The Great American Beer Festival®Announces the Nation’s Best Beers and Ciders

Denver, Colo. • October 11, 2025— The Brewers Association (BA) revealed the 2025 award-winning beers and ciders at this year’s Great American Beer Festival® (GABF) competition ceremony. Expanding on last year’s introduction of cider categories, the 2025 competition featured a special, one-time-only Vera Hop category.

A total of 273 breweries and cideries took home 347 medals in this year’s Great American Beer Festival competition. Over seven days and three judging phases, 250 expert judges evaluated 8,315 beer and cider entries—including 68 Collaboration and 40 Pro-Am submissions—from breweries spanning all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

“Year after year, the Great American Beer Festival sets the bar for American brewing (and for the second year in a row, cidermaking). The 2025 competition was no exception,” said Chris Williams, competition director for the Brewers Association. “There were extremely strong showings from numerous breweries and cidermakers across the U.S., maximizing the level of competition among the entire competition community. With 347 winners this year, these medals honor the talent, dedication, and creativity of our nation’s brewers and cidermakers. Congratulations to all 2025 GABF medalists! You should be proud to know that you’re taking home one of the most competitive accolades in the world!”

The awards ceremony, live-streamed on The Brewing Network on Saturday, October 11, 2025, was held in the festival hall at the Colorado Convention Center as part of the Great American Beer Festival before Saturday’s session.

View the 2025 winners [PDF]

GABF COMPETITION STATISTICS

• 39th edition of the GABF competition

• 8,315 beers judged

• 1,555 breweries & cideries in the competition from all 50 states plus Washington, D.C.

• 250 judges

• 300 + volunteers

• Average number of beers entered in each category: 71

• Category with the highest number of entries: Category # 107- Juicy/Hazy India Pale Ale (301 entries)

• 347 total medals awarded

• 273 medal-winning breweries and cideries

• 180 first-time GABF competition entrants

• 12 first-time GABF competition winners

• Six cider categories

• 3 new categories: Vera Hop, Mexican-Style Pale Lager, International Amber Lager

TOP 5 MOST-ENTERED BEER STYLE CATEGORY WINNERS

Category 107: Juicy or Hazy India Pale Ale (301 entries)

GOLD: TourBus® Double Dry Hopped Hazy IPA | DESTIHL Brewery | Normal, IL

SILVER: MadeWest Hazy | MadeWest Brewing Co. | Ventura, CA

BRONZE: Cloud Counter | Pollyanna Brewing Co. | Lemont, IL

Category 105: West Coast India Pale Ale (300 entries) – Sponsored by Wyeast

GOLD: How the West Was One: Mosaic | Westbound & Down Brewing Co. | Idaho Springs, CO

SILVER: Coast Molinos | Los Molinos Beer Co. | San Clemente, CA

BRONZE: Cosmic Guava West Coast IPA | pFriem Family Brewers | Hood River, OR

Category 51: Dortmunder or German-Style Oktoberfest (186 entries)

GOLD: Festbier | Glenwood Canyon Brewing Co. | Glenwood Springs, CO

SILVER: Festbier | Northwoods Brewing Co. | Northwood, NH

BRONZE: Penn Oktoberfest | Pennsylvania Brewing Co. | Pittsburgh, PA

Category 47: German-Style Pilsener (184 entries)

GOLD: Helper Beer Schloss Tor | Helper Beer | Helper, UT

SILVER: Tiny Bomb | Wiseacre Brewing Co. - Downtown | Memphis, TN

BRONZE: Second Rodeo | Starr Hill Beer Hall - Richmond | Richmond, VA

Category 45: Hoppy Lager (171 entries)

GOLD: Coral Crush | Alma Mader Brewing | Kansas City, MO

SILVER: Infinity Pils | Westbound & Down Brewing Co. - Westbound Mill | Lafayette, CO

