970 beer specialities tasted / Competition grows by 37 percent / 30 beers awarded Platinum / Brauhaus Riegele and Boston Beer Company named Craft Brewers of the Year
With 970 beers from 28 nations, the fourth Meiningers International Craft Beer Award, one of the biggest international beer-tasting events, took place on 3 and 4 May in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse in Germany. The 90-strong jury of experts awarded medals to the best beers.
‘This year we have grown by 37 percent, a development that reflects the reputation and high quality this competition has achieved in four years,’ said Dirk Omlor, President of the Craft Beer Award and editor-in-chief of Meiningers Craft – Magazin für Bierkultur. A total of more than 60 different beer styles including Kellerbier, pale ale, IPA and Weizenbock were sampled. ‘Once again, the quality of the beers submitted has risen,’ said Omlor. ‘The beers really were of ex-cellent quality. And not just from small craft brewers, but also from medium-sized traditional breweries.’ According to Omlor, these medals provide good orientation on the current beer market.
This year saw the Platinum medal, the highest award for superior characteristics, being pre-sented no fewer than 30 times, a total of 19 times to German breweries, followed by three to Switzerland and two to the United States. It was also presented once each to France, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Austria.
The best craft beer nationally and internationally also receives the special distinction of ‘Craft Beer of the Year’, and this year the Vulkan Brewery, from the Eifel region, was named Best German Craft Beer in the competition for its Bourbon Barrel Doppelbock.
Of the international beer specialities, the Grand Prestige Vatgerijpt Cognac, produced by the Hertog Jan Brewery of the Netherlands, was given the highest rating and named International Craft Beer of the Year.
The best overall result, and thus the distinction of National Craft Brewer of the Year, went to Brauhaus Riegele, Augsburg, which received four Platinum, four Gold and nine Silver awards for its submitted beers.
The Boston Beer Company of the United States received two Platinum, eight Gold and one Silver awards for its submitted Samuel Adams craft beers, and was voted International Craft Brewer of the Year by the jury.
The Meiningers International Craft Beer Award was first held in 2014. 250 beers were submit-ted that year. In 2015, the number of submissions more than doubled to 550 beers from all over the world, and 2016 saw a further increase of more than 25 per cent to just under 700 beers. In 2017, there were 970 beers (+37 per cent). This makes Meiningers International Craft Beer Award one of the most important and most highly regarded beer competitions in the world today.
All the results of the Meiningers International Craft Beer Award 2017 are now available at MEININGER ONLINE at www.meininger.de
Information: www.craft-beer-award.com, www.meininger.de/en, www.meiningers-craft.de
About the MEININGER VERLAG:
The publishing company MEININGER VERLAG was established in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse in 1903. One of Germany's oldest specialist publishing companies, it is now being run by the fourth generation of the same family. The company specialises in publications for the wine and beverages industry. In addition to the leading trade publication Weinwirtschaft, the medium-sized publishing company also launched the first craft beer magazine Meiningers Craft – das Magazin für Bierkultur in 2015. The company also organises trade fairs, industry events and conventions.
The Meininger publishing company has successfully made a name for itself internationally with the Grand International Wine Award MUNDUS VINI, which receives around 10,000 wine sub-missions each year. Furthermore, the media company also stages other wine competitions, such as the International Spirits Competition ISW, the Best of Riesling, Meiningers Rotweinpre-is for red wines, and Meiningers Deutscher Sektpreis for sparkling wines.
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