Best U.S. beers in 2015
If you’re looking for a good beer, you might want to go to Maine, the most north-eastern U.S. state. Breweries from that state had a remarkably strong showing at the Great American Beer Festival Awards, winning medals in 21 percent of the categories local brewers entered – the most of any state, the Brewers’ Association announced on 27 September 2015.
Many think that the GABF awards are the gold standard in the beer world. This year, 1,532 breweries entered 6,738 beers, hoping to stand out among their peers. The judging was done by 242 judges from 15 different countries.
While a gold medal is a boost for a brewery, a medal of any sort can help establish a reputation – especially in crowded fields, like American-style IPAs, which this year had 336 entrants.
The GABF awards cover 92 categories, but the IPA is the industry’s most popular style, making up 27.4 percent of the overall craft beer market, according to the Brewers Association.
This year, the Californian brewer BNS Brewing & Distilling Company, which did not even have a booth at the GABF, walked away with the gold medal for its Revolver IPA. Wicked Weed Brewing from Asheville, North Carolina, took the silver medal with its Pernicious IPA, while Strongsville, Ohio-based The Brew Kettle Taproom and Smokehouse captured a bronze medal with its White Rajah.
