More than a dozen brewers across the Bay Area and Sacramento region took home awards at the Great American Beer Festival this past weekend. Presented by the Brewers Association, the Colorado event is the biggest beer competition in the world — think of it as the Oscars of beer.
GABF hands out awards for 102 different beer style categories, and competition is fierce. This year, the judges received nearly 8,500 entries from roughly 2,400 breweries in the United States.
It’s particularly exciting when a brand new brewery wins a medal — a signal of more great things to come — and this year saw two promising local starts: Original Pattern Brewing in Oakland and Alaro Craft Brewery in Sacramento. Original Pattern placed second in a Belgian-style ale category for Call of the Void, which also happens to be the second-ever beer brewed at Original Pattern. Meanwhile, Alaro won a gold medal in the English-style IPA category for its Castillo IPA.
