GABF Limiting Big Beer

The link information helps clear up some things not mentioned in the articles linked in the OP. Makes sense they'd put a limit on the total number of entries.

By any chance do you know when this went up on their web site?

 

Beginning of June from the looks of it, if not before. Brewers have to register, get their acceptance, pay entry fees, select and register the beers in specific categories, ship beers, and so on. It takes some time.
https://www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com/brewers/dates-deadlines/

 

After looking through that information and thinking a bit about the logistics of this whole thing I'm even more impressed that the GABF organizers can put the whole event together at all, let alone the competition. (That Denver conference center is one of the few places in the US where you could even consider having something like the GABF.)

There's also something interesting that shows up in comparing their example of a possible limit of 5 beers per brewery (except those with multiple breweries under the same ownership) with even 5-6 years ago. There's an article on this site about the 2011 GABF that mentions one brewery having "around 30 beers in the competition." Under the current rules described on their web site there's nobody who is going to be able to do that.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/articl...t-american-beer-festival-competition-part-ii/

The whole event, the booth floor space limits and the limits on the competition itself (as well as increases in attendance), appears to me to be bordering on a "success disaster."

 

The entry limits per brewery came in to place around not long after that, as there were breweries getting shut out, as the total entry cap was reached. That gives more breweries a chance to compete.

Yeah the whole GABF happens in Denver, as the Convention Center will hold it, there are the hotel rooms, and breweries and bars to host events off site. It also helps that the BA home office is just up the road in Boulder.

 

If you are interested, the GABF Awards are being broadcast live now.