The Great American Beer Festival Is First Held

On June 4, 1982, the first Great American Beer Festival was held at the Harvest House Hotel in Boulder, Colorado. Charlie Papazian and Daniel Bradford organized the one-night event during the American Homebrewers Association’s annual conference. Twenty-four breweries presented forty-seven beers to approximately 800 attendees. The festival gave the emerging American microbrewing movement a national public showcase at a time when only a small number of independent breweries operated in the United States. It later moved to Denver and developed into both a major public tasting festival and an influential professional beer competition. Its medals, style categories, and national gathering of brewers helped make the festival an important institution in the growth and public recognition of modern American craft beer.