4 NJ Breweries Compete in Great American Beer Festival

Editor's note: The Great American Beer Festival website listed Montclair Brewery on a separate page, as it is part of the National Black Brewers Association event, so Patch has updated this article to reflect there will be four NJ breweries at the competition.

NEW JERSEY — Four Garden State breweries will be competing in the Great American Beer Festival to be held Oct. 10-12 in Denver.

The festival is the nation’s largest for professional brewers and hands out some of the industry’s most sought-after accolades. Bronze, silver and gold medals will be awarded for dozens of styles of beer and ciders in more than 100 categories.

Beer is still the star of the competition, but organizers are casting a wider net with the addition of categories for ciders, canned cocktails, hard seltzer, hard soda, hard tea, hard kombucha, other malt-based beverages, and all non-alcoholic beverages.

The event also features competition in ciders, hard seltzers and, new this year, canned cocktails and hard teas.

Breweries will enter their beers (and other beverages) to the Professional Judging Panel, and festival attendees can also sample these brews.

New Jersey breweries competing for medals include:

• Bonesaw Brewing Company, of Glassboro. Their entries are the Swoosh IPA, Lone Squirrel, Squeezins Double IPA, Bonetoberfest, and Crimson Skull.
• Diamond Spring Brewing Company, of Denville. Their entries are the Juice Box, Bavarian PretzAle, Nut Smuggler, Autumn Rain, and Thirst Mutilator.
• New Jersey Beer Company, of North Bergen. Their entries are the New Jersey IPA, LBIPA, PB N J, and Czech Dark Lager.
• Montclair Brewery. Their entries are Fragile Like a Bomb, Coconut Breeze, Black & Blues, and Maya.