Appalachia breweries win GABF medals

It wasn’t a great year for Appalachia’s small breweries at this year’s Great American Beer Festival (GABF) competition. Breweries in our region took home only eight medals. Even though this was the largest beer competition ever, I suspect that we may have had fewer entries this year from our region’s breweries. As in recent years, North Carolina breweries did very well and ones in that state’s Appalachian region secured five of the eight medals going to Appalachian region breweries.

This year, judging took place in 34 sessions over 17 days. A total of 170 judges evaluated a record 9,680 entries from 2,192 breweries from all 50 states plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. No West Virginia brewery has ever won a GABF medal. This was the 35th year for the competition.

Here are the beer winners from Appalachia

StillFire Brewing, Suwanee, GA 
Bronze • Scotch Ale
Kilt Chamberlain Scotch Ale

New Belgium Brewing, Asheville, NC
Gold • Belgian Style Abbey Ale
Trippel

Hi-Wire Brewing-South Slope Specialty Brewery, Asheville, NC
Gold • Experimental Beer
Japanese Dry Rice Lager

Wicked Weed Brewing, Asheville, NC
Silver • Imperial India Pale Ale
Freak of Nature Double IPA

Wise Man Brewing, Winston-Salem, NC
Gold • Irish Style Red Ale
Outraged Daughters

Green Man Brewery, Asheville, NC
Bronze • Robust Porter
Green Man Porter

Cinderlands Brewing, Pittsburgh, PA
Gold • Brett Beer
Gregg

Naked River Brewing, Chattanooga, TN
Silver • American-Style Brown Ale
Docks Brown Ale

The Great American Beer Festival is conducted annually by the Brewers Association, which is the trade association representing the nation’s small and independent breweries. This year in the largest competition to date, the Brewers Association awarded 290 medals to 265 breweries across the country. The best beers in 97 beer categories covering 175 different beer styles (including subcategories) were awarded gold, silver, and bronze medals. Unlike in many other competitions where multiple gold, silver and bronze medals are given out in each category, GABF awards only one gold, silver and bronze medal per style category, making medals won in it much more prestigious.

A complete list of 2021 GABF winners can be found at this link.