(GABF) is the largest, oldest craft beer festival and beer competition in the United States, conducted annually in Denver, Colorado. The first GABF was hosted by the American Homebrewers Association (which later became the Brewers Association) in 1982. It attracted 22 participating brewers, who served 40 different beers to 800 attendees at the Harvest House Hotel in Boulder and served as the model for every beer festival thereafter.

GABF has become the “Super Bowl of Beer,” where commercial beers are judged by expert tasting panels in 79 different style categories. A total of 3,308 US beers were judged against one another at the 2009 GABF. The best in each category are awarded gold, silver, and bronze medals in recognition of their brewing excellence. The competition judging style at the GABF is uniquely stringent and is based on a beer’s adherence to set beer style guidelines. All beers are tasted blind, and judges, many of them professional brewers, travel from all over the world to participate in the judging panels. Awards are also presented for Breweries, Brewpubs, and Brewers of the Year.

Popular tasting sessions, open for a fee to the public, allow beer lovers to sample hundreds of different beers from across the United States. Brewers are roughly organized by region within the event venue. The GABF holds the Guinness World Record for “most beers tapped in one location.” In 2009, over 49,000 attendees sampled 2,104 beers from 457 brewers during the 3-day event.

A separate GABF “Pro-Am” competition is open to amateur homebrewers, who compete against each other using recipes they have brewed in collaboration with a professional brewer. Additional GABF highlights include demonstrations of cooking, food and beer pairing, beer judging, a beer enthusiast bookstore, and vendors of virtually all things related to beer.