The brewery registration process was tweaked a little for this year's Great American Beer Festival to try and avoid the "race to register" process that initially locked some breweries out of attendance last year (most were eventually accommodated). Instead, of the first come, first served process, all breweries wanting to enter beer for judging were able to register and indicate if they also wanted a booth on the convention floor. After the registration period closed, the total number of competition beers each brewery was allowed to enter was determined by dividing the number of competition entries that can be judged by the number of breweries that applied. And if demand for booth space exceeded supply, booth selection would be determined by lottery for each region. These changes should have made sure that all breweries who wanted to enter beers in the competition were able to enter, but there may be booths from a few of your favourite breweries missing if the number of requests exceeded the maximum and they didn't win the lottery. But, these are the issues that have to be dealt with then there are now over 3,000 operating craft breweries (and almost 2,000 more in planning stages) in the country.
Perhaps due in some part to the changes in the registration process, Texas has it's largest showing of craft breweries again this year:
Assuming this list is correct, there will be 47 Texas breweries this year, up from 36 in 2013, 30 in 2012 and 22 in 2011. As a recap, the following Texas breweries won medals in the 2013 GABF competition:
| Medal | Beer Name | Brewery | Style |
| Gold | Black Thunder | Austin Beerworks | German-Style Schwarzbier |
| Bronze | Elba | Black Star Co-op Pub and Brewery | Herb and Spice Beer |
| Gold | Cedar Creek Belgian Style Dubbel | Cedar Creek Brewery | Belgian-Style Abbey Ale |
| Gold | Public Ale | Community Beer Co. | Extra Special Bitter |
| Bronze | Atrial Rubicite | Jester King Brewery | Belgian-Style Lambic or Sour Ale |
| Gold | Bitterama | Namaste Brewing at the Whip In | Herb and Spice Beer |
| Bronze | Blind Jake | Pinthouse Pizza | Brown Porter |
| Silver | Brewers Cut Altbier | Real Ale Brewing Co. | German-Style Altbier |
| Bronze | Saint Arnold Weedwacker | Saint Arnold Brewing Co. | German-Style Wheat Ale |
| Silver | Saint Arnold Summer Pils | Saint Arnold Brewing Co. | Munich-Style Helles |
Good luck to all breweries who have beer entered in the competition this year and I look forward to sampling your beers on the convention floor.
