Pivo Brewery of Calmar and Newton's Gezellig Brewing Company are both medalists in back to back years at the 2020 Great American Beer Festival contest.
Pivo's Decorah Nordic Gruit beat 27 other beers to win a gold medal in this year's contest for historical beer. In 2019 the beer received a silver medal in the same category.
The brewery's Old Balltown Bulleit Bourbon Barrel Aged Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Brownie Milk Stout won a silver medal in the contest's chocolate beer competition. 53 beers were entered in the category. In 2019, the beer was a gold medalist.
SingleSpeed Brewing Company in Waterloo won a gold medal by beating 88 other beers in the session beer or non-alcoholic beer category for its Tip the Calf session milk stout. It is the brewery's first GABF medal.
People are also reading…
Gezellig Brewing Company won a silver medal for its Hugzilla rye hazy double IPA in the rye beer category. 52 beers were entered in the category.
In 2019, the Newton brewery's All The Goodness won a silver medal in the Belgian-Style Fruit Beer category and Hug Deal Gone Sideweiss won a silver in the South German-Style Hefeweizen category.
Gezellig also received several awards and was named the champion brewery at the 2020 San Diego International Beer Competition awards announced earlier this month.
Big Grove Brewery of Iowa City won a bronze medal in the German-style Marzen beer competition for its Oktoberfest. 142 beers were entered in the category. It is the brewery's first GABF medal.
The Brewers Association, which sponsors the contest, awarded 272 medals to 240 breweries across the country during the 2020 Great American Beer Festival competition awards ceremony, according to a press release.
Judges for the 34th edition of the celebrated competition evaluated 8,806 entries from 1,720 breweries from all 50 states plus Washington, D.C.
Socially distanced judging took place in 35 sessions over 18 days with strict safety measