The medal count, with a publisher
The Great American Beer Festival awarded 336 medals to 243 breweries and cideries in 2026. The festival's own site carries that line. The Bay Area Brewers Guild read the same list on 13 October 2026 and published its own totals.
Twelve Guild members took 20 medals. Two won Brewery of the Year in their production bands. Morgan Territory Brewing won among breweries producing 2,001 to 5,000 barrels. Fieldwork Brewing Company won among breweries producing 5,001 to 15,000 barrels.
The Guild sets its territory at about 3 percent of the United States population and its members at about 8 percent of the 2026 medals. Eight breweries took Brewery of the Year honours across the volume bands. Two of the eight are Guild members. The Guild puts the competition's entry list at 1,300 breweries.
Gold medals carry names a hotel bar can pour. Morgan Territory won for Fire Exit in chili beer and Raven's Home in imperial stout. Fieldwork won for Day Money in specialty non-alcohol beer. Barebottle won for Power Plants in imperial IPA. Bartlett Hall won for Powell Street Porter in robust porter. Discretion Brewing won for Uncle Dave's IPA in English-style ESB or IPA.
Ten days, counted
SF Beer Week is a production of the Bay Area Brewers Guild. The 2026 edition ran 20 February to 1 March, ten days across two weekends. The activities page carried 332 listings on 17 October 2026. Of those, 313 had one date and one start time. The other 19 were open-ended promotions with a date range and no clock.
Those listings named 128 venues. The region split was 115 San Francisco, 115 East Bay, 40 North Bay, 33 Silicon Valley and 28 Coast. One card carried no region. Feature cards came to 23.
The load by date ran 28, 44, 32, 17, 21, 30, 34, 34, 49 and 24. The two Saturdays carried 93 listings between them. The four weekdays from 23 to 26 February carried 102. Monday 23 February carried 17.
Start times sit in daylight. Of the 313 dated listings, 118 begin between noon and 2:59pm, 94 between 3pm and 5:59pm, 55 between 6pm and 8:59pm and 45 before noon. One begins at 10pm.
The Fest ran at Salesforce Park on Saturday 21 February. The park holds 5.4 acres and admits the public at no charge. Beer service required a ticket and 21-and-over attendance. The event moved indoors at the same venue in bad weather. The Guild published no ticket price and no attendance figure for it.
The room-night case
A hotel room night in San Francisco drives about $900 in citywide spending, according to the Oxford Economics study AHLA and CHLA released on 25 June 2026. The same study put hotel economic impact above $12 billion for 2025. Those figures give a hotel a reason to attach its own marketing to a ten-day window that fills licensed premises across five regions.
The published rules decide what a hotel can do. Only licensed parties may submit a listing. An independent craft brewery has to sit at the centre of it. California Alcoholic Beverage Control rules apply. The eligible parties are bars, restaurants and breweries. A hotel without a licensed bar can still point guests at the day guides.
Cost is published. Additional listings cost $50 each. The 2026 host packages ran $200 to $1,500, with lower prices before 23 January. Submissions closed at end of day Wednesday 18 February 2026.
The rate ladder into March
Engine's San Francisco rate page puts the city at $165 a night across 3.1 million public rate observations from May 2024 to April 2026. February sits at $166, or 1 percent above that average. March sits at $197, the highest month in the ladder and 19 percent above the average. The page defines its figures as par rates, the cheapest public price at the time of each search.
SF Beer Week's ten days fall in February. GDC Festival of Gaming opens at Moscone Center on 1 March 2027. The window closes on 1 March. March is the ladder's top month.
What 2027 publishes today
No dates. On 17 October 2026 the home page carried a 2026 date line and a thank-you line for the 2026 edition. The FAQ, hosting, fest and activities pages returned no occurrence of the year 2027. The 2027 dates are unpublished.
The calendar arithmetic is available. 20 February 2027 is a Saturday. 1 March 2027 is a Monday. A ten-day window on the 2026 pattern would run 20 February to 1 March 2027 and hold nine nights, all but the last in February. GDC opens that Monday morning at Moscone.
A marketing calendar a hotel can run
Put the ten-day window in the 2027 rate calendar as a soft block. Re-price when the Guild publishes dates.
Publish a listing in the first week of January. The 2026 submissions closed at end of day Wednesday 18 February, and the Guild processes each listing for up to a week.
Build the guest-facing page around the day guides. Each guide carries one date, and the dated listings concentrate between noon and 6pm.
Staff to the two Saturdays. They carried 93 of the 313 dated listings in 2026.
Keep the claims to the published record. The Guild has no attendance figure for the week or the Fest. There is no single ticket. The 2027 dates are unpublished.