This year’s draft was sponsored by First Draft Taproom and Kitchen, located at 1309 26th St, Denver, CO 80205. They are Denver’s Pour Your Own Draft system that allows patrons to pour their own beers which are measured electronically by ounce. You can try a little of everything or pour yourself full pints of the 40 beers they have on draft. It’s like adult fro-yo for beer.

2017 GABF Fantasy Brewery Draft Picks

We here at PorchDrinking believe beer should be fun. So four years ago we set out to add a different take on the Great American Beer Festival by inviting a mix of national and local writers to participate in our GABF Fantasy Brewery Draft. Each year we draft breweries based on how we believe they’ll finish during GABF awards ceremony and earn points based on those finishes.

During the inaugural year, we took home the gold (some say it was rigged but I’m still sticking by my home court advantage, three years ago Brewtally Insane took home the hardware, and two years ago Tom Rutunno of CNBC took top honors and last year newcomer Chris O’Leary of Brew York took home top honors. But this year the field is out for blood. Once again we’ve got a mix of returners as well as some fresh faces. Here’s was year’s draft order:

 

• Kevin Boyd – Drinking Craft
• Mike Snider – USA Today
• Kyle Clark – 9News
• Reid Ramsey – Beer Street Journal
• Ryan Hannigan – Focus on the Beer
• Ed Sealover – Denver Business Journal
• Tristan Chan – PorchDrinking.com
• Jonathan Shikes – Westword Magazine
• Frances Lopez – The Full Pint
• Eric Gorski – Denverite
• Mark Slattery – Denver Beer Guy
• Chris O’Leary – Brew York

 

 

The draft runs like any other fantasy sports snake-style draft would with the last pick of the first round receiving the first pick of the second round.

Our participants will score points based on how their breweries medal during the actual competition. Please note that beers in the Great American Beer Festival are judged based on their style guidelines. So while you may be a huge fan of a crazy creative beer, it may not necessarily win due to its style category guidelines. Here’s how participants will score points.

Point Breakdown

1 point for Bronze
3 points for Silver
5 points for Gold

15 points for Brewery and Brewmaster of the Year for a Brewing Company (regardless of size)
15 points for Brewery and Brewmaster of the Year for a Brew Pub (regardless of size)

Judging will take place on Saturday morning of the Great American Beer Festival and we’ll have the final results on how our participants finished that following week.

 

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