With craft beer breweries starting to implement artificial intelligence (AI), environmentally friendly sustainability techniques, sophisticated brewing equipment, enhanced flavor profiles and recipes, state of the art technologies and concepts, unique ingredients, and so much more the quality and diversity of the industry is only growing exponentially. Now that craft beer is starting to significantly improve in taste, breadth, depth, and creativity it is only making the jobs of brewing award judges more challenging. Now requiring seasoned and experienced pallets, brewing veterans and specialty sampling knowledge craft beer award festivals are becoming more intriguing and fascinating than ever before. Often featuring a vast array of categories, industry celebrities, famous brewers, unique contests, and so much more craft beer award ceremonies are not only worth following but also attending in some of the cases that are live events and open to the public.
Since our goal at Prettech Canada is to create award winning craft beer equipment and engineering strategies for brewers we take pride in the fact that many of our partnerships are responsible for highly rated and reviewed products and services. For those craft beer breweries and businesses that are looking to take their brand and production facilities to the next level to be able to compete with other award winning brewers it is highly advised to have an expert engineering consultant review your current operation for inefficiencies. Now that many breweries are searching for innovative ways to revamp, update and upgrade their products, processes and systems it makes giving out honors and prizes that much more fun and challenging. If you want to stay connected and immersed in the very best that the culture of craft beer has to offer it is wise to keep a pulse on all the biggest influencers in the industry. Let’s take a look at some of the most important craft beer award lists to assure we learn, grow and enjoy from those at the top of the science and art of brewing.
Top Craft Beer Award Ceremony #1: The World Beer Cup Awards Ceremony
The World Beer Cup is one of if not the largest craft beer competition in the world, with over 10,500 entries from around 2,490 breweries representing 57 countries. Entries are evaluated by an elite panel of 226 judges from 28 countries. Historically a biennial event, it was announced that the World Beer Cup competition will move to an annual event beginning in 2023. This is a great event for identifying those that are inspiring, progressing, defending, and innovating within the craft brewing industry.
Top Craft Beer Award Ceremony #2: California Craft Brewers Cup Awards Ceremony
The California Craft Beer Summit closes with the California Craft Brewers Cup Awards Ceremony, which celebrates and spotlights the best of California Craft Beer. Currently, more breweries call California home than any other state in the country and as of July 2021, more than 1,100 craft breweries were in operation across the state which is more than any other place in the nation. With so many industry leaders concentrated in one location it is easy to see why this is one of the premiere craft beer award events of the year.
Top Craft Beer Award Ceremony #3: Canadian Brewing Awards & Conference
The Canadian Brewing Awards is the most respected beer judging competition in Canada, where over 800 breweries compete for medals in 59 categories. The event brings together 500 brewers from craft breweries all across Canada to compete for the praise of industry experts and leaders while testing and showcasing the latest innovations in the brewing industry. At this Awards Gala, the most coveted prize of all, “Brewery of the Year” is given so this is a highly anticipated event with plenty of importance to the craft beer community.
Top Craft Beer Award Ceremony #4: U.S. Open Beer Championship
The U.S. Open Beer Championship is an international craft beer competition which is open to professional breweries and brewers across the world. Over 140 styles of beer are judged and winners receive a medal in the shape of a beer stein for 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place. Beers placed in the top 10 of each category and in the top 10 breweries overall are featured in the media. A Grand National Champion is awarded based on a point system for beers (5 minimum) entered in the competition and award winning and nationally recognized homebrewers are welcome as well. This awards ceremony also supports the Pink Boots Society, a women’s brewer advocacy and education initiative that does a lot of good for the industry making it a win, win event.
Top Craft Beer Award Ceremony #5: GABS Hottest 100 Craft Beer List
The GABS Hottest 100 Craft Beer people’s choice award poll focuses on highlighting consumer trends and the most popular breweries shaping the craft beer landscape. This annual ceremony makes conversations about craft beer the topic of interest and with an average of 30% of the Hottest 100 list switching each year and separate celebrations of new brews and independent brews, it is the largest consumer craft beer award campaign of the year. An Australia and New Zealand focused event this is one to watch for those that want a true taste of top tier international craft beers.
What craft beer would you pick as number one in the world right now?
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