BRONZE: Sound Sail | MadeWest Brewing Co. | Ventura, CA

MOST-ENTERED CIDER CATEGORY WINNERS

Category 203: Fruited Cider (53 entries) – Sponsored by Amoretti

GOLD: Honey Citron | Gowan's Heirloom Cider | Philo, CA

SILVER: Piper's Pineapple | Gatlinburg Brewing Co. | Sevierville, TN

BRONZE: Huckleberry Cosmic Crisp | 2 Towns Ciderhouse | Corvallis, OR

MOST-MEDALED BREWERIES

Fat Head's Brewery | Middleburg Heights, OH

GOLD: Battle Axe (Cat. 19)

GOLD: Goggle Fogger (Cat. 66)

SILVER: Bone Head (Cat. 101)

BRONZE: Hop JuJu (Cat. 103)

BRONZE: Excursion Journeyman (Cat. 16) 

UPP Liquids | Bend, OR

GOLD: Buzz Box (Cat. 13)

GOLD: Moments Made (Cat. 62)

SILVER: UPP Yours (Cat. 4)

SILVER: Flower Child (Cat. 63)

BRONZE: Reduction Ratio (Cat. 91)

Westbound & Down Brewing Co. - Westbound Mill | Lafayette, CO

GOLD: Westbound Italian Pils (Cat. 49)

GOLD: Parallel Pale (Cat. 96)

SILVER: Scenic Route (Cat. 18)

SILVER: Infinity Pils (Cat. 45)

BRONZE: Westbound IPA (Cat. 98) 

COLLABORATION COMPETITION (68 entries) See criteria here.

GOLD: Route 4 Revive-ALE | Municipal Brew Works with Third Eye Brewing Co.

SILVER: La Lumbre | Waredaca Brewing Co. with Mayan Monkey Brewing Co.

BRONZE: Mounds of Importance | Third Eye Brewing Co. with Narrow Path Brewing Co.

PRO-AM COMPETITION (40 entries) See criteria here.

Sponsored by Briess Malt & Ingredients Co. and White Labs

GOLD: Christopher's Bier | Fritz Family Brewers and Christopher Owens

SILVER: Cool Uncle Dunkel | Hidden Wit Brewing Co. and Joel Miller

BRONZE: Battles for Bavaria | San Diego Brewing Co. and Jeffery Battles

*Out of 348 possible awards, 347 were conferred. GOLD was not awarded in Category 75 for American Black Ale or American Stout.

Editor’s note: Photos for media use are available on the GABF website. Members of the media are encouraged to contact brewerspr@backbone.media with any questions.

The 2025 Great American Beer Festival was made possible in part by the generous support of more than 300 volunteers, by its sponsors, and through a partnership with the American Cider Association.

###

About the Great American Beer Festival 

The Great American Beer Festival^® (GABF), hosted annually by the Brewers Association, is the largest beer festival in the United States. GABF offers consumers thousands of beverage samples from producers around the country and countless interactive stops along the way. At the coinciding event PAIRED®, independent craft breweries and acclaimed chefs unite from across the country for an unforgettable beer-and-food-pairing experience. GABF culminates with the Great American Beer Festival Competition, where a professional judge panel awards entered beer and ciders with gold, silver, and bronze medals that are recognized around the world as symbols of brewing excellence.

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 9,500-plus U.S. breweries. The BA’s independent craft brewer seal is a widely adopted symbol differentiating beers from small and independent craft brewers. The BA organizes events, including the World Beer Cup^®, Great American Beer Festival^®, Craft Brewers Conference^™ & BrewExpo America^®,  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^®. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. 

Contact: Rachel Weiss, rachel.weiss@backbone.media

Third-party news items that are posted on the Guild website come from press releases and emails received by the Guild. These are posted as they have been received. Their publication on the Guild website is an informational service only and is neither an endorsement of the content, nor its sender, by the Guild. For enquiries, please use the contact details that can be found at the bottom of each post.