How Colorado Brewers Fared at the Great American Beer Festival

Colorado brewers took home 45 medals at the largest beer festival in the world—the Brewers Association’s Great American Beer Festival—between last Thursday and Saturday in Denver.

That’s the most medals for any state, including California, which bagged 39 awards for its 594 entries, reports the Denver Business Journal. Colorado brewers submitted just 459 entries, proving that quality, not quantity, mattered when it came to judging the festival’s 3,308 entries.

Coors Brewing Company of Golden, part of Molson Coors Brewing Company, received top honors as large brewing company of the year. The small-brewing-company-of-the-year award went to the obscure Dry Dock Brewing Company of Aurora. Chalk up surprises such as Keystone Ice to judges who’d been drinking alcohol for three days.

Meanwhile, The Associated Press takes a look at Colorado’s first microbrewery, Boulder Beer Company, which turned 30 during the festival.