Wow, Great American Beer Festival sells out in 45 minutes

To try and get an idea of just how popular craft beer has become, one need look no further than the Great American Beer Festival. The 2012 event takes place Oct. 11-13 in Denver and is one of the largest beer festivals in the U.S. Tickets went on sale Thursday, Aug. 2., and sold out in 45 minutes - all 49,000 of them. Even with that, some are saying it sold out much faster and scalpers are to blame, which obviously would be lame. Last year, tickets sold out in seven days, and five years ago they didn’t sell out until the week of the festival.

If you were lucky enough to have gotten a ticket, be sure to give some love to the Montana breweries who are signed up to take part: Carter’s Brewing, Überbrew, Montana Brewing Company, Great Northern Brewing Company, Lewis & Clark Brewing Company, Kettlehouse Brewing Company, Quarry Brewing LLC and Red Lodge Ales Brewing Company.

- Matt Pritchard