The results are in and our local brewers took home a nice amount of hardware from this year’s Great American Beer Festival in Denver. Breweries enter their beers to be judged by the festival’s Professional Judge Panel. Festival attendees can also sip the beer entered in the competition during the tasting sessions.

The Great American Beer Festival invites industry professionals from around the world to sit together in small groups and, without knowing the brand name, taste beers in each specified style category. The ultimate goal of the Great American Beer Festival Judge Panel is to identify the three beers that best represent each beer-style category as described and adopted by the Great American Beer Festival.

The Professional Judge Panel awards gold, silver or bronze medals that are recognized around the world as symbols of brewing excellence. These awards are among the most coveted in the industry and heralded by the winning brewers in their national advertising.
Five different three-hour judging sessions take place over the three-day period during the week of the festival. Judges are assigned beers to evaluate in their specific area of expertise and never judge their own product or any product in which they have a concern.
Medals are awarded for the following qualities.

Gold – A world-class beer that accurately exemplifies the specified style, displaying the proper balance of taste, aroma and appearance.
Silver – An excellent beer that may vary slightly from style parameters while maintaining close adherence to the style and displaying excellent taste, aroma and appearance.
Bronze – A fine example of the style that may vary slightly from style parameters and/or have minor deviations in taste, aroma or appearance.

2011 Winners in MD and VA!

Winning at GABF is no joke. It creates huge momentum for new breweries and maintains relevance for established ones.
Cheers to all the MD and VA winners! Mad Fox Brewing , Starr Hill Brewery, Blue Mountain and Flying Dog all took home gold medals!

Check out a full list of winners here.

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GOLD

Category #25: Kellerbier or Zwickelbier
Mad Fox Brewing Company (Falls Church, Virginia)
Kolsch Kellerbier

Category #34: Vienna-Style Lager
Starr Hill Brewery (Crozet, Virginia)
Jomo Lager

Category #45: English Style Summer Ale
Blue Mountain Brewery (Afton, Virginia)
Summer Lovin’

Category #83: Barley Wine-Style Ale
Flying Dog Brewery (Frederick, Maryland)
Horn Dog Barleywine

SILVER

Category #15: Indigenous Beer
Starr Hill Brewing Company (Crozet, Virginia)
Monticello Reserve Ale

Category #17: American-Belgo-Style Ale
Blue Mountain Brewery (Afton, Virginia)
Blue Reserve

Category 26: Smoke Beer
Starr Hill Brewing Company (Crozet, Virginia)
Smoke Out

Category #31: Dortmunder or German-Style Oktoberfest
Devils Backbone Brewing Company (Roseland, Virginia)
Tommy Two Fists

BRONZE

Category #45: English-style Summer Ale
Mad Fox Brewing Company (Falls Church, Virginia)
English Summer Ale

Category #58: Scottish-Style Ale
Rock Bottom Brewery (Bethesda, Maryland)
Brown Bear Brown

Category #64: German-Style Sour Ale
Gordon-Biersch (Rockville, Maryland)
Gose

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