousy. But it's over and life is returning to normal for those that attended (which will hopefully include me next year!).

Although California and Colorado took home the majority of awards (56 and 42, respectively. I don't know about you, but I'm thinking I need to move out west!), PA breweries rounded out the top 5 list with 9 medals. Congratulations to Iron Hill, Troegs, Triumph, McKenzie Brew House, and Stoudt's for their wins! I'd like to send out an extra-special congratulations to Weyerbacher for their win in the Field Beer category (even though they were up against Prism!) with their Imperial Pumpkin. If you've never tried this beer, you really need to and not just because they won at GABF. It's one of my favorite pumpkin beers and I imagine I'm going to be seeing it on a lot more taps with this exciting win.

On a personal note, I heard that traffic to the Prism booth was steady on both days and that the beer was favorably received. Best of all, I understand that the guys from Lost Abbey and Russian River specifically came by to try our beers. They said that both were really good and that they liked what we were doing! These guys are responsible for some of my favorite beers, and knowing that they appreciate the work that the Prism brewers are doing was great to hear. Hopefully next year I'll be writing about our wins at GABF!

In the meantime, for a full list of this year's winners, click here.

Great American Beer Festival Winners - Congratulations!

The Great American Beer Festival was held September 24 - 26 in Denver, CO. While I didn't go this year, you can bet I'll be there next year.

Pennsylvania did us proud by coming in 5th in number of overall medals (or 4th, depending, apparently, on where the Iron Hill brews were credited to - either PA or DE) with 12 (although, with the Iron Hill beers we took 14, which is what puts us in 4th). PA was the only non-west coast winner in the top 5. I call that an amazing feat! A big congratulations to all!

You can see the full list of PA winners here. If you're interested in the Delaware Valley winners, you can find them here. And finally, if you want to see all the winners, look no further than here.

I'd also like to send a big congratulations to Flying Dog Brewery in Frederick, MD and Robert Malone (the brewer) for winning the 2009 Mid-Size Brewing Company and Mid-Size Brewing Company Brewer of the Year! They were the only non-west coast brewery to win in the brewing company or brewpub category. I've had their beers (and have written about them) and know that they are deserving of this recognition! Great job, guys!