Brewers, beer lovers gear up for Great American Beer Festival

For more than 30 years, the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) has been bringing great brewers, beers and beer-lovers together. The event has grown and evolved as beer consumer’s thirst for quality and diversity continues to grow and is the largest ticketed beer festival in the United States. GABF captures the innovative zest of the brewing community in the format of a public tasting in which attendees are presented an opportunity to try a vast array of beers from producers all across the country. Coupled with a private competition and awards ceremony, the overall event showcases the United States as the most diverse brewing destination on the planet.

The fest is gearing up and announced that tickets will go on sale  to the general public online on July 30, 2014 at 10:00 a.m. MDT/12:00 p.m. EDT via Ticketmaster.com. A ticket pre-sale exclusively for members of the American Homebrewers Association and Brewers Association will take place on July 29 at 10:00 a.m. MDT/12:00 p.m. EDT.

Need a good excuse to leave your brewery to your trusted employees and check out the GABF? Try one of these on for size:

• One of the most renowned beer competitions in the world, recognized as a symbol of brewing excellence, the GABF competition honors 90 beer style categories with gold, silver and bronze medals. Several judging sessions take place over a multi-day period during the week of the festival. (Note: final, official competition statistics will be published on Saturday, October 4, after competition results are compiled and medals are announced.) Almost 1,400 breweries from all 50 states and the District of Columbia will enter beers in this year’s GABF competition.
• As a primary driver of growth in the beer industry, small and independent craft brewers saw an 18 percent rise in volume, representing a total of 15.6 million barrels, and a 20 percent increase in retail dollar value. In 2013, craft brewers reached 7.8 percent volume of the total U.S. beer market, up from 6.5 percent the previous year. Additionally, craft dollar share of the total U.S. beer market reached 14.3 percent in 2013, as retail dollar value from craft brewers was estimated at $14.3 billion, up from $11.9 billion in 2012. GABF expects to feature more than 700 breweries pouring their beers, compared with 624 in 2013.