Photo by Jon Grant

Once again, the D.C. area proved that it can foster good craft breweries as a handful of local ones scored big at this year’s Great American Beer Festival.

First, a little bit about the annual festival, which is the crème de la crème of beer festivals. More than 5,000 different beers from 1,309 different American breweries were entered into the competition this year. They were entered into 90 different categories to compete for gold, silver, or bronze medals in each category.

The biggest local winner of this year’s festival was the Devils Backbone Brewing Co. in Lexington, Va., (which isn’t exactly local, but they did really well, so kudos) who took home the prestigious gold medal as the “Mid-Size Brewing Company and Mid-Size Brewing Company Brewer of the Year.” Here’s how other local breweries fared:

DC Brau

DC Brau’s Citizen won the Silver Medal in the Belgian-and-French-Style Ale, the second GABF medal they’ve taken home thus far (last one was in 2012).

Gordon Biersch (Rockville location)

The Gordon Biersch in Rockville took home a Silver Medal in the American-Belgian-Style Ale category for their Belgian IPA. Way, to go Gordon Biersch in Rockville!

Capitol City Brewing Company

In the American-Style Amber/Red Ale Category, Virginia’s Capitol City Brewing Company took home the Silver Medal for their Amber Waves Ale.

Devils Backbone Brewing Company

Also took home the Silver Medal in the American-Style Dark Lager category for their Old Virginia Dark, the Silver in the Bock category for their Turbo Cougar, the Bronze in the German-Style Altbier category for their Alt Bier, and the Gold in the German-Style Schwarzbier category for their Schwartz Bier. Damn, Devils Backbone