The brewery registration process was tweaked a little for this year's Great American Beer Festival to try and avoid the "race to register" process that initially locked some breweries out of attendance last year (most were eventually accommodated). Instead, of the first come, first served process, all breweries wanting to enter beer for judging were able to register and indicate if they also wanted a booth on the convention floor. After the registration period closed, the total number of competition beers each brewery was allowed to enter was determined by dividing the number of competition entries that can be judged by the number of breweries that applied. And if demand for booth space exceeded supply, booth selection would be determined by lottery for each region.
These changes should have made sure that all breweries who wanted to enter beers in the competition were able to enter, but there may be booths from a few of your favourite breweries missing if the number of requests exceeded the maximum and they didn't win the lottery. But, these are the issues that have to be dealt with then there are now over 3,000 operating craft breweries (and almost 2,000 more in planning stages) in the country.
Perhaps due in some part to the changes in the registration process, Texas has it's largest showing of craft breweries again this year:
(512) Brewing Company
Austin
903 Brewers
Sherman
Adelbert's Brewery
Austin
Armadillo Ale Works
Denton
Austin Beerworks
Austin
Big Bend Brewing Co.
Alpine
Black Star Co-op Pub and Brewery
Austin
Branchline Brewing Co.
San Antonio
Brazos Valley Brewing Company
Brenham
Buffalo Bayou Brewing Co.
Houston
Circle Brewing Co.
Austin
Community Beer Co.
Dallas
Cornel's Brewing Company
Beaumont
Deep Ellum Brewing Company
Dallas
Flix Brewhouse
Round Rock
Four Corners Brewing Co
Dallas
Hops & Grain Brewing
Austin
Independence Brewing Co.
Austin
Kamala Brewing at the Whip In
Austin
Karbach Brewing Co
Houston
Lakewood Brewing Company
Garland
Live Oak Brewing Company
Austin
Martin House Brewing Company
Fort Worth
Middleton Brewing
Driftwood
No Label Brewing Co
Katy
North by Northwest
Austin
Oasis, Texas Brewing Company
Austin
Pappy Slokum Brewing Co.
Abilene
Pedernales Brewing Co.
Fredericksburg
Peticolas Brewing Company
Dallas
Pinthouse Pizza Craft Brewpub
Austin
Rahr&Sons Brewing Co.
Fort Worth
Real Ale Brewing Company
Blanco
Revolver Brewing
Granbury
Saint Arnold Brewing Company
Houston
South Austin Brewery
Austin
Spoetzl Brewery
Shiner
Texas Beer Refinery
League City
Texian Brewing Co
Richmond
The Austin Beer Garden Brewing Company
Austin
Twin Peaks Brewing Company
Dallas
Twisted X Brewing Company
Dripping Springs
Uncle Billy's Brewery & Smokehouse
Austin
Zio Carlo Magnolia Brewpub
Fort Worth
Assuming this list is correct, there will be 47 Texas breweries this year, up from 36 in 2013, 30 in 2012 and 22 in 2011. As a recap, the following Texas breweries won medals in the 2013 GABF competition:
Medal
Beer Name
Brewery
Style
Gold
Black Thunder
Austin Beerworks
German-Style Schwarzbier
Bronze
Elba
Black Star Co-op Pub and Brewery
Herb and Spice Beer
Gold
Cedar Creek Belgian Style Dubbel
Cedar Creek Brewery
Belgian-Style Abbey Ale
Gold
Public Ale
Community Beer Co.
Extra Special Bitter
Bronze
Atrial Rubicite
Jester King Brewery
Belgian-Style Lambic or Sour Ale
Gold
Bitterama
Namaste Brewing at the Whip In
Herb and Spice Beer
Bronze
Blind Jake
Pinthouse Pizza
Brown Porter
Silver
Brewers Cut Altbier
Real Ale Brewing Co.
German-Style Altbier
Bronze
Saint Arnold Weedwacker
Saint Arnold Brewing Co.
German-Style Wheat Ale
Silver
Saint Arnold Summer Pils
Saint Arnold Brewing Co.
Munich-Style Helles
Good luck to all breweries who have beer entered in the competition this year and I look forward to sampling your beers on the convention floor.
Copyright © 2012 AllGoodBeer.com - All rights reserved