The Brewers Association’s Export Development Program (EDP) is pleased to announce the success of American craft brewers in two prestigious European beer competitions – the Brussels Beer Challenge and European Beer Star.
European brewers are steeped in brewing history and tradition but American craft brewers are now competing alongside them and finding success. Winning medals in European beer competitions is testimony to American craft brewers’ innovation in beer flavour and excellence in brewing classical beer styles. Results were as follows:
Brussels Beer Challenge
The Brussels Beer Challenge is an annual international beer competition that aims to promote the beer industry in a market that is not only a benchmark for beer, but also home to connoisseurs.
This year was the ninth iteration of the competition with 1,546 beers judged by 38 internationally renowned predominantly Belgium beer experts from 26th October – 6th November in Brussels. Participating beers were subdivided into categories based on origin, typology, and style, and then tasted.
Congratulations to the American craft brewers who were awarded with 31 awards in total: nine gold, 12 silver and 10 bronze including Reuben’s Brews Crikey IPA which was voted ‘Best North American Beer of the Competition’.
Adam Robbings, co-founder of Reuben’s Brews from Seattle, California, adds: “Independent expert reviews is a key way of assessing the quality of our beer and winning medals shows that technically we are on the right track. It’s a great way of providing feedback to our brewers too! We view Brussels Beer Challenge and European Beer Stars as important international competitions to do well in and winning a medal in Europe is particularly sweet!”
European Beer Star
One of the most recognized beer competitions in the world, the European Beer Star took place for the 17th occasion in October 2020 and is committed to the traditional European art of brewing. It recognizes high quality, authentic beers that are genuine and distinctive, and is limited to beer categories that originate in Europe.
Despite the pandemic, the 2020 competition welcomed 2,036 entrants from 42 countries of which 208 beers were from the United States. Judging took place at the Doemens Brewing Academy, Munich and the awards ceremony was held digitally. Medal winners came from 28 different countries. Congratulations to the American craft breweries who won 22 medals in total including 11 gold, five silver and six bronze.
Lotte Peplow, American craft beer ambassador for Europe for the Brewers Association, comments: “American craft beer is renowned the world over for its full-flavour, style-diversity and ground-breaking innovation. Excelling at international beer competitions such as Brussels Beer Challenge and European Beer Star is testimony to its enduring success and we are delighted to see American craft beer gaining high accolades in this most challenging of years.”
Congratulations to all the award-winning breweries listed here
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About the Brewers Association
The Brewers Association (BA) is the not-for-profit trade association dedicated to small and independent American brewers, their beers and the community of brewing enthusiasts. The BA represents 5,500-plus U.S. breweries. The BA’s independent craft brewer seal is a widely adopted symbol that differentiates beers by small and independent craft brewers. The BA organizes events including the World Beer Cup®, Great American Beer Festival®, Craft Brewers Conference® & BrewExpo America®, SAVOR™: An American Craft Beer & Food Experience, Homebrew ConTM, National Homebrew Competition and American Craft Beer Week®. The BA publishes The New Brewer® magazine, and Brewers Publications® is the leading publisher of brewing literature in the U.S. Beer lovers are invited to learn more about the dynamic world of craft beer at CraftBeer.com® and about homebrewing via the BA’s American Homebrewers Association® and the free Brew Guru® mobile app. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Issued on behalf of the Brewers Association, 1327 Spruce Street, Boulder, Colorado, 80302 USA. www.brewersassociation.org
For further press information: Lotte Peplow : lotte@brewersassociation.org on +44 (0)7973 698 414