European Beer Star 2025: Winners announced

Germany | The European Beer Star has been organized by the Association Private Brauereien since 2004 and has long since become one of the most important beer competitions in the world. At this year's edition, an international jury of experts selected the best representatives in a total of 74 categories from 2202 beers submitted. The winners were announced on Wednesday, 17 September 2025, during drinktec in Munich.

This year, brewers from 22 countries participated. With 71 awards, German breweries clearly topped the medal table, winning 22 gold, 24 silver, and 25 bronze medals. Italy follows in second place with a total of 37 medals (9x gold, 13x silver, 15x bronze) and Austria in third with 14 medals (7x gold, 4x silver, 3x bronze). The United States took fourth place with a total of 19 awards, followed by Poland in fifth with 9 awards.

“The diversity and quality of the beers submitted was once again impressive this year,” said Kilian Kittl, Managing Director of the organizer Private Brauereien Bayern and Competition Director of the European Beer Star.

Most successful brewery from Italy

The title of the most successful brewery in this year's competition goes to 50&50 from Varese, Italy. With two gold, one silver, and two bronze medals, it tops the ranking of participating breweries. It is closely followed by MC77 Birrificio Artigianale from Serrapetrona, Italy, which also takes home five awards (1x gold, 1x silver, and 3x bronze).

Hirschbrauerei Honer from Germany will have to make more room in its already well-stocked trophy cabinet: four new gold medals, including one for the best South German-Style Hefeweizen Hell, are going to Wurmlingen. Private Landbrauerei Schönram also has four awards to celebrate, winning in particular the highly competitive German-Style Pilsner category. Another four awards go to the Ottakringer Brewery in the Austrian capital Vienna. The Polish brewery Trzech Kumpli and Brewine Leopoldina from Brazil also received four awards each.

The Peruvian brewery Cerveza 7 Vidas took everyone by surprise by winning three awards from a standing start. A complete set of medals each goes to Brauerei Hirt in Austria, to Giustospirito in Italy and Mova Brewing Company in Ukraine.

Surprises and repeated winners

Brauerei Wagner in Germany can celebrate winning the award for best German-Style Helles. The Franconian brewery took gold in one of the most competitive categories of the competition. Silver in this category goes to the German Privatbrauerei Hofmann, while bronze goes to Schwarzbräu in Zusmarshausen, another German brewer.

But it wasn't just traditional German beer styles that were tasted at the European Beer Star. In the Belgian categories, including Strong Ales, Dubbel, Tripel, and the Geuze typical of this region, breweries from Belgium and the Netherlands naturally dominated. Geist Brewing Co. from Bangalore provided another surprise with its gold medal in the South German-Style Hefeweizen Dunkel category.

In the competition's four non-alcoholic categories, awards went to breweries in Germany, Poland, and the Netherlands. In the Non-Alcoholic Hefeweizen category, Brauerei Gebr. Maisel can now be considered a benchmark after its successes in recent years. Once again, a gold medal in this category goes to Bayreuth.

Awards for mixed beer drinks presented for the first time

For the first time, the competition also sought to find the Beer Mix Champion in the categories of alcoholic and non-alcoholic mixed beer drinks. The expert jury of the European Beer Star awarded gold, silver, and bronze in the Beer Mix Beverage category to Hirschbrauerei Honer, Lammbrauerei Hilsenbeck, and Ottakringer Brauerei for their products. The awards for the best non-alcoholic beer mixes in the competition once again went to Ottakringer Brauerei, Ittinger Bier, and Spaten-Franziskaner-Bräu.

“Mixed beer drinks are highly popular, and not just in the hot summer months. By awarding the Beer Mix Champion, we want to let consumers know which mixed beer drinks have been approved for their quality by an independent jury of experts,” says Kilian Kittl.

Future Award awards efficient use of water as a raw material

Since 2022, the Association Private Brauereien has been presenting the Future Award as part of the European Beer Star, which honors breweries that manage to combine sustainable corporate management with outstanding product quality. This year, the focus of the evaluations was on the efficient use of water as a raw material.

The expert jury of the Future Award 2025 was particularly impressed by Jopen Brewery, which ensures that its future activities are sustainable in accordance with the United Nations' sustainability goals from a supply chain perspective. The Dutch brewery's success factors are based on scientific and technical progress, research and innovation, as well as cooperation and partnerships.

These success factors are evident in the brewery's water conservation projects. For example, by using a reverse osmosis system to utilize seawater for beer production, the Jopen brewery has not only created an alternative water source. In addition, AI based data generation contributes to process optimization in order to reduce the brewery's water consumption and wastewater flow. Further research projects on a closed wastewater treatment plant and the use of rainwater in the brewery round off the brewery's measures in this area.

The complete winners’ list of the European Beer Star 2025 can be found on european-beer-star.com.