FAQ: Breweries

Competition registration for ALL breweries is open June 11 – July 12, 2024, at GABFRegistration.com. Festival registration is open from May 14 – July 15, 2024

If you wish to enter the competition you will need to complete an application at GABFRegistration.com. GABF festival registration will utilize a new registration platform and will be separate from the competition registration process.

If you own the rights to a brand, but your beer is produced by another brewery, you are still eligible to enter GABF. The brewery producing your beers must meet the brewery eligibility requirements. Enter the beers under the name of your brand, not the name of the brewery at which your beers are produced.
Enter the TTB Basic Permit/Brewers Notice number of the brewery producing the beer on your registration entry. Any award won by a contract brand is property of the winning contract brewery which owns the brand, not the brewery producing the beer.

Competition registration takes place online at GABFRegistration.com from June 11 – July 12, 2024. Only breweries who meet both beer & brewery eligibility requirements may register (see Eligibility info in FAQ below or the Competition Eligibility page.

Pricing depends on what you’re doing, and if you’re a member of the Brewers Association. Brewers Association members can register for an in-line booth at the festival between May 14 and June 3 for free, including one comped entry to the competition. Non-members can register for a festival pouring space after June 3 at a cost of $250. The cost for BA members to register after June 3 will be $150 (no competition entry included). That cost includes up to four badges for brewery representatives to attend all festival sessions. Sponsorship pricing for endcap spaces varies depending on brewery barrelage. See GABF competition pricing details here.

Breweries must meet ALL THREE of the following conditions at the time of registration. Breweries not meeting these criteria, homebrewers, and breweries in planning (i.e. not open, operational, or meeting the criteria below) as of this date are not eligible to enter.
Brewery must be fully licensed to both produce AND sell beer in the U.S.
Brewery must have a Basic Permit/Brewers Notice on file with the TTB (U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax & Trade Bureau).
Brewery must be currently open and operating with at least one beer that is currently commercially available for sale at retail to the public (e.g. taproom, bar, restaurant, retail store).
Breweries not meeting all criteria above and that register for the Great American Beer Festival and/or competition are subject to disqualification without further notice or refund of registration/entry fees.

A full refund is given only in the event that your brewery cancels by July 26. No refunds will be given for any cancellations after this date. This includes instances where beers are not shipped for competition and beers that are not received by the shipping deadline for judging. It is the brewery’s responsibility to track their shipments to ensure arrival in a timely manner.

The company admin person for your brewery’s BA Membership is able to log into the company account at BrewersAssociation.org to view this information. If you are not the admin or do not know who your company admin person is, please request this from our member services team by emailing info@nullbrewersassociation.org or by calling 303-447-0816 ext. 2.

The company admin person for your brewery’s BA Membership is able to log into the company account at BrewersAssociation.org to view this information. If you are not the admin or do not know who your company admin person is, please request this from our member services team by emailing info@nullbrewersassociation.org or by calling 303-447-0816 ext. 2.

First and foremost, your brewery must meet all brewery eligibility requirements. If your brewery does not meet all of the requirements, your beer is not eligible for entry.
All beer entries must possess the characteristics generally attributed to and conforming to the consumer understanding of “beer”.
Eligible
At least 51% of the fermentables must be derived from grain. Beverages made with malt substitutes, honey, fruit or fruit juices, or anything other than grain as the majority of fermentables are not eligible to participate.
Competition beer entries must contain hops. Exceptions to this include gruit or other historical beer styles that traditionally use other herbs or spices (such as heather or yarrow).
All beer entries comply with all TTB regulations, including formula approval requirements (as stated in Title 27, Chapter 1, Part 25, Subpart F, §25.55 of the Federal Code of Regulations).
Not Eligible
Mead, cider, spirits, hard soda, hard water, and flavored malt beverages including kombucha and most shandies and radlers (see first and second bullet point in “eligible” section) are not eligible to be entered in the GABF.
Beer brands whose volume contains more than 50% of beer liquid manufactured outside the U.S. are ineligible (i.e. collaborations with non-U.S. breweries where the majority of the beer was produced abroad).
Beer brands that have greater sales of beer imported into the U.S. than sales of that brand produced/manufactured in the U.S. are ineligible.
The Brewers Association retains sole discretion to determine eligibility for the Great American Beer Festival.

Brewpub: For the purposes of the competition, brewpubs are considered a restaurant-brewery (i.e. has its own kitchen for food service) that sells 25% or more of its beer on site. The beer is brewed primarily for sale in the restaurant and bar (not simply a taproom).
Brewing Co.: Small breweries that sell most of their beer out of a taproom but do not serve food from an in-house kitchen would fall into the “Brewing Co.” categories, based on 2022 barrelage production.

In an effort to address concerns regarding sexually explicit, lewd, or demeaning brand names that reasonable adult consumers would find inappropriate, beer names entered into the GABF are expected to meet the guidelines in the Brewers Association Marketing and Advertising Code.
Entering breweries are responsible for knowing these rules as we will not police entry names prior to the competition. A review of past medal-winning brand names finds that very few medal-winning beers will be affected by this rule.
Beer names that do not meet the Marketing and Advertising Code will not be allowed to use the GABF trademark/logos or name to promote any brand that wins a GABF medal. Additionally, those brand names will not be marketed by the Brewers Association.
What you need to know:
GABF will not police beer brand names prior to competition.
GABF reserves the right to make final determination of approval for any brewery using GABF intellectual property when promoting medal-winning beers.
GABF reserves the right to make final determination (via an independent advertising code review panel) of whether a brand meets the Advertising and Marketing Code.
If a beer brand name is deemed to not meet the code, only the style of the beer (and not the actual beer name) will be announced on stage and published in the winners list.
In the event that the brand name of a medal-winning beer entered in the GABF competition is found to not meet the Marketing and Advertising Code, the brewery that entered the medal-winning beer is entitled to keep the medal earned within the GABF category in which the beer was entered but is not allowed to promote the win.

Each brewery is expected to be allowed to enter up to a maximum of 5 beers into the competition, based on availability (in other words, this could increase or decrease, based on the interest we have in the competition).
Please note: our goal is to accommodate as many breweries as possible in an effort to host a robust competition; if demand for the competition exceeds capacity, breweries with a higher number of entries may be asked to reduce their entry count. Alternatively, if there is additional available competition space after registration closes on June 21, we may allow breweries to enter more beers, beyond the original entry cap.
No single brewing location is allowed to enter more than the designated maximum number of competition beer entries determined.
Groups that own multiple breweries/have multiple locations will be limited to an entry cap of 40 beers total across all locations (subject to change, based on availability).
The number of brewery applications by a multiple-location group may not exceed the total number of physical brewing locations in that group
Use this infographic to help you determine how your brewery should be entered.

Nope, each beer brand may be entered only once. Just pick the best category for that beer.

Yes! As long as it’s not the same beer… that would be weird.

New this year, breweries will enter their beer information directly after they complete their application, during the June 11 – July 12 window.

To view your competition entries go to gabfregistration.com and login with your BA login credentials, you will then be rerouted to your competition entries to review and make any needed changes. Changes will be accepted until July 26, based on category availability.

Click on GABF Labels and log in with your brewery 4-digit ID and email address.

That depends on the category, as some categories are full and can no longer accept new entries. To attempt the change, log in using the button below, along with your 4-digit GABF Brewery ID and your associated email address (deadline July 26 – no changes accepted after this date).
GABF Brewer Login

Only certain categories allow for additional notes for judges (see style guidelines). Assuming the category you’ve entered your beer into allows for this, log onto www.GABFRegistration.com and make the edits via the online style-builder. If your beer is entered in a category that does not allow for additional judging info, consider switching to a category that allows for this if this information is crucial to judging, or leave it where it is without the additional information for judging.

Yes, breweries will receive tasting notes either electronically or via snail mail within 1 month after the competition ends.

Learn more about the competition.

Learn more about the Brewery of the Year categories.

See this fun infographic.
Both scenarios allow you to enter beers from all locations, but they differ in how this all factors into Brewery of the Year awards.
Have all locations compete together for Brewery Group: individually register each location (i.e. submit an application for each location that is competing), but opt to have them “compete as a group” during registration. Each location enters a selection of beers, and any awards won by any location in the group count towards “Brewery Group”
Choose one location to compete for Brewery of the Year: each location can enter their own set of beers (same totals restrictions apply), but only beers from one location will count towards a Brewery of the Year award for the size of that location. Beers from the other locations, regardless of medals one, will not count towards any sort of brewery of the year award.

Nope, read closely: the winner for the “Brewery Group” Brewery of the Year category is winners are determined by total number of points awarded (Gold = 6 pts | Silver = 5 pts | Bronze = 4 pts), divided by total number of beers entered by that brewery or brewery group. This is different from the single-location Brewery of the Year groups, where winners are determined by total number of winning points.
For example, if a brewery enters 2 sets of beers from their 2 locations (let’s say a total of 10 beers for the group), and wins 2 gold medals, that’s 12 points / 10 beers. They have a winning total of 1.2. If another brewery enters the max of 20 beers across 4-5 locations, and wins 2 gold medals, that’s 12 points / 20 beers. Their winning total is .6. So the smaller 2-location brewery wins in this scenario.

It depends on the size of the individual format you’re sending (12oz bottles/cans, 22oz bottles, crowlers, etc.), as well as the category the beer is entered in (large categories, such as IPA’s and some wood/barrel-aged categories require more beer since there are more rounds of judging needed).
See a complete breakdown of how much you should be sending.

Yes, specific competition labels that should be used may be found at the login below. To ensure accuracy in sorting and judging, please only use these labels.
GABF Brewer Login

Nope, judging for GABF is done blind, meaning there’s no need to remove your labels from your bottles/cans before sending in. Just make sure you’ve put our competition labels on each bottle/can and be sure to review all labeling info here.

By far, the best bet is to team up with other nearby breweries or even your local guild to create a freight shipment direct to Colorado. Barring that, UPS and FedEx are acceptable options, but know that unless your brewery has a business account that allows for shipping alcohol, they may not allow you to ship your beer. DO NOT ship your beers using the US Postal Service as it is illegal. More information here.

You may find it easier to schedule a pickup from your home, instead of taking it into a store or having it picked up from the brewery. It may also help to remove any mention of your brewery or beer on the box (instead of Great American Beer Festival, use “GABF”).

Remember to put your 4-digit GABF BreweryID number on your box, as well as the “Package Number of Total” (i.e. 1 of 3, 2 of 3, 3 of 3, etc.)
Place all bottles standing upright in the shipping container. All bottles should be placed in the same direction (lids up) wrapped in bubble wrap. Use your standard four- or six-pack holder to help keep bottles secure.
Fill the shipping container to the top with packaging materials. Packing peanuts are NOT recommended. If used, make sure peanuts are enclosed in a plastic bag.
Wrap the original box in a plastic bag to avoid possible leakage and then place the box in a strong shipping box filled with more packing material.
If more than one box of entries is being shipped, be sure to keep the samples of each brand in the same box and to label each box as “box 1 of 2,” “box 2 of 2,” etc.). Do not split bottles of the same brand/entry into separate boxes.
Coolers or other special containers will not be returned, however the beers that arrive in specialized containers will be judged and tend to withstand the rigors of shipping.