Winners from around the globe take honors at 2016 World Beer Cup

The Brewers Association (BA) announced the results of one of the largest commercial beer competitions to date, the 2016 World Beer Cup. The awards were presented at the conclusion of Craft Brewers Conference & BrewExpo America® in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

This edition of the World Beer Cup saw 6596 beers from 1907 breweries representing 55 countries – a 38.5 percent increase in the number of entries from the 2014 World Beer Cup, which had 4754 entries.

Entries were judged by an elite international panel of 253 judges from 31 countries. Judges awarded 287 out of 288 total possible awards, reflecting the chance for one gold, one silver and one bronze award in each of 96 beer style categories. A gold award was not presented in the Fresh or Wet Hop Ale category.

The average number of beers entered per category was 69, the category with the most entries was American-Style India Pale Ale with 275 entries. The 287 awards were won by 253 breweries, with few breweries earning more than one award.

The competition also bestows Champion Brewery and Champion Brewmaster awards in each of six brewery categories based on the awards won by each brewery.

The Brewers Association introduced the World Beer Cup competition in 1996 to celebrate the art and science of brewing by recognizing outstanding achievement. The 2016 World Beer Cup is made possible by the generous support of sponsors including Presenting Sponsor Krones, and Partner Sponsors Ball Corporation, Barth-Haas Group, First Key Consulting Inc., MicroStar Logistics, SAHM GmbH + Co. KG, and Siemens.

The complete list of award winners is available for download from www.worldbeercup.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/WBC-winners-2016.pdf.