Colorado brewers collect a whopping 40 medals at Great American Beer Festival

The 2023 Great American Beer Festival may not have garnered as much hype as previous years, but Colorado breweries made their most impressive showing in recent memory at the awards, which took place Saturday morning.

Judges evaluated 9,300 beers from more than 2,033 breweries in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, competition director Chris Williams said. Colorado beer makers collected a total of 40 medals, including 15 gold, a significant increase from the 27 awards breweries brought home from the 2022 competition.

Speaking to The Denver Post, Shawnee Adelson, executive director of the Colorado Brewers Guild, expressed the pride she had in representing the winners. While the number of beers entered into this year’s competition was down, Adelson said brewers are more carefully submitting those recipes they feel are exemplary, and the awards reflect that.

“Colorado did a great job this year not only in the number of awards, but the breadth of awards,” Adelson said. “It shows our brewers here can brew very diverse beers and make medal-winning beers in some of the most competitive styles.”

Westbound & Down Brewing Co., which boasts three locations on the Front Range, proved the state’s biggest winner of the day with three medals, including a gold in the brand-new West Coast-style IPA category. The brewery’s Westbound Select beat out 300 other beers to earn the accolade in the second most competitive category of the competition.

Westbound & Down also took home silver for Spirit of the West, a New Zealand India pale ale, and bronze for The Coloradan, an American cream ale.

Longmont’s Wibby Brewing also made an impression, earning a gold medal for its Wiibby Jibby American pilsner and the esteemed title of “brewery of the year” among operations that make between 5,000 and 15,000 barrels of beer annually.

Also of note, Cannonball Creek Brewing Co. in Golden, which has won at least one GABF medal every year since opening in 2013, continued its streak with a gold medal in the American-style Pale Ale category. Local outfits Avery Brewing Co., Cheluna Brewing Co., and Prost Brewing Co. garnered two medals each.

Sen. John Hickenlooper – who founded Denver’s first brewpub, Wynkoop Brewing Co., in 1988 – opened the awards ceremony by acknowledging the hardship breweries have experienced since the COVID-19 pandemic and encouraged them to stay optimistic in the face of a challenging economic climate.

Adelson expects local beer makers will be riding high on the heels of Saturday’s awards.

“We make great beers and these types of awards just prove that,” she said. “I think this will energize our Colorado breweries.”

Check out the full list of award-winning local beers below. You can find the whole list of winners at greatamericanbeerfestival.com.

And a big one: Congrats to @WibbyBrewing for being named brewery of the year (5K to 15K barrels in size)!!

Repping CU I see haha pic.twitter.com/RKZ4DnrqHf

— Tiney Ricciardi (@tineywristwatch) September 23, 2023

Gold

American Amber/Red Ale – Blown Tire, Knuckle Puck Brewing, Longmont

American Pilsener – Wibby Jibby, Wibby Brewing, Longmont

American-style Pale Ale – Featherweight, Cannonball Creek Brewing Co., Golden

Belgian-style Witbier – White Rascal, Avery Brewing Co., Boulder

Collaboration Beer – Luna Mexican Export Lager, Cheluna Brewing Co. and Prost Brewing Co., Aurora and Denver/Highlands Ranch

English Mild or Bitter – Sawtooth Ale, Left Hand Brewing Co., Longmont

Field Beer – King of Carrots, Ratio Beerworks, Denver

German-style Dopplebock or Eisbock – Execrator, Resolute Brewing Co., Centennial

German-style Maerzen – Seedstock Maerzen, Seedstock Brewery, Denver

Pro-Am – She Fancies Herself a Little Bit French, CooperSmith’s Pub & Brewing with homebrewer Mark Pennick, Fort Collins

Robust Porter – Foggy London Town, Rock Bottom Brewery, Denver

Strong Red Ale – Wreak Havoc, Bootstrap Brewing, Longmont

West Coast-style India Pale Ale – Westbound Select, Westbound & Down Brewing Co., Idaho Springs

Wood- and Barrel-Aged Beer — Ye Olde Ale, Banded Oak Brewing Co., Denver

Silver