Colorado was well-represented at the 2026 Great American Beer Festival. The state took home dozens of medals, including a brewery of the year award, and boasted seven first-time winners.
“Colorado continues to showcase why we call ourselves The State of Craft Beer,” said Colorado Brewers Guild Executive Director Shawnee Adelson in a statement. “Congrats to all of the medal winners!”
In all, Colorado breweries and cideries took home 41 medals — 16 gold, 12 silver and 13 bronze. But as impressive as that is, it’s not the biggest news of the event. With a move to an outdoor venue, along with all the changes in logistics and atmosphere that entailed, the newness of the festival itself overshadowed that of the individual accomplishments.
A 44-year festival refresh brings the good, the bad and the different
The festival itself could be summarized as “so many changes.” Being outside was the big and obvious one, but the festival had a number of other notable departures from years past. You didn’t have to go very far to hear folks talking about the changes, from the good, to the bad, to the simply different…