Texas at the Great American Beer Festival Recap 2024
It was a year of change at the Great American Beer Festival. After nearly forty years of breweries setting up in identical blue-and-yellow booths sorted alphabetically or geographically, planners for the Brewers Association shuffled booths into six stylized areas: “Fright” (Halloween theme), “Prost” (Oktoberfest theme), “Score” (Sports theme), “Blast Off” (Space theme),”Chill” (live music theme), and the traditional “Meet the Brewer” area. In addition to a new look, the GABF also put a heavier emphasis on “malternatives” like non-alcoholic beers, canned cocktails, and hard seltzers. However, the biggest change of all came for a third non-beer category. For the first time, the nation’s largest professional beer competition included five awards for cider.
All of these changes were part of a concerted effort by the Brewers Association to draw more attendees in the coveted 21-to-34-year-old demographic. According to BA’s Vice President of Marketing and Communications Ann Obenchain, over the past seven years festgoers have skewed toward younger attendees with more varied alcohol tastes who seek unique experiences each year. “We’ve been evolving the festival every year to try to meet what the consumer is looking for,” said Obenchain in a recent interview on the Brewbound Podcast. “[We want] to show people what these breweries or beveries or cideries are making.”
GABF Competition Statistics
- 38th edition of the GABF competition
- 9,216 beers and ciders judged (a decline of 82 from 2023)
- 1,869 breweries and cideries in the competition from all 50 states plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico (a decline of 164 from 2023)
- 285 judges (increase of 15 from 2023)
- 250+ volunteers (decrease of 50 from 2023)
- Average number of competition beers entered in each category: 85 (a decline of 7 from 2023)
- Category with the highest number of entries: Category 102: Juicy/Hazy IPA (349) (decrease of 16 from 2023)
- 326 total medals awarded (increase of 23 from 2023)
- 273 medal-winning breweries (increase of 10 from 2023)
- 280 first-time GABF entrants (decrease of 45 from 2023)
- 25 first-time GABF winners (increase of 9 from 2023)
Texas at the GABF
Texas had a down year, with ten fewer medal wins than in 2023, the lowest total since 2012. Only one of the nine total medals was a gold, matching the 2011 total. The full list of winners is below:
| Medal | Beer Name | Brewery | City | State | Category | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Silver | Heart of Glass | Three Wide Brewing Co. | Fort Worth | TX | American-Style Brown Ale | 2024 |
| Bronze | Bare Bones Disco | Bird Creek Brewing | Temple | TX | American-Style Pale Ale | 2024 |
| Gold | LMM Dubbel II | Lone Man Mountain Brewing Co. | Driftwood | TX | Belgian-Style Abbey Ale | 2024 |
| Bronze | Hootenanny | Bankhead Brewing Co. | Rowlett | TX | Bock | 2024 |
| Silver | Jalapeño Saison | On Rotation Brewery & Kitchen | Dallas | TX | Chili Beer | 2024 |
| Silver | White Dwarf | True Anomaly Brewing Co. | Houston | TX | Fruited Wood- and Barrel-Aged Sour Beer | 2024 |
| Silver | Flex Fiesta Munich-Style Dark Lager | Red Horn Brewery and Roastery | Leander | TX | German Dark Lager | 2024 |
| Silver | Marchtoberfest | Galveston Island Brewing Co. | Galveston | TX | German-Style Maerzen | 2024 |
| Silver | 500 Pesos | ODD Muse Brewing Co. | Dallas | TX | International-Style Pilsener | 2024 |
In addition to the official medal count above, Austin’s Live Oak Brewing and Hold Out Brewing won a bronze medal for the potato adjunct lager Spudweiser in the Collaboration competition.
Top 5 Most-Entered Beer Style Category Winners
Category 102 | Juicy/Hazy IPA (349 entries)
GOLD: Professional Human Being | Ambitious Ales | Long Beach, CA
SILVER: Groundswell | Single Hill Brewing Co. | Yakima, WA
BRONZE: Crash of Rhinos | Movement Brewing Co. | Rancho Cordova, CA
Category 100: West Coast IPA (292 entries)
GOLD: Codebreaker | Trademark Brewing | Long Beach, CA
SILVER: Pacific Portal | Alma Mader Brewing | Kansas City, MO
BRONZE: IPA for Aliens | Masthead Brewing Co. | Cleveland, OH
Category 101: American-Style IPA (217 entries)
GOLD: Competition | Highland Park Brewery – Chinatown | Los Angeles, CA
SILVER: One Way | Old Caz Beer | Rohnert Park, CA
BRONZE: Lexical Gap | Pollyanna Brewing Co. | Lemont, IL
Category 50: Dortmunder or German-Style Oktoberfest (210 entries)
GOLD: Festbier | Glenwood Canyon Brewing Co. | Glenwood Springs, CO
SILVER: Festbier | Northwoods Brewing Co. | Northwood, NH
BRONZE: The Cushman | Morgan Territory Brewing | Tracy, CA
Category 52: German-Style Maerzen (195)
GOLD: Pleasantbräu Oktoberfest | Soul Brewing Co. | Pleasantville, NY
SILVER: Marchtoberfest | Galveston Island Brewing | Galveston, TX
BRONZE: Oktoberfest | Left Hand Brewing Co. | Longmont, CO
Most-Entered Cider Category Winners
Category 203: Fruited & Botanical Cider (74 entries)
GOLD: Blackberry Cider | McMenamins Breweries | Portland, OR
SILVER: Ozark Strawberry Rhubarb Cider | Ozark Beer Co. | Rogers, AR
BRONZE: Pacific Pineapple | 2 Towns Ciderhouse | Corvallis, OR
Most-Medaled Breweries
Apogee Brewing Company | Grover Beach, CA
Gold, Lucy Loves Rye, Category 76: Specialty Saison
Bronze, Aurora, Category 73: Belgian-Style Ale or French-Style Ale
Bronze, Monks on the Moon, Category 78: Belgian-Style Strong Specialty Ale
Bronze, Monks In Space, Category 79: Belgian-Style Abbey Ale
Highland Park Brewery – Chinatown | Los Angeles, CA
Gold, Competition, Category 101: American-Style India Pale Ale
Gold, Baseball, Category 40: Contemporary American-Style Lager
Gold, Timbo, Category 91: American-Style Pale Ale
Gold, DDH Pillow, Category 98: Juicy or Hazy Imperial India Pale Ale
Collaboration Competition Winners
GOLD: Twenty-Fold Sword | New Zealand-Style IPA | No Boat Brewing Company and Obelisk Beer Co. | Snoqualmie, WA
SILVER: Stupid Sticky Fingers | Wood & Barrel Aged Imperial Stout | Werk Force Brewing Co. and Rocky Reef Brewing Co. | Plainfield, IL
BRONZE: Spudweiser | American Pilsner | Live Oak Brewing Company and Hold Out Brewing | Del Valle, TX
Pro-Am Competition Winners
GOLD: Piwo Grodziskie | Kansas City Bier Co. and Mike & Stephanie
Butler | Kansas City, MO
SILVER: Rising Sun | Crooked Lane Brewing Co. and Matt Hall | Auburn, CA
BRONZE: South of Helles | Starr Hill Beer Hall & Rooftop – Richmond and Joel Miller | Richmond, VA
