GABF 2015 The Great American Beer Festival quickly sells out every year. Ticket pre-sale for American Homebrewers Association and Brewers Association members only starts at 10 a.m. July 28. Tickets for the public go on sale at 10 a.m. July 29. For more information, visit greatamericanbeerfestival.com.

A battle is brewing in the statehouse.

This throwdown isn’t about taxes or legislation, rather crafty suds, a trophy and bragging rights are at the crux of preparations underway for a September campaign.

And Broomfield’s own Big Choice Brewing is in the thick of it all.

The Colorado Brewers Guild, a nonprofit trade association promoting the state’s craft brewing industry, is once again holding its “Hop to the Vote” competition at the Great American Beer Festival in September, and Big Choice is the beer mentor for the team from the Colorado House of Representatives. The reps will face off against a team of state senators, who are being coached by Cannonball Creek Brewing Co. in Golden.

The House and Denver Beer Co.’s Representative Saison was the favorite at last year’s inaugural Hop the Vote challenge, after being put to a vote of GABF attendees. It defeated Upper Chamber Fresh Hop Pale Ale brewed by senators and Dry Dock Brewing Co.

The House will defend its title during the GABF Sept. 24-26, when each team will pour and campaign for its beer at the Colorado Brewers Guild booth..

The team that creates the winning craft beer will receive the coveted Hop the Vote trophy, designed and donated by Fort Collins’ New Belgium Brewing, which sits inside the Speaker of the House office after the reps victory in the last year’s inaugural challenge. The trophy will be updated each year to include the winning brewery’s tap handle.

To prepare for the challenge, the teams are holding brew days.

Big Choice Brewing was home to the defending champions’ brew day Saturday. Team members getting hands on for the House Saturday were Polly Lawrence, R-Douglas County and Dan Pabon, D-Denver; Jeni James Arndt, D-Fort Collins; Paul Lundeen, R- Monument; Paul Rosenthal, D-Denver, and Susan Lontine, D-Denver.

The Senate team will brew Tuesday at Cannonball Creek. Members are Chris Holbert, R-Parker; Matt Jones, D-Louisville; Andy Kerr, D-Lakewood; Tim Neville, R-Littleton; and Pat Steadman, D-Denver.

In the world of craft beer, September’s competition is right around the corner.

“We work back five or six weeks from there, so we know the beer is fermented, carbonated and ready for competition,” said Big Choice owner and brewmaster Nathaniel Miller. “We’ll be making seven beer barrels, which is the equivalent of 220 gallons of beer.”

Miller, who participates on the Colorado Brewers Guild’s Government Affairs Committee, and members of the House team got together a couple of months ago to talk about the type of beer they’d craft and its name, and began formulating a winning recipe.

Saturday was a hands-on experience with team members “shoveling grain, adding hops and working at the actual brew, (to) have it ready for the Great American Beer Festival,” Miller said.

Hop the Vote was launched to highlight the role craft brewing plays in the Colorado economy, Lawrence said.

Colorado craft breweries contributed $446 million to the state’s economy in 2011, $704 million in 2012 and $826 million in 2013, according to statistics from the Colorado Brewers Guild cited in a by the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado-Boulder.

The craft brewing industry is a tourism boon, drawing beer connoisseurs to 300 breweries statewide, and a majority of those are members of the CBG.

The guild reported 232 breweries in Colorado in 2013, which marked 109 percent growth in the number of breweries since the end of 2009.

In 2012 an estimated 4,493 people worked in the brewery and restaurant sides of the business, and that number grew to 5,014 people in 2013, according to Leeds’ report.

“It’s been a great boom for Colorado,” Lawrence said.

Plus, the process is a fun way to add to Colorado’s beer portfolio and gets lawmakers working together to enhance a growing Colorado industry.

“It’s a good way to reach across the aisle … to work together on a joint project,” she said. “That was a lot of fun last year, basically campaigning at the Great American Beer Festival for our Representative Saison … It was lot of fun and introduced our members who aren’t familiar with craft brewing to the (industry).”

“Hop the Vote is a great example of how beer brings people together,” Holbert said in a statement.

Miller agreed the friendly competition “shows camaraderie between our Colorado legislators and the local craft industry,” and the festival showcases local breweries and an industry that will continue to “make Colorado known as the state of craft beer.”

Big Choice’s Miller said he plans to put some of the House’s craft beer on tap in the Big Choice tasting room, likely making it available for sampling before the September festival.

Miller kept the type of beer lawmakers are brewing under wraps, but said he took into consideration which styles of beer have made various best beers in America lists the past couple years.

Lawrence hinted an India Pale Ale could be in the works, but no matter what recipe they brew, she’s confident her team will come out on top.

“The House will prevail again this year, because we have some of the finest people who will be working on this new brew,” she said.

Kimberli Turner: 303-410-2649, turnerk@broomfieldenterprise.com