Brew York: New York Breweries Win Six Medals at GABF
- October 17, 2024
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- Allen Wallace
New York breweries win six medals at Great American Beer Festival
New York State Brewers Association Executive Director Paul Leone poses on stage with Brewers Association CEO and President Bob Pease during this year’s GABF award ceremony on Saturday (Photo © Brewers Association)
Six New York state breweries, including one in New York City, took home medals at this year’s Great American Beer Festival in Denver last weekend. Strangebird Brewery, Heritage Hill Brewhouse, New York Beer Project, Hudson Valley Brewery, Soul Brewing Co., and Brooklyn Brewery all scored wins in the 38th annual edition of the competition, which featured nearly 9,000 beers from breweries in all 50 states, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico in 102 categories. This matched New York’s strong showing at the festival last year, when the state’s breweries also took home six medals.
Of note, three of the six winning breweries were first-time GABF winners, and one of the winning breweries hasn’t won a medal in more than a decade.
Strangebird Brewery won bronze in the American Fruit Beer category for their Bird Light Yuzu. They competed among 108 entries. It’s the first GABF medal for the Rochester-based brewery that opened back in 2021, and it will hang next to their World Beer Cup bronze from earlier this year and their 2022 Brewery of the Year award at the New York Beer Competition.
Heritage Hill Brewhouse in Pompey, southeast of Syracuse, won silver for their Coconut Cluster in the Dessert Stout or Pastry Stout category, among 50 entries. It’s the second GABF medal for Heritage Hill (their first came in 2019), and it’s the third medal for this particular beer this year — it also won gold in the Pastry Stout category at the New York State Beer Competition this year, and in the same contest was awarded Best New York Farm Beer.
New York Beer Project’s Beer Lodge in Orchard Park won gold in the Experimental India Pale Ale category for their Hazy Crush. The category had 86 entries. It’s the second medal for New York Beer Project, which has multiple locations across two states, and the second year in a row one of their breweries has medaled.
Winning a medal in the Fruited American Sour Ale category was Hudson Valley Brewery in Beacon, who won gold for their Peach Silhouette among 165 entries. It’s the first medal for the acclaimed farm brewery that specializes in sours, which has been brewing beer since 2017.
The state’s biggest win came in the form of a gold medal in the German-Style Maerzen category, the fifth most competitive category in the festival, with 195 entries. Soul Brewing Co.’s Pleasantbräu Oktoberfest was awarded gold. It’s the first medal for the Westchester County brewery (located, not surprisingly, in Pleasantville) since they opened in March of 2020.
Finally, Brooklyn Brewery won a bronze medal in the Specialty Non-Alcohol Beer category for its Special Effects Grapefruit IPA, among 37 entries. It’s the state’s first win in a non-alcoholic beer category, Brooklyn’s first GABF medal since 2013, and Brooklyn’s 12th GABF medal overall.
Great American Beer Festival will return next year, October 9th through 11th in Denver.