European Beer Star 2024: Coveted awards went to 26 countries

Nuremberg | This year's European Beer Star winners were presented with their awards in front of several hundred guests at a festive awards ceremony at BrauBeviale in Nuremberg. The most successful brewery in the European Beer Star 2024 is Firestone Walker from the USA, while the best German brewery in this year's competition is Brauerei Riegele from Augsburg.

A total of 2360 beers from 50 countries took part in the European Beer Star 2024. The submitted beers were tasted and evaluated by an international jury of experts during a two-day blind tasting at the Nuremberg Exhibition Center in mid-September. The expert jury was made up of around 140 master brewers and brewing technologists, trade journalists and beer sommeliers. The beers were judged purely on sensory criteria. Appearance, smell and taste were decisive for the evaluation, as were the typical varietal characteristics of the 75 categories in total. At the end of the two tasting days, the European Beer Star expert jury selected only the best three beers in each category and awarded them gold, silver and bronze.

Germany, USA and Italy top 3 in the medal table

A glance at the medal table clearly shows the high level of internationality at the European Beer Star. This year, the coveted awards went to 26 countries.

Germany is at the top of the medal table. 71 awards, including 27 gold, 20 silver and 24 bronze, went to the German brewing industry. Breweries from the United States follow in second place, winning a total of 32 awards with 13 gold, 10 silver and 9 bronze. 29 awards (7x gold, 9x silver, 13x bronze) were won by breweries from Italy, while a total of 20 awards went to Austria (5x gold, 10x silver, 5x bronze).

The top 5 in the European Beer Star 2024 was completed by the Netherlands with 5 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze awards.

Liechtenstein and Moldova proved that good beer is also brewed in smaller countries with one gold medal each. Ghana and Vietnam made it onto the medal table with one bronze each in their first European Beer Star participation.

Most successful brewery comes from the USA

Winning an award at the European Beer Star is always a sign that the brewery brews an outstanding beer. But time and again, breweries manage to win several awards at once. With three gold and one silver medal, the Firestone Walker Brewing Company, based in Paso Robles, California, USA, is the most successful brewery at the European Beer Star 2024. The title for the most successful German brewery goes to Brauerei S. Riegele in Augsburg with two gold and two silver medals.

Dutch Bierbrouwerij De Koningshoeven, better known under its brand name La Trappe, also won four awards (1x gold, 2x silver, 1x bronze). Another four awards went to Bayreuth to Brauerei Gebr. Maisel (1x gold, 1x silver, 2x bronze). The Ottakringer Brewery from Vienna and the pFriem Family Brewers from Hood River received a complete set of medals. Two gold awards each went to Brauerei Rittmayer in Hallerndorf, Störtebeker Braumanufaktur in Stralsund, Privatbrauerei Hofmühl in Eichstätt and Brauerei Schützengarten in St. Gallen, Switzerland.

From classic-traditional to unusual-creative

The “German-Style Sour Beer” category was introduced to the competition this year. The awards in this category went to China, the Netherlands and Italy. The medals in the “Baltic Porter” category went to the home region of this beer style in Poland and Ukraine.

Gold for the best “German-Style Pilsner” went to Privatbrauerei Zwettl from Austria. Stieglbrauerei zu Salzburg took silver in this category, while pFriem Family Brewers in the US won the bronze medal, leaving the German breweries empty-handed in this category.

However, they were able to impress in other categories. Klosterbrauerei Furth left the competing beers behind in the “German-Style Helles” category. The best “German-Style Dunkel” comes from Eittinger Fischerbräu.