Piece Brewmaster Jonathon Cutler, bronze medal in Other Strong Beer for Take Back The Streets*
This is the granddaddy of them all, America’s oldest and largest craft beer festival.
The scope of this event is insane: 60,000 attendees enjoying 3,500 beers from 750 breweries. In 2015 tickets sold out in about an hour. New additions to the fest included a Meet The Brewers Pavilion, the BeerX Sip & Sit station and a bookstore with beer author discussions every hour.
One of the jewels during GABF is Paired (formerly known as Farm-to-Table Pavilion). It’s the 22-table section of the fest where beer and food pairings are carefully selected by Brewers Association Executive Chef, Adam Dulye.
The 3-day bash includes an awards ceremony at Bellco Theatre before the Saturday session. Illinois breweries took home 4 awards this year. Newcomers Hailstorm (Tinley Park) and Smylie Brothers (Evanston) are both barely a year old. DESTIHL (Champaign) and Piece Brewery (Wicker Park, Chicago) round out this year’s medal winners.
Hailstorm Brewing, Tinley Park, IL*
Mailbock, Rock Out With Maibock Out –Hailstorm Brewing (Silver)
Fruit Wheat Beer, Purple Line- Smylie Brothers (Bronze)
Wood & Barrel Aged Strong Stout, Dosvidanya –DESTIHL (Bronze)
Other Strong Beer, Take Back The Streets, Piece Brewery (Bronze)
Brewmaster Jonathon Cutler from Piece is one of the most decorated brewers the city of Chicago has ever seen. Take Back The Streets is his 13th medal in GABF competition. When you include his World Beer Cup wins, his medal count jumps to 24.
Other news and notes –
-The Illinois Craft Brewers Guild booth in Festival Hall poured treats from Ten Ninety, Spiteful and Revolution. They also coordinated efforts to assist small Illinois breweries by shipping their beer to the fest for entry in to the competition (love those guys)
-Illinois breweries took home 4 medals this year, compared to 9 in 2014
-Cheers to Brewmaster Greg Deuhs from Pabst. His brewery won Large Brewing Company of The Year. We interviewed him last year for our Return of Ballantine story.
-Southern California swept the Coffee Beer category.
Zumbar Chocolate Coffee Imperial Stout – New English (San Diego) Gold
Mocha Machine – Beachwood BBQ & Brewing (Long Beach) Silver
Bacon & Eggs– Pizza Port Ocean Beach (San Diego) Bronze
-2015 saw the edition of 3 new categories including Session India Pale Ale. With 161 entries, it is the largest first year category ever.
-Chicago Brewing Company (Las Vegas, NV) won 2 medals
–Most medals won, with three medals each
Firestone Walker, Paso Robles, Calif. (three medals: two gold, one bronze)
Sun King, Indianapolis, Ind. (three medals: one gold, one silver, one bronze)
Port City Brewing, Alexandria, Va. (three medals: two silver, one bronze)
Left Hand Brewing Co.; Longmont, Colo. (three medals: one gold, two bronze)
Firestone Walker also won Mid-Size Brewing Company and Mid-Size Brewing Company Brewer of the Year
-There are 4000 breweries in the U.S. We are approaching the historical high of 4,131 set in 1873
-Nkosi
*denotes photos courtesy of Jason Kaplan
New Belgium, Ft. Collins, CO
Evans Brewing, Irvine, CA
fricken..these guys
Uinita Brewing, Salt Lake City, UT
fan favourites Great Divide, Denver and The Bruery, Orange County, CA
Rick Wildt, Sweetwater Brewing, Atlanta, GA
275 medals awarded to some of the best commercial breweries in the U.S.
an organization of brewers, for brewers and by brewers.
Be sure to check out Part II of our GABF coverage, Outside of the Madness here.
