North Texas continues winning ways at 2016 Great American Beer Festival

Photo © Brewers Association.

The 30th annual edition of the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) is now in the books, and if you've been on social media at all of late you've probably already seen the list of winners. If by some chance you haven't, though, they are summarized below.

Prior to that, though, it's worth noting a few statistics related to the competition. This year, 7227 beers were judged, resulting in 286 medals awarded to winners in 96 categories covering 161 different beer styles. Over 260 judges participated in the evaluation of competition entries, which included an additional 88 in the growing Pro-Am division.

Style-wise, the American-Style IPA was once again the most-entered category, despite a small drop in entries compared to 2015. Other popular categories included Imperial IPA, American-Style Strong Pale Ale, Coffee Beer and Wood and Barrel-Aged Strong Beer. The latter two were new to the top five this year, with American-Style Pale Ale, American Style-Sour Ale and German-Style Sour Ale categories landing in slots just outside the top five in terms of the rankings.

As for North Texas, local breweries had another good showing in 2016, winning five medals overall. In fact, this marks the third straight year that breweries from the Metroplex have won at least five medals at the competition. Among this year's honorees, Nine Band Brewing Co. and Revolver Brewing brought home GABF medals for the first time, while Community Beer Co., Grapevine Craft Brewery and Panther Island Brewing Co. were repeat winners. Pictures of medal-winning breweries, where available, are posted here for your perusal (ceremony photos © 2016 Jason E. Kaplan).

Panther Island Brewing Co./Clifton Ellis: Gold for Just Rye'te (Pro-Am). 

Revolver Brewing: Gold for Anodyne Wheat Wine (Other Strong Beer).

Community Beer Co.: Bronze for Witbier (Belgian-Style Witbier).

Not pictured:

Grapevine Craft Brewery: Silver for Sir William's (English-Style Brown Ale).

Nine Band Brewing Co.: Bronze for Toad Choker Barley Wine (Barley Wine-Style Ale).

For more on the 2016 GABF and the historical performance of breweries from North Texas, click the links below:

• Official press release from the Brewers Association, with a summary of festival statistics.
• Download a list of 2016 winners in .pdf form.
• View a historical chronicle of awards won by North Texas breweries at GABF and the World Beer Cup.