Four Cincinnati breweries win at World Beer Cup

MadTree won two World Beer Cup medals | photo via Ohio Craft Beer

Four Cincinnati breweries took home medals at the World Beer Cup, as winners were announced in Minneapolis last night.

Among the winners were MadTree, Big Ash, Fretboard, and Narrow Path. MadTree was the biggest winner of the bunch, taking home a pair of medals while the other three had one win each. The only other Ohio brewery to win multiple medals was Columbus Brewing Company.

Originally known for pale ales, Oakley’s MadTree won medals in two separate lager categories. Ziegler, their Oktoberfest festbier, took home gold in the American-style Amber Lager category. Legendary Lager, their year-round light lager, took home silver in Contemporary American-Style Lager. These are the first World Beer Cup medals for MadTree, and appear to be their first major medals for lager beers.

Big Ash won a silver medal in the International Dark Lager Category for Porter’s Porter, their year-round Baltic porter. Porter’s Porter also won gold at the 2020 US Open Beer Championship, and this is the first WBC medal for Big Ash.

Fretboard won a silver for Crazy Train in Belgian-Style Ale or French-Style Ale. Crazy Train already has a bunch of hardware to its name, including gold at the US Open Beer Championship in 2019, 2020, and 2021, and gold at Great American Beer Festival in 2020.

And Narrow Path won a bronze medal for Restless Seas, a traditional gose, in the German-Style Sour Ale category. This is the first World Beer Cup medal for Narrow Path, but they’ve been racking up all kinds of medals at different awards shows for varied styles, including porter, barrel-aged, and even Belgian beers.

A total of 13 breweries from Ohio won medals at the World Beer Cup, including Wolf’s Ridge’s Daybreak winning gold at World Beer Cup for the first time in the coffee beer category. The beer has won three Great American Beer Festival medals.