Great American Beer Festival 2022 by the numbers

2022-Great-American-Beer-Festival-Award-Winners02 (1) — Photo © Brewers Association

Presented by the Brewers Association (BA), Great American Beer Festival (GABF) is the nation’s largest professional beer competition. This year’s competition awarded 300 medals to the best commercial breweries in the United States in 98 beer categories covering 177 different beer styles (including all subcategories).

The competition took place in three phases over a period of nine days and was judged by 235 beer experts from seven countries, including the U.S. In addition to 9,904 commercial brewery entries, the judging panel also evaluated 35 Pro-Am entries and 94 Collaboration entries. The competition was made possible with the help of 310 volunteers.

“Each year the Great American Beer Festival showcases the best that American brewers have to offer,” said Chris Williams, competition director, Great American Beer Festival. “With 9,904 entries, this year’s competition was the most competitive to date. Congratulations to all the winners who truly demonstrated why the U.S. is the best brewing nation in the world.”

View the full list of 2022 winners here. Below, we have some standout stats. Or watch the whole dang thing:

GABF Competition statistics

36th edition of the GABF competition
9,904 beers judged
177 beer styles
2,154 breweries in the competition from 50 states plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico
235 judges
310 volunteers
Average number of competition beers entered in each category: 99
Category with the highest number of entries: American Style India Pale Ale (423 entries)
300 total medals awarded, including 3 Pro-Am and 3 Collaboration medals
268 medal-winning breweries
301 first-time GABF entrants
18 first-time GABF winners

Most-Entered Style Categories

The winners of the top five most-entered categories were:

Most Decorated Brewery

North Park Beer Co. | San Diego, CA
GOLD: English India Pale Ale or New Zealand India Pale Ale (Cat. 59)
SILVER: Juicy or Hazy Imperial India Pale Ale (Cat. 67)
BRONZE: American-Style India Pale Ale (Cat. 64)
BRONZE: Imperial India Pale Ale (Cat. 66)