Great American Beer Festival Announces 2012 Winners

This year's Great American Beer Festival -- the largest commercial beer competition in the world -- wrapped up on Saturday in Denver with 254 medals awarded to top U.S. breweries.

Among the top honors were Funkwerks, Tröegs Brewing Company and Pabst Brewing Company, which won for small, mid-size and large brewing companies of the year, respectively.

The competition revealed some regions to watch for next year. Specifically, the state of Wyoming, which claimed the highest number of winning breweries with 17.4 percent of 46 entries medaling. The Mid-Atlantic also shone with three of the six Brewery of the Year winners from the region.

The three-day event, hosted by the Brewers Association, celebrated its 30th anniversary last year. Click here for the full list of winners.

NPR's blog The Salt writes that nearly 580 breweries were in attendance, bringing with them some 36,000 gallons of beer. Most of it was served up in one-ounce samples to the 49,000 beer-lovers in attendanc, which set a record for the festival.