It’s no secret that this country’s craft beer scene has exploded. When the microbrewery revolution began in the 1980s, there were fewer than 100 breweries in the entire country. Today, there are more than 4,840 — and 729 of those breweries are in California. Those are crazy numbers.

I’m just back from the 35th Great American Beer Festival, held in early October in Denver, where we judged a record-setting 7,227 beers submitted by 1,752 breweries — and entered in 96 separate categories. By the time the suds subsided, 286 medals had been awarded, including 68 to California breweries. You’ll find more statistics — and some interesting trends — below, but first, let’s get to the highlights.

Medal-winning brews

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Want to drink Chum? Gordon Biersch has it Northern California took home 25 medals, including a gold for 21st Amendment’s El Sully — named for co-founder Shaun O’Sullivan, whose brewery is based in San Francisco and San Leandro — in the American-style cream ale category. Fairfax’s Iron Springs Pub & Brewery brought home a gold for their Sless’ Oatmeal Stout. And Stockton’s High Water Brewing won gold for Campfire Stout in the specialty beer category — that’s because unlike a typical stout, this beer tastes just like a s’more. No fire necessary.

In the East Bay, Berkeley’s Fieldwork Brewing won a silver for Good Conduct, another specialty beer, and San Leandro’s Drake’s Brewing picked up a bronze for Rye Robustito. And moving south, Monterey’s Peter B’s won silver for Miss IPPA, an American-style fruit beer, while El Granada’s Hop Dogma Brewing took silver for Rock-Biter Roggenbier.

In San Francisco, Almanac Beer Co. nabbed a silver for its White Label, and Barebottle Brewing won a bronze for Muir Woods Coastal Red. Other medals went to Fairfield’s Heretic Brewing, which won a silver for Shallow Grave; Tracy’s Morgan Territory Brewing, silver for Apogee Baltic Porter; Larkspur’s Marin Brewing, bronze for Point Reyes Porter; and Healdsburg’s Bear Republic Brewing, silver for Pace Car Racer Pale Ale.

A bucket-list fest

The Great American Beer Festival is a bucket list item for beer lovers. It sells out every year, usually within minutes of the tickets going on sale. (Next year’s festival will be Oct. 5-7. Tickets generally go on sale in early August. Find more ticket details here.) Some 60,000 people attend the three-day festival, where guests can sample 3,800 beers from 780 breweries. And the GABF awards ceremony always feels like the brewery industry’s Oscars.

Held at the Bellco Theatre at the Denver Convention Center, the awards event is emceed by competition director Chris Swersey, who summons the winners to the stage to receive medals from Brewery Association founder Charlie Papazian. The whole thing takes nearly three hours. As soon as it’s over, the crowd rushes upstairs to the festival itself to sample as many of the winning beers as they can find.

Brew trends

The most popular beers at the competition are, of course, IPAs. This year, there were 312 IPAs, followed by 211 imperial or double IPAs and 169 American-style strong pale ales, which is only slightly less hoppy than an IPA. Coffee beer and wood and barrel-aged strong beer were the fourth and fifth most popular, respectively.

As breweries evolve, new trends emerge and the competition categories change over time. This year, seven new style categories were added, including pumpkin/squash beer, specialty saison, German leichtbier and four historical styles — Finnish sahti, Swedish Gotlandsdricke and pale and dark Breslau schoeps.

California triumphed at the awards ceremony with its 68 medals — 22 gold, 21 silver and 25 bronze. Colorado came in second with 30 and Oregon won 21. Those totals are certainly worth celebrating, preferably with a beer in hand.