Record Setting Haul for Ohio Breweries at the 2023 Great American Beer Festival

Anyone who follows this blog will know that I’ve been remiss at writing new material of late, but Ohio’s strong showing at the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) this past weekend inspired me to get off my ass and write a new post. The GABF is essentially the beer industry’s equivalent of the Oscars or the Grammys. A medal, especially in one of the big categories, is a big deal. This year a total of 9298 beers were entered and judged in one of 99 beer categories. Somewhat surprisingly, the number of entries was down 6% from last year’s total of 9904. The entry fee of $175 per beer (for BA members) or perhaps the fact that the World Beer Cup is now held every year (instead of every other year) are two factors that might help explain the dip in entries. It will be worth watching in future years to see if the number of entries has plateaued or peaked.

Ohio breweries received 18 of the 303 medals that were given out, including 8 gold medals. Not only are both figures up from last year (10 medals, 5 golds), they represent all-time highs for Buckeye-state breweries. Prior to this year Ohio’s best performance at the GABF was 14 medals, first achieved in 2018 and duplicated in 2019. The medal-winning Ohio beers are as follows:

Gold Medals

• Fat Head’s (North Olmstead) Head Hunter – American-style IPA (206 entries)
• Fat Head’s (Middleburg Heights) Goggle Fogger – South German-style Hefeweizen (158 entries)
• Rhinegeist Innovation Brewery (Cincinnati) Kiwi (The Bird) – New Zealand IPA (104 entries)
• Third Eye Brewing (Sharonville) Chai Eye Captain – Herb and Spice Beer (90 entries)
• Brink Brewing (Cincinnati) Lil Zoomie – Coffee Stout or Porter (68 entries)
• Hoppin’ Frog (Akron) Smashing Honey Blonde – Honey Beer (67 entries)
• Third Eye Brewing (Sharonville) Double Astral – Chocolate Beer (43 entries)
• Fat Head’s (Middleburg Heights) Alpenglow – German Wheat Ale (24 entries)

Silver Medals

• Eudora (Dayton) Daytonian Rhapsody – Bohemian-style Pilsener (158 entries)
• Third Eye (Sharonville) & Narrow Path (Loveland) Mounds of Importance – Collaboration Competition (95 entries)
• Inside the Five (Sylvania) Megaphone – Irish-style Red Ale (87 entries)
• Third Eye Brewing (Sharonville) Gourd Darn-it – Pumpkin Beer (71 entries)
• The Brew Brothers (Columbus) Toasty – English Mild or Bitter (66 entries)
• Noble Creature Wild Ales and Lagers (Youngstown) Earth and Aether – Belgian-style Sour Ale (51 entries)
• Seventh Son (Columbus) Stone Fort – English-style Brown Ale (48 entries)
• Narrow Path (Loveland) Restless Seas Gose – German Sour Ale (43 entries)

Bronze Medals

• MadTree Brewing (Cincinnati) Legendary Lager – Light Lager (284 entries)
• Royal Docks (Massillon) Pumpkinslayer – Pumpkin Beer (71 entries)
• Brink Brewing (Cincinnati) Moozie – Sweet or Cream Stout (46 entries)

With three gold medals Fat Head’s registered the strong showing that we’ve all grown accustomed to. Since coming on the scene in 2009 the NE Ohio brewery has failed to medal at the GABF only once (in 2021). Head Hunter’s gold medal in the highly competitive American-style IPA category comes on the heels of a gold medal in the same category at the 2023 World Beer Cup. For old geezers like myself this represents something of a return to normalcy, as Head Hunter won a slew of medals (three silvers and one bronze) at the GABF and WBC in the early teens. Fat Head’s Alpenglow also took home gold at both of the big competitions this year. The weizenbock has now been awarded gold at the GABF on five separate occasions (2023, 2022, 2017, 2016, 2014), which surely makes it one of the most iconic beers in Ohio. Yet one that many people have yet to try. Couple that with Goggle Fogger’s win in the crowded South German-style Hefeweizen category, and you’d have to say that NE Ohio is the improbable heartland of German-style wheat beers. That claim is based not only on this year’s results, but the fact that Ohio breweries have taken home a gold in one of the two wheat beer categories for five straight years now. JAFB Hefeweizen won gold in the German Wheat Ale in 2021, Goggle Fogger in 2022 and 2020, and Market Garden Prosperity Wheat in 2019.

The other big winner was Third Eye Brewing, located in the Cincinnati suburb of Sharonville. Their four medals, two golds and two silvers, were equaled only by the iconic Portland (OR) brewery Breakside Brewing. On the basis of this strong showing Third Eye was named Brewery of the Year in the 1001-2000 bbl per year category. They had previously been recognized only once at the GABF, with a gold medal in 2021 for their milk stout Higher Purpose. The medals came in a rather eclectic set of categories – herb and spice beer (Chai Eye Captain), chocolate beer (Double Astral), pumpkin beer (Gourd Darn-it) and the collaboration category (shared with Narrow Path Brewing). If you like your beer with a bit of food mixed in, I’d say a trip to Sharonville is warranted.

Brink is the third and final Ohio brewery to win multiple medals. The Cincinnati-area brewery has now medalled at every GABF going back to 2017. Their milk stout Moozie picked up a bronze medal to go with it’s collection of three GABF gold medals (2018, 2019, 2020). Add a little coffee to the recipe and you get Lil Zoomie, which bested it’s 2022 silver medal performance with a gold this year in the coffee stout or porter category.

Unlike last year when Central Ohio breweries were shut out, two silver medals are coming back to Columbus this year. I was thrilled to see one of Central-Ohio’s OG craft breweries, Seventh Son, win their first GABF medal. For the past decade Stone Fort has been a go-to for the small segment of us who love a good brown ale. In this writer’s opinion it’s about time this gem of a beer got a little love. While on the topic of underappreciated styles, Brew Brother’s excellent English Mild, Toasty, added a silver medal to the bronze it received in 2021.

One can perhaps learn a few things about where the industry is heading by diving into the GABF numbers. The five most competitive categories in 2023 were:

• Juicy or Hazy India Pale Ale – 365 entries (Gold: 1852 Brew Co, Visalia, CA)
• West Coast India Pale Ale – 301 entries (Gold: Westbound and Down, Idaho Springs, CO)
• Light Lager – 284 entries (Gold: Nashville Brewing Co., Nashville, TN)
• German-style Pilsener – 228 entries (Gold: Lazarus Brewing Co., Austin, TX)
• American-style India Pale Ale – 206 entries (Gold: Fat Head’s, North Olmstead, OH)

Anyone who’s been to a brewery taproom lately shouldn’t be too surprised that hazy/juicy IPAs are the largest category, but it may be a surprise to learn that light lagers were the third most popular category (up from 143 entries last year). If you combine all four pilsener categories (American, International, German, Bohemian) you get 668 entries. So the love affair with lagers still seems to be going strong. Last year’s most popular category, American-style India Pale Ale, was split into two categories this year: West Coast IPA and American-style IPA. I actually couldn’t tell you the difference between the two, but given that both still ranked among the most popular categories the split seems justified.

As is always the case, California breweries led the medal count with 73 medals, followed by Colorado (39), and Oregon (23). Texas and Ohio tied for fourth with 19 medals each. This represents a big jump from last year’s 8th place finish, and if I’m not mistaken an all time best for the Buckeye state.