Gruit beer brewery of the year 2025

February 1st 2025 craft beer fans all over the world celebrate 13th International Gruitday. This day was created to celebrate gruit beer, a beer with herbs instead or in addition to hops, according to medieval traditions and recipes. This year for the first time an international jury awarded a gruit beer brewery of the year! It has been a long journey to reach this goal. An international journey of eight judges out of five countries had a close look at the gruit beer activities of the participating “gruiteries” (gruit beer breweries).

All the participating breweries did a great job – and this is the result:

1st place: Brauerei Napf, Switzerland (with 83% of the points available); 2nd place: Octo Microbrewery, Cyprus; 3rd place: Brauerei Kaltenböck, Austria.

Brauerei Napf and its gruit beer

The jury awarded Brauerei Napf because of several points. The idea of Wild Man Gruit is simply gruitiful (gruit + beautiful = gruitiful). Martin Bühler brewed it as a collaboration brew with Bierlab from Zürich. They used a four meters high fir tree to spice their beer, and of course illustrated their activities with a lot of pictures and videos. As a result they got a 7.5% ABV strong beer couloured like a fig tree and also with forrestrial fragrance and taste.

Brauerei Napf was founded by Martin Silvio Bühler in 2005 at Walterswil, close to the swiss capital Bern. Since the brewery opened its doors they began to brew classical beers like lager as well as experimental beers like gruit beers with different kinds of herbs. Currently they offer Rose Gose brewed with rose blossoms and Blowing in the wind sour gruit with chicory and elderflower. Further on Jeremias Napftrunk maybe is the first non-alcoholic gruit beer in the world.