Overview The Great American Beer Festival is the Brewers Association's beer festival in Denver and the competition behind it, where professional judges taste entries blind in more than 100 beer and cider styles and award gold, silver and bronze. In 2024 the competition drew 8,836 commercial beer entries from 1,869 breweries and cideries. For 2026 the festival left the Colorado Convention Center, its home for more than two decades, for an outdoor site at Levitt Pavilion, with sessions scheduled from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday and the public awards ceremony set for the Sunday. On site The 2026 layout was designed to put brewers behind their own taps, with most pours coming straight from the breweries, so that Meet the Brewer, once one corner of the convention hall, would be the whole festival. PAIRED is a separate ticket that includes festival entry: small plates from chefs matched to pours of up to 4 ounces, and the 2026 PAIRED list named 21 independent breweries and 26 chefs. The United Nations Taproom pours about 50 beverages from 14 countries, from Belgium and Germany to Iceland, Nicaragua and Ethiopia. The 2026 Mile High Stage lineup listed Low Cut Connie for Saturday and Proxima Parada for Sunday, and the grounds carry food trucks and a stein-hoisting contest. Track record Charlie Papazian started the festival in Boulder in June 1982, alongside the American Homebrewers Association conference: 24 breweries, 47 beers and 800 people. By 2024 it drew 40,000 people, and the competition took 8,836 commercial beers, 233 ciders, 95 collaboration entries and 52 Pro-Am entries across 102 beer categories and handed out 326 medals; Juicy or Hazy IPA was the most crowded category, with 349 entries. For 2026 the competition added categories including rice lager and hop water, dropped entry limits, replaced its brewery group award with a Brewery of the Year for producers over 100,000 barrels, and introduced a larger medal. Brand presence The Brewers Association sells festival sponsorship to three audiences at once: beer enthusiasts, brewery professionals and industry peers. On the grass at Levitt Pavilion, exhibitors set up 10-by-10 tents weighted at all four corners, since nothing may be staked into the ground, and can hand out stickers, koozies and branded apparel and sell their own products. Beer service is limited to Premier Pour Partners and approved sponsors, who supply their own beer and work with the festival's cellar crew. Southwest Airlines is the official travel partner, and Elite Brands hosts the United Nations Taproom as distributor.