People attend the 2018 Great American Beer Festival (GABF) in Denver, the United States, Sept. 21, 2018. America's West dominated competition in the 2018 Great American Beer Festival that ran from Sept. 20 to Sept. 22. Some 62,000 American beer drinking enthusiasts joined the event honoring key players in a burgeoning industry that has swept the country from coast to coast. (Xinhua/Li Ying)

by Peter Mertz, Tan Yixiao

DENVER, the United States, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) --America's West dominated competition in the 2018 Great American Beer Festival (GABF) that ran from Sept. 20 to Sept. 22.

Western states of California, Colorado, and Oregon were the top three award-winning states in the largest annual beer competition representing a 23 billion U.S. dollars industry.

Some 62,000 American beer drinking enthusiasts joined the event honoring key players in a burgeoning industry that has swept the country from coast to coast.

Beers are judged in 102 different categories by 305 judges who hail from 13 countries. Each classification of beer received a gold, silver, and bronze medal for their quality, in a competition featuring "blind judging," where judges taste beer with no identification.

California, America's most populous state with 39 million residents, received 73 medals, more than twice runner up Colorado with 32, followed by Oregon and Texas.

"Fresh, accessible ingredients and working with farmers whose level of care they put into their ingredients - the intention, has made us successful," said Ashley Lance from Portland, Oregon's Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB).

"Craft beer emerged in the country in the 1980s, its rapid growth represents the American entrepreneurial spirit and has been reinvented and redefined by U.S Millennials," said Colorado businessman Jim Ryder.

Ryder, 62, was pouring beer for HUB, one of 800 breweries in attendance and one of 2,400 American breweries who competed in the event that judges 8,700 beers from all 50 U.S. states.

"There are more breweries in those states than any other states in the country - and that's why the west wins so many medals," said Brewers Association (BA) Chief Economist Bart Watson.

"We now have 6,700 craft breweries in the country, up from 4,500 just two years ago," said Robert Pease, BA president, whose staff of 60 orchestrates the elaborate event each year.

Craft beer is one of the most explosive industries in the country and has taken a 20 percent chunk out of the century-old American "light pilsner" style, brewed by Anheuser-Busch, Miller, Pabst Blue Ribbon, and others, industry data shows.

"We set many records this year, from 537 first-time competition entrants to 31 first-time winners," said BA Marketing Director Ann Obenchain.

Obenchain told Xinhua that BA introduced three new categories of America's favorite emerging beer in the 2018 competition, the India Pale Ale (IPA).

The "Juicy or Hazy India Pale Ale" style category was the most entered this year with 391 competitors and saw winners from Illinois and Nebraska.

"This is huge," said an ecstatic Emma Quinn with Alexandria, Virginia's Port City Brewing Company, which won a silver medal in Category 83: Belgian-Style Witbier. "It proves to all of our loyal patrons that the beer they love is really good quality," she told Xinhua.

Besides an in-depth, extensive, tasting competition, the festival features a growing number of related attendee-events that include "all-you-can-drink" beer tasting, food and beer "pairings," and European beer-style gardens.

"America is recognized as the number one beer destination for people from all over the world, here at the Great American Beer Festival, about 10 percent of our total 62,000 visitors come from the international community," said Pease.