Thursday at 5:30 marked the beginning of the 25th Great American Beer Festival and my 14th festival in 15 years.

The entrance to the hall this year featured five endcaps each with five years worth of photographic memories from the previous 25 years of GABF. The brewers and media entrance was greeted by a bigger-than-life-size photo of me and Greg Koch from Stone Brewing. Apparently we were the face of 1997-2001. It was a little disconcerting seeing myself so large every time I entered the festival and I didn’t know my chins could get that big, but it was also very flattering and pretty cool.

Rich Norgrove of Bear Republic Brewing in Healdsburg, California. Rich won a bronze medal for Peter Brown Tribute Ale in the Brown Porter category, another Bronze for XP Pale Ale in the American-Style Pale Ale category, a Silver for Racer 5 in the American-Style Strong Pale Ale category, another Silver for Apex Ale in the American-Style India Pale Ale category, and most importantly Rich was named Small Brewery Company and Small Brewing Company Brewer of the Year, a well-deserved honor. Congratulations, Rich!

For many more photos from Thursday Night at GABF, visit the photo gallery.