We here at PorchDrinking believe beer should be fun. So three 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), two years ago Brewtally Insane took home the hardware, and last year Tom Rutunno of CNBC took top honors. But this year the field was out for blood. After a grueling awards ceremony the results of this year’s competition are as follows:

This year’s draft is 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 FroYo for beer.

2016 GABF Fantasy Brewery Results

 

• 1) Chris O’Leary – Brew York: 42 points
• 2) Tom Rotunno – CNBC: 29 points
• 3) Mark Slattery – Denver Beer Guy: 28 points
• 4) Eric Gorski – Denverite: 26 points
5) Frances Lopez – The Full Pint: 25 points
Erika Rietz – Draft Magazine: 25 points
• 6) Jonathan Shikes – The Westword: 23 points
• 7) Tristan Chan – PorchDrinking.com: 21 points
• 8) Ed Sealover – Denver Business Journal: 19 points
• 9) Mark and Patti Robinson – Brewtally Insane: 18 points
• 10) Ryan Hannigan – Focus on the Beer: 15 points
11) Reid Ramsey – Beer Street Journal: 13 points
Kyle Clark – 9News: 13 points
• 12) Jess Baker – CraftBeer.com: 10 points
• 13) Jim Vorel – Paste Magazine: 6 points
• 14) Mike Snider – USA Today : 5 points

 

Initially it was looking like Tom Rotunno would earn back to back titles after jumping out to an early lead, as he was buoyed by Devils Backbone and RAM Restaurants. However Chris O’Leary, a newcomer to the competition, ended up running away with the competition with major help from Karl Strauss.

For a second there it seemed I would be a lock for second until the Brewers Association took away Fat Heads’ title as Best Mid-Sized brewery and in turn took away what little bragging rights I had to my name. Frances’ all Cali strategy faired better than expected, and Mike Snider barely snuck in with points rounding out the bottom. Here’s to better picking next year. Once again a huge thank you to all of our participants. We can’t wait to reconvene again next year!

The draft ran 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 scored points based on how their breweries medaled during the actual competition. Please note that beers in the Great American Beer Festival are judged based on their style guidelines. Here’s how participants scored points:

Point Breakdown

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

20 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)

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