For over 40 years, the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) has cemented Denver as a hub for great brews — and the local breweries around the state have helped build that legacy.

At this year’s festival — hosted at the Colorado Convention Center — Colorado breweries once again stole the show, winning 38 medals in the 2024 competition, improving on the 36 medals in 2023 and the 25 in 2022.

Colorado’s gold medal winners announced included: Launch Pad Brewery, Liquid Mechanics Brewing Co., River North Brewery – RiNo, Glenwood Canyon Brewing Co., Denver Beer Co. – Canworks, Holidaily Brewing Co.,Westbound & Down Brewing Co. – Westbound Mill, Denver Beer Co. – Lowry Field, Cannonball Creek Brewing Co, New Belgium Brewing Co., Bootstrap Brewing, Bull & Bush Brewery and Westbound & Down Brewing Co. Colorado cideries Snow Capped Cider (Austin, Colo.) and Haykin Family Cider pulled in three medals.

Bull & Bush Brewery from Denver and Glenwood Canyon Brewing Co. won the most awards for Colorado breweries, with two. No Colorado-based breweries won any Brewer of the Year awards.

The nation’s largest professional beer competition awarded 326 medals to 273 breweries and cideries in 2024, according to the GABF website, where the entire list of winners can be found.

“The beer festival helped establish and maintain Denver’s position as the capital of craft beer,” Visit Denver President and CEO Richard Scharf told The Denver Gazette via email. “Denver has been hosting GABF for over 40 years and in that time has established itself as a place where trends take hold. Visitors love Denver’s beer culture and we see a brewery visit at the top of many people’s list no matter the time they visit.”

Colorado brewers weren’t the only winners this weekend — Visit Denver said metro Denver’s economy did, too.

The estimated economic impact that this year’s three-day festival had on the city was around $15 million, according to Visit Denver, with nearly 6,000 rooms being booked at hotels connected to the festival.

An estimated 40,000 people attended the festival this year, according to Brewers Association spokesperson Ann Obenchain, to get a chance to sample more than 2,500 beverages by 600 breweries, cideries, distilleries and other beverage providers nationwide.

Those thousands of people the line up outside the convention center doors, drooling at the mouth for a taste of the delectable beverages the country creates, will likely return to Denver, as well, continuing the boost to the city’s economy, according to Shields.

“The beer fest is known around the world, and the media attention and word of mouth of people coming here and having a terrific weekend helps promote Denver,” Scharf said. “Travelers experience Denver during this week and then return to further explore some of our attractions, inside and outside the world of beer.”

With great Colorado breweries leading the way, there’s no reason beer fans won’t want to experience our beer-brewing state.

Editors note: The original headline on this story incorrectly stated Colorado brewers won 41 awards. Three of those medal winners were for Colorado Cideries.