Letter From the Competition Manager
See the 2009 Great American Beer Festival Beer Styles.
Greetings! Welcome to the 2009 Great American Beer Festival competition. September will be here soon; we’re looking forward to your participation in a vigorous competition. There’s nothing like the rush you get during the awards ceremony on Saturday afternoon. Be sure to look over the style list and the style descriptions very carefully before submitting your entry form. Based on feedback from brewers and judges there are several changes to the categories (see below) that need pointing out—don’t use last year’s category numbers!
Leading up to the 2007 and 2008 GABF’s, we addressed brewer complaints regarding alcohol content of entries, both to entering brewers and at the judge panel orientation calibration session. The results were that much of the comment feedback from judges to brewers included appropriate alcohol level as a point of discussion. Please expect this trend to continue, and be sure to enter your beers in the appropriate categories.
Rules Changes & Eligibility: This year’s GABF rules package contains very specific entry eligibility requirements that may or may not affect you. Please review the eligibility rules, and feel free to contact me at any time with questions or concerns about the rules. The eligibility rules are designed to provide a level playing field for all entering brewers, and at the same time to allow for maximum post-event value to medal-winning brewers. We want you to be proud of your winning beers, and to be able to tell the consumer and the press about them.
- All beer brands (as defined in the GABF Style Guidelines) entered in the Great American Beer Festival must be brewed and fermented in the U.S., must meet the definition of beer as defined by the TTB, and must possess the characteristics generally attributed to and conforming to the trade understanding of “beer”.
- All beer brands entered in the Great American Beer Festival must be commercially available exactly as entered by brand name. “Commercially available” means the entered brand has been available for sale at retail under the exact brand name as entered on the GABF entry registration form prior to the competition entry registration deadline.
- Each beer brand may be entered only one time. A beer brand may not be entered in multiple categories. A beer brand may not be renamed and entered in multiple categories. Beer brands may not be entered by more than ONE brewery in a chain of stores, brewing company, or by breweries with related names or aligned marketing strategies.
- Entering breweries must have a Brewers Notice on file with the TTB (U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau).
- The first 5 beers entered must be registered to appear in the Festival tasting. The first eight beers listed on your entry form will be counted toward Brewery of the Year awards; if you plan to enter more than eight beers in the GABF, please be sure to prioritize them appropriately.
- ALL entries to be judged must be shipped separately from your Festival beer.
- A minimum of 6 (six) entries is required in a category for that category to be judged. Categories with fewer than 6 (six) entries as of the competition registration deadline will be recombined at the discretion of the competition manager as a subcategory of another appropriate category in order for those entries to be judged. Breweries with entries in these categories will be notified, and given the option of accepting this recombination, or withdrawing those entries, at their discretion.
- Entries submitted for judging must be bottled or canned. If your product is only available in draft form at retail, you must bottle your entries for the purpose of entering the GABF judging.
- If your product is bottle conditioned, and you wish it poured carefully, please add a label to the bottle with that request.
- If your product contains yeast and you wish it to be roused, please add a label to the bottle with that request.
- Bottles will be chosen at random during the competition; labels requesting a certain pouring order will not be honored, and will be removed prior to judging.
The major rules eligibility requirements shown above are technical. The newest rule stipulates that only beer may be entered at the GABF. The rest of the eligibility rules affect breweries with more than one location; in particular, breweries that choose to enter multiple registration forms. The rules do limit how each individual brewery/store in a group enters their beers; this has been an area of concern in the past for many entering breweries. But the rules as clarified here also provide for greater post-event flexibility and maximum benefit for all award-winning breweries. Each outlet that sells an award-winning brand name beer can market the medal win, even though the brand was submitted by only one outlet.
The other important rule to note is the 6 beer minimum requirement in a category that was implemented in 2008. As the GABF has grown larger, many categories have reached 75 or even over 100 entries. To the extent that these large categories are highly competitive, much smaller categories are significantly less competitive; it’s far less likely that a very small category will contain a range of quality beers deserving of three medals. Winning a medal in these small categories represents far less of a statistical challenge, and is therefore less meaningful. Each category must contain at least 6 (six) entries to be judged on its own. Categories with less than 6 entries as of the registration deadline will be reclassified as a subcategory of another appropriate category as a survival strategy. Brewers with entries in these small categories that are subject to recombination will be notified, and may at their discretion withdraw the entries in question, or, allow their entries to compete.
Category Updates for 2009: This year’s category list has some interesting additions and changes that I’ll point out here. We’ve added several new categories and subcategories. We’ve also shortened several category names wherever possible to make them more marketing friendly, while maintaining style identity for the consumer.
Category 3 – Renamed this category as the less confusing
American-Style Wheat Beer With Yeast;
Category 4c – Renamed this category as the more
marketable “Field Beer”;
Category 13 – Out of Category – Traditionally
Brewed Beer is now its own category; in it’s first year in
2008, it had 41 entries as a subcategory to Experimental
beers;
Category 15a and b – divvied up the exciting
American-Belgo-Style Ale category into pale and dark
subcategories;
Category 16a and b – divvied up American-Style
Sour Ale into unfruited and fruited versions;
Category 19 a and b – added a fruited subcategory to
Wood- and Barrel-Aged Sour Beer;
Category 20 – eliminated subcategories from Aged Beer,
allowing for more flexibility in entering;
Category 22 – Smoked Beer – lumped all German
rauchbier styles together, and added Smoked Porter as its
own subcategory;
Category 29 – eliminated Light Amber Lagers due to 0
entries in 2008;
Category 38 – German Doppelbock or Eisbock –
deleted the word “Strong” from category name and from
subcategory names to be more TTB friendly;
Category 48 – Imperial India Pale Ale – deleted the
redundant word “Double” from this category name;
Category 50 – Imperial Red Ale - deleted the
redundant word “Double” from this category name;
Category 51 – English-Style Mild Ale is now its own
category with pale and dark subcategories;
Category 52 – Ordinary or Special Bitter – now one
category with two subcategories;
Category 56 – English-Style Brown Ale now has its
own category;
Category 59 – German Style Sour Ale – created, at
long last, a proper home for traditional German Berliner
Weisse and Leipzig-Style Gose;
Category 64a – Belgian-Style Blonde Ale – added a
new style, Belg Blonde Ale, as a subcategory.
Category 76 – Scotch Ale - deleted the word “Strong”
from Scotch ale category name and subcategory names to
be more TTB friendly;
2009 GABF Pro-Am – Based on the success of the 2008 (58 entries) GABF Pro-Am competition, we plan to continue the Pro-Am this year. This is a special competition that will be judged by the same professional judge panel that evaluates all GABF entries. The 2009 Pro-Am will be limited to the first 96 entries. More information can be found in the Pro-Am section of Competition Information.
I wish you a fun, successful 2009 GABF. Have fun planning your entry strategy and brewing great beer; we’ll see you in Denver this fall!
Yours Brewly,
Chris Swersey
Competition Manager
2009 Great American Beer Festival
