Great American Beer Festival cancels in-person event

Great American Beer Festival cancels in-person event

Dan Mika

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DENVER — The Great American Beer Festival has been cancelled for its September meeting as the Colorado Convention Center is expected to remain an overflow space for COVID-19 patients.

The festival and its operator, the Boulder-based Brewers Association, is now shifting to an online event format for the gathering that was scheduled for Sept. 24 to 26, according to a statement released Thursday morning. While the association is still planning logistics for beer and food delivery for guests, it intends to judge and award entries for the annual competition.

“We are thankful to be able to move forward with this year’s competition and have the opportunity to award brewers’ achievements and generate consumer awareness for beer styles and trends,” said Brewers Association CEO Bob Pease in a statement.

Loveland Aleworks owner and head brewer Nick Callaway said preparing for the festival is currently the least of his worries right now, as small brewers try to absorb the loss of taproom sales by selling their beer curbside.

While he said the lack of a summer beer festival season will allow his staff to spend more time with family instead of in the brewery, the greater craft economy is putting stress on small operators. He wondered if there will even be the same number of entries in September than in years past because it costs hundreds of dollars to submit a beer for judging.

“How many breweries can actually throw in right now?” he said. “…I don’t know if I would use that as a litmus test for the whole industry, but there’s such a high level of uncertainty that something that has been happening for 30 years now isn’t going down.”

Cellar West Artisan Ales in Lafayette has never had a booth at the Festival, but owner Zach Nichols said the event was still important for marketing the small brewery. The brewery tends to see an uptick in taproom sales in the weeks before and after the event as visitors check out nearby breweries, he said, and placing in the contest helps build name recognition.

That brand awareness is particularly important for Cellar West, which is now in its second year in its current location. Nichols was hoping to become a local hotspot for craft beer in the town until COVID-19 precautions forced taprooms to close.

“I think we would’ve had a really killer summer here, but I’m not the only one in that boat,” he said. “I’m sure there are a lot of breweries that were really getting some wind in their sails going into the summer and just got it taken away.”