The Cincinnati brewery scene is now full of a bunch more hardware in the form of beer competition medals, as a whole host of breweries from the area picked up medals at the Great American Beer Festival and US Open Beer Championships last week.
GABF and the US Open are two of the three biggest beer competitions, in addition to the World Beer Cup.
At GABF, College Hill’s Brink Brewing won gold in the Honey Beer category for Father G’s Bees, a gluten-reduced honey brown ale with honey from Sain Clare Parish’s Father George. This is the seventh GABF medal for Brink, as they won three each for Hold the Reins English Mild and Moozie Milk Stout. The brewery also won the Very Small Brewery of the Year in 2018 and 2019 and the Very Small Brewmaster of the Year in 2018.
Sharonville’s Third Eye Brewing also won gold in the Sweet Stout or Cream Stout category for Higher Purpose, a beer that supports the Live Like Maya Foundation. Third Eye brewer Kelly Montgomery won multiple GABF medals with Brink before moving to Third Eye last year. This is the first GABF medal for Third Eye.
Mason’s Sonder Brewing also won a bronze medal in the Wood- and Barrel-Aged Sour Beer category for French 75, a wild ale aged in gin barrels and conditioned on lemon zest and juniper berries. This is the first GABF medal for Sonder.
At the 2021 US Open, a whole host of Cincinnati breweries won medals. In all, 19 breweries won a total of 43 medals for the Cincinnati area. Big winners included Fretboard, which won the #9 Best Overall Brewery in addition to three golds, and Common, which won four total medals. The state of Ohio won 60 overall medals.
Here’s a full list of the medals from Cincinnati breweries at the 2021 U.S. Open Beer Championship:
Big Ash
Belgian Quadrupel – Fat Chants (bronze)
Honey Beer – Vanilla Cream Ale (gold)
Braxton
New England/Juicy IPA – Tropic Flare (bronze)
Imperial Stout Specialty – Cafre de Olla (bronze)
Brink
English Mild Ale – Hold the Reins (gold)
Cartridge
Muchner Helles, Light – Up the Hill (silver)
Smoked/Rauch Beer – Smoke Stack (gold)
Tea Beer – Hollowpoint (bronze)
Common
Barleywine Specialty – MysteRye – collab with Narrow Path (gold)
Schwarzbier – Dark Cloud (silver)
Bock – Bock-A-Fella (silver)
Honey Beer – Maggs 59 (bronze)
Esoteric
Belgian Dubbel – Virtue (bronze)
FigLeaf
American Imperial Stout – Black Solstice (gold)
Fretboard
#9 Best Overall Brewery
Brut IPA – Bootsy (gold)
Belgian Pale Ale – Crazy Train (gold)
International Style Pilsner – Vlad (gold)
Grainworks
Specialty Pale Ale – Rebel Yell (bronze)
Scottish Ale – Scottish MISTS (silver)
Specialty Aged Beer – BBA Old Motor Oil – 2018 (silver)
HighGrain
Altbier – Marketplace (silver)
Belgian-Style Specialty Strong Ale – Oost (silver)
Barrel-Aged – Boost (silver)
Listermann
#2 Favorite Beer Name – I Hated Listermann Before It Was Cool
Imperial Stout Extreme (12.5%) – I Hated Listermann Before It Was Cool (bronze)
India Pale Lager (IPL) – Iceman Cometh (gold)
MPH
#10 Favorite Beer Name – Bitchin Kitchin IPA
Municipal
English Summer Ale – Approachable Blonde (silver)
Coffee Beer – True West (bronze)
Narrow Path
Marzen/Oktoberfest – Lovetoberfest (bronze)
Barrel-Aged Scotch Ale – BA Panic (bronze)
Specialty Aged Beer – Gentle Giant (bronze)
Northern Row
Marzen/Oktoberfest – Brewer (silver)
Rhinegiest
English Mild Ale – Uncle (bronze)
German Kolsch – Shuffle (bronze)
Bohemian Pilsner – Saaz Who? (gold)
Samuel Adams
Spirits/Non-Whiskey Barrel-Aged Beer – Stoutopias (silver)
Sonder
Barrel Aged Strong Beer – Double Oaked Illuminati (silver)
Barrel Aged Fruit Beer – Black Forest Cake Otto (bronze)
Spirits/Non-Whiskey Barrel-Aged Beer – French 75 (gold)
Third Eye
Cream Stout – Higher Purpose (gold)
Strong Scottish Ale – Higher Consciousness (gold)
Urban Artifact
Sour/Belgian Lambic – Fire Iron (bronze)
Gose – Harrow (silver)
Cucumber Beer – Hotel Water (silver)
In a crazy feat, the state of Ohio swept the medal stand in two separate categories: the Strong Scottish Ale category, with Third Eye winning gold, Missing Falls winning silver, and Zaftig winning bronze; and the Honey Beer category, with Big Ash taking gold, Muskellunge taking silver, and Common taking bronze.
You can order beers from medal-winning breweries like Fretboard, Sonder, and Urban Artifact from RivalryBrews.com. Use code “MMAMcKinney” for 10% off your order.