America’s premier celebration and competition for craft beer is, without question, the Great American Beer Festival. For the past two years, the festival wasn’t held due to the presence of an annoying pandemic known as COVID-19. But now, in 2022, the festival has returned, and to add to the sweetness, 2022 marks its 40th birthday.
Beer and More Beer
The Great American Beer Festival is an excellent means for craft beer fans to sample brews from coast to coast, all within the safe confines of the Colorado Convention Center. The festival is, of course, a national competition as well and on the morning of Saturday, October 8, the winners were selected.
Before we get to the winner’s list, let’s look at the facts. There were nearly 10,000 American beers entered into this year’s competition, with 2,154 breweries represented. There were exactly 100 different categories this year (98 regular categories, plus the ProAm and Collaboration categories) and with a Gold, Silver, and Bronze Medal awarded for each, it added up to 300 prestigious and highly coveted medal victories.
Among the winners, one brewery walked away with four medals. That honor went to North Park Brewery of San Diego, CA. Next, there were four breweries that took home three medals each:
- Breakside Brewery
- Deschutes Brewery
- Ghost Town Brewing
- Wild Fields Brewing
Wild Fields deserves special mention because not only did it win three medals, all three of the wins were Gold!
Top Brewery Honors
Besides the winning beers, the Great American Beer Festival, like usual, also recognized the best breweries and brewpubs in the United States. Here is a list of the 2022 winning breweries/brewer of the year:
- 0-250 Barrels Brewery and Brewer of the Year: Double Clutch Brewing Co. – Evanston, IL & Scott Frank
- 251–500 Barrels Brewery and Brewer of the Year: The Big Friendly – Oklahoma City, OK & Will Quinlin
- 501–1,000 Barrels Brewery and Brewer of the Year: Wild Fields Brewhouse – Atascadero, CA & R2J2 and Kayla Morrow
- 1,001–2,000 Barrels Brewery and Brewer of the Year: Blind Tiger Brewery & Restaurant – Topeka KS & John Dean & Alvaro Canizales
- 2,001–5,000 Barrels Brewery and Brewer of the Year: North Park Beer Co – San Diego, CA & North Park Beer Co Brew Team
- 5,001–15,000 Barrels Brewery and Brewer of the Year: Ghost Town Brewing – Oakland, CA& Ghost Town Brewing Team
- 15,001–100,000 Barrels Brewery and Brewer of the Year: Left Hand Brewing Co – Longmont, CO & Left Hand Brewing Team Brewery Group
- Brewery and Brewer of the Year: Precarious Beer Project – Williamsburg, VA & Precarious Beer Project Brew Team
Winning Beers
And finally, here is a quick rundown of the 100 beer categories and the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Medal winner in each, including the beer name, brewery, and location:
Congrats to the winners AND to all of us. Now we can use this list to find some new beers that are delicious and really high quality.
Congrats to the winners. That’s ALOT of winners listed there! 🙂
It’s great to see people winning and congrats to everyone. Thank you for sharing!
Oh wow what a fabulous festival. A great time for winners and everyone who took part to celebrate x
Oh wow! That is a lot of winners! Congratulations to them all.
So many great competitors! Interesting to see who the winners were.
Ahhh how did I not know this was a thing?! I would love to try a bunch of these!!
Congratulations to the winners. It was a great festival and it’s great to know the worthy beer companies won.
Wow, there really were choices from all over the country. I see my hometown (Fort Myers, FL) represented, my college town (Orlando, FL), and my current location (Houston, TX) all on the list!
I always like to share your posts with my sons. They do not drink a great deal of beer in any one sitting but they do like to try different beers.