(Denver, CO) – We’ve seen a dramatic shift in the interest in craft beer and the way things appear to be trending with Great American Beer Festival ticket sales, we may even see the first-ever same-day sellout for tickets.

The Brewers Association, a BeerPulse sponsor, says that tickets for the 2007 event sold out the week of the fest while tickets for the 2011 event sold out during the first week of ticket sales. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Thursday.

The Brewers Association also determined that only 21 tickets were sold to non-members during Tuesday’s Ticketmaster problems.

More details below.

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Dear AHA and BA members,

Ticketmaster and the GABF have carefully reviewed purchases for the Saturday afternoon Members-Only session to ensure that tickets were purchased by members and by members only. As described in our previous communications on Facebook and Twitter, we worked to verify unclear membership statuses and to be certain we honor all member purchases.

In the review, we discovered that only a very small quantity of tickets were purchased by non-members. In fact, only 21 tickets were sold to non-members. We have triple-checked purchaser membership statuses and believe this number to be accurate. Those 21 tickets sold to non-members are cancelled and fully refunded. Naturally, we deeply regret the frustration that has been caused by Ticketmaster’s technical issues with the member pre-sale, yet this review does show that nearly all tickets were, in fact, sold to members.

These 21 tickets for the Saturday Members-Only session will be released for sale to AHA and BA members at 9:00 a.m. Mountain time (11:00 a.m. Eastern; 10:00 a.m. Central; 8:00 a.m. Pacific) on Thursday, August 2. This is one hour before the public ticket sale opens. We expect this tiny quantity of Saturday Members-Only session tickets to sell nearly instantly.

Tickets will be available on Ticketmaster.com

Did the Members-Only session really sell out that fast?
Many of our members have expressed surprise about the quick pace of sell-out for the Saturday Members-Only session this year. Yes, that was fast! Simply put, demand for tickets from our 32,000+ AHA members and 2,000+ Brewers Association members outstrips supply.

At the same time, the pace of ticket sales has taken off. In 2007, the festival sold out the week of the event, while the 2011 event sold out in only one week. And here we are in 2012, with a blazing fast Members-Only session sell-out.

As always, we appreciate your support of the GABF!