Winners Announced of Fourth Annual New York State Craft Beer Competition and Governor's Craft Beer Cup

36 Awards Presented by New York State Brewers Association in Virtual Awards Ceremony

Rochester, NY  - The New York State Brewers Association (NYSBA) announced the winners of its fourth annual New York State Craft Beer Competition. The awards ceremony took place virtually on Thursday, May 7 at 7:00 p.m. with over 130 breweries in attendance. It was also live streamed on Facebook and YouTube to an additional 350+ viewers.

Thirty-six awards were presented across 12 categories and the best of show award. The Governor's Craft Beer Cup given to the best of show beer was awarded to Big aLICe Brewing Co. for The Many Lives of Our Lives in the Fruit and Spice Beer - sour category. This beer also took gold in the NYS Ingredient Award category, sponsored by NY Hop Guild, which recognizes a beer that uses NYS hops and all other ingredients at the current 60% standard. 135 entries in the competition met this threshold.

"While we cannot celebrate together in person, we still wanted to honor the high-quality beers coming out of New York State," said Paul Leone, executive director of the New York State Brewers Association. "The virtual ceremony allowed us to not only connect with breweries across the state but also consumers, who normally don't get to see the awards being announced. We hope it will further encourage consumers to support these and other New York State breweries."

Winners of the 2020 New York State Craft Beer Competition are:

Category 1: American DIPA

  • Gold: Spider Bite Beer Co. - Open Wide EXP
  • Silver: Middle Ages Brewing - Late Knight IPA
  • Bronze: Brown's Brewing Company - Intonation

Category 2: American IPA

  • Gold: Industrial Arts Brewing - Power Tools
  • Silver: Frog Alley Brewing - Re4resh IPA
  • Bronze: Interboro Spirits and Ales - Premiere

Category 3: American IPA Variations

  • Gold: Prison City Pub & Brewery - Elegant Pride
  • Silver: 42 North Brewing - White Oak Borderland
  • Bronze: Mad Jack Brewing Co. - Stomping Grounds IPL

Category 4: Fruit and Spice Beer - sour

  • Gold: Big aLICe Brewing Co. - The Many Lives of Our Lives
  • Silver: Grimm Artisanal Ales - Boysen Rebus
  • Bronze: K2 Brothers Brewing - Blue Razz Sour

Category 5: Fruit and Spice Beer - non-sour

  • Gold: Lake Placid Pub & Brewery - Salted Caramel Waffle Beer
  • Silver: West Kill Brewing - Saphouse
  • Bronze: Lunkenheimer Craft Brewing Co. - Elderberry Kolsch

Category 6: Hazy IPA

  • Gold: Thin Man Brewery - Trial By Wombat
  • Silver: Threes Brewing - Dare To Know
  • Bronze: Great South Bay Brewery - Holographic Haze

Category 7: Hazy Pale Ale

  • Gold: Unified Beerworks - Right Time and Place
  • Silver: Five Boroughs Brewing Co. - Tiny Juicy IPA
  • Bronze: ONCO Fermentations - Richard, or is it Dick?

Category 8: Kettle and Simple Sours

  • Gold: Brooklyn Brewery - Bel Air
  • Silver: No silver medal awarded
  • Bronze: Clemson Bros Brewery - M-Town Haze

Category 9: Pale Ale

  • Gold: Lunkenheimer Craft Brewing Co. - Exit 40 Pale Ale
  • Silver: Twisted Rail Brewing Company - Ale Aboard Pale Ale
  • Bronze: Mill House Brewing Company - Pk Pale

Category 10: Wheat Beer (American, Wit, Hefe)

  • Gold: Drowned Lands - Gather House
  • Silver: Brewery Ommegang - Witte
  • Bronze: Transmitter Brewing - W8 Belgin Wit

Category 11: NYS Ingredient Beer (at the current 60% threshold)

  • Gold: Big aLICe Brewing Co. - The Many Lives of Our Lives
  • Silver: Lunkenheimer Craft Brewing Co. - Exit 40 Pale Ale
  • Bronze: Eli Fish Brewing - Champagne Guapi: Red, Fidens Brewing Company - Necessary Means for a Necessary Means

Category 12: NYS Collaboration Beer

  • Gold: Mad Jack Brewing Co. in collaboration with CH Evans Brewing - Stomping Grounds IPL
  • Silver: Kings Court Brewing in collaboration with Torch and Crown Brewing Co. - Taconic Mist Hazy Pale Ale
  • Bronze: No bronze medal awarded

Governor's Craft Beer Cup

  • Winner: Big aLICe Brewing Co. - The Many Lives of Our Lives

Judging for the 12 categories and special award took place on Saturday, March 14, 2020 in Rochester, N.Y. with the help of Raise a Glass Foundation, an organization with expertise in coordinating beverage competitions of the highest caliber. Due to the limit of group gatherings prior to the NYS On Pause order, only half of the Competition's 25 beer style categories could be judged. Entries were blind judged by a panel of respected and influential individuals in the New York beer industry based on pre-established criteria and using a custom scoring sheet developed by NYSBA. The top three finishers in each of the beer style categories received gold, silver and bronze medals.

The 2020 New York State Craft Beer Competition is sponsored by 1886 Malt House, a New York based ingredient supplier and the awards ceremony was presented by Marathon Energy, a privately held energy supply company.

For additional information about the Competition, visit: https://newyorkcraftbeer.com/2020-competition/.

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About New York State Brewers Association:

Founded in 2003, New York State Brewers Association (NYSBA) promotes, protects and educates about the culture and business of New York State breweries. Their goal is to defend the vital interests of the New York State brewing industry while encouraging the consumption of fresh, local beer across the Empire State. With over 400 breweries, it's easy to Think NY, Drink NY. More information is available at https://newyorkcraftbeer.com/.

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