Ah yes, the Great American Beer Festival—our nation’s annual hop-soaked, malt-fumed bacchanal of fermentation where the finest brewers in the land don their cleanest Carhartts and enter their most sacred liquids into what might best be described as the Olympics of beer, minus the doping but with way more beards.
This past Saturday, while you were maybe pruning your tomatoes or wondering where summer went, ten Washington breweries were busy bagging thirteen medals at the GABF in Denver’s cavernous Colorado Convention Center—a hulking palace of high ceilings, steel beams, and enough ambient booze vapor to cloud even the most jaded palate.
Yes, dear reader, the Evergreen State showed up, showed out, and sipped gold. Six golds. One silver. Six bronze. That’s right: a righteous rain of recognition across categories from gluten-free magic to barrel-aged witchcraft to that noble red ale your uncle tried to homebrew once (it did not win a medal).
South Sound brewed itself into the limelight with Fish Brewing Co. and Three Magnets Brewing Co. each hauling in bronze, proving once again that Olympia isn’t just about lawmakers and salmon runs. And bless Silver City Brewery of Bremerton, whose Old Scrooge strong ale did precisely the opposite of scrooge—it shared its riches and took home the top prize.
Meanwhile, nationwide madness: 6,600+ beers entered. 1,552 breweries. All 50 states plus D.C. (Yes, even Mississippi tried.) Ninety-two style categories. 145 different ways to be delicious. And in the end, just 275 medals divvied among 242 breweries, like some grand, drunken Easter egg hunt judged by the gods of yeast and esters. Also: three Pro-Am medals, because we still believe in the homebrewing dream.
Want the full list? Click responsibly. But for now, behold the glittering spoils of our Washington brewers:
🏅 Gold Medalists
(Hail them. Toast them. Sip with reverence.)
• Immersion Amber Ale – Two Beers Brewing Co., Seattle
American-Style Amber/Red Ale (94 entries)
• Chuckanut Kölsch – Chuckanut Brewery, Bellingham
German-Style Kölsch (111 entries)
• Gose – Reuben’s Brews, Seattle
German-Style Sour Ale (111 entries)
• Watchstander Stout – Ghostfish Brewing Co., Seattle
Gluten-Free Beer (24 entries)
(Yes, gluten-free. Yes, incredible.)
• Old Scrooge – Silver City Brewery, Bremerton
Old Ale or Strong Ale (39 entries)
• Wild Warehouse – Wander Brewing, Bellingham
Wood- and Barrel-Aged Beer (69 entries)
(The name alone deserves a medal.)
🥈 Silver Medalist
• Spitfire Best Bitter – Flyers Restaurant and Brewery, Oak Harbor
Ordinary or Special Bitter (43 entries)
(There’s nothing ordinary about it.)
🥉 Bronze Medalists
• Boulder Bend Dunkelweizen – Fish Brewing Co., Olympia
American-Style Wheat Beer With Yeast (41 entries)
• Old Skook – Three Magnets Brewing, Olympia
Barley Wine-Style Ale (56 entries)
(Thick, sweet, and proudly Skookum.)
• Dry Stout – Reuben’s Brews, Seattle
Classic Irish-Style Dry Stout (36 entries)
• Helles Lager – Lucky Envelope Brewing, Seattle
Dortmunder or German-Style Oktoberfest (48 entries)
• Chuckanut Dunkel – Chuckanut Brewery, Bellingham
European-Style Dark/Münchner Dunkel (34 entries)
• Grapefruit IPA – Ghostfish Brewing Co., Seattle
Gluten-Free Beer (34 entries)
(Yes, they medaled twice. Yes, your IPA needs a reboot.)
