GABF 2013: Which brewers got locked out?

I just saw DESTIHL Brewery missed out and is on the waiting list, I love that brewery and was looking forward to checking them out again this year...boooooooooooooo. But there will be plenty of lame breweries with one or two beers at their booth, what a waste of space...

 

Came here to post this. Bummer for sure.

 

It would really suck if you won a pro-am at a homebrew competition, but didn't get to brew your beer and attend gabf because the brewery didn't get entered.

 

• Badger Hill Brewing
• Bison Brewing
• Black Diamond Brewing
• Bristol Brewing
• (The) Cambridge House Beer Company
• Central Waters Brewing
• Charleville Brewing
• Columbus Brewing
• Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project
• DESTIHL Brewery
• Eagle Rock Brewery
• Flat12 Bierwerks
• Hogshead Brewery
• Loveland Aleworks
• Natty Greene’s Brewing
• Noble Ale Works
• NoDa Brewing
• Nodding Head Brewpub
• O’Fallon Brewery
• Off Color Brewing
• Pipeworks Brewing
• Populuxe Brewing
• Prairie Artisan Ales
• Rahr & Sons Brewing
• Rocky Mountain Brewery
• Shawnee Craft Brewing
• Shmaltz Brewing
• Societe Brewing
• Thai Me Up Brewery
• Triton Brewing
• Vintage 50 Restaurant & Brew Lounge
• Weyerbacher Brewing
• Yazoo Brewing

And others, feel free to post. I mean some of these are absolutely glaring omissions

 

Why do you say "shut out?" My understanding is that they pay the fee they are in and some breweries choose not to pay the fee.

 

Totally agree with this.

And it isn't even about whether one thinks the beer that won a medal is great, mediocre, or complete crap. I think its about building a brand, establishing standards for what it means to win a GABF medal. This is a competition and winners deserve the chance to defend their crown, while up and comers deserve to claim their Gold by dethroning prior winners, not by default.

 

What do you mean by "shut out of"? Did they try to partake and were denied? Or were they simply missing?

Edit: GMTA

 

Thai Me Up took home Alpha King last year. Kind of interesting.

I'm going to pick nits - these are not omissions. The BA didn't decide that these breweries couldn't come, they were just too slow (or rather, the list just filled up way too fast). I can't tell if this is a good thing, or a bad thing. It's definitely a thing though, right?

 

Yeah, I think they pay to play. Either way Columbus brewing would have a great chance with Bodhi.

 

They didn't sign up in time. I believe these are breweries mentioned by Beer Pulse as having wanted to join, but were too slow.

 

I hope this is the case. If CW, Prarie, Pipeworks, Thai Me Up and Weyerbacher were pushed out against their will then someone has some 'splainin to do.

 

Ahh, then they shut themselves out by not registering in time.

 

Since this is a bastard mash up of threads this is going to be crazy.

They didn't get registered in time. So now Brewers and festival goers are both feeling the crunch of limiting ticket sales.

 

Why not start a sister festival (official or unofficial) out East on the same date? I can think of many pro's and not many con's.

 

Right, they are not omissions, and furthermore it’s a thing on the heads of the breweries not the organizers. Given the size of such an event and the massive number of organizational details that have to be taken care of there has to be a deadline imposed to help ensure that those attending and those who did register in time have access to the facilities, etc., etc., etc. Adding breweries after the deadline creates more problems than it solves.

 

You're totally right. I want to clarify something for you though. The hullabaloo was caused because GABF only had room for 600 breweries (I believe that's a bigger number than last year, but only based on one thing I half read... so don't quote me on that) and those 600 slots filled up in two hours. So it's not so much an issue of breweries waiting too long as it is an issue of demand for those slots far outweighing the supply of slots. Kinda like how it was for anybody who tried to get tickets last year after the first hour.

 

No East breweries coming here...major con.

 

It wasn't just that they were too slow to sign up, there were major with the registrations servers on BA's end. I don't know how many breweries that affected though.

 

What about having different days @ GABF? I know this could become a logistical nightmare, but instead of 3 outta 4 sessions being the same thing how about a few different days? You could have your "staple" brewers there to fill up the majority of the slots, but the remaining could be filled as follows. And if any day is not filled up, then open game.

Thursday- New brewery session to spotlight the up and comers
Friday - Return winners session
Saturday (non AHA) - that year's winners spotlight get an encore return.

Again, you will not fill up all slots, but this will allow for new breweries to NOT take up part of the 600 slot from older breweries, other than session 1. Therefore they will "earn their stripes" so to speak. Each day will truly be a Festival, not just a beer drinking competition. Again you can play around with ideas and such, but ultimately someone will be left out in the end with how this business is growing.

 

I honestly don't think there is a solution that will work for everyone other than increasing the size of the festival. The Denver Convention Center is pretty big, we are using only one room...there are more. They should expand it into other areas of the Convention Center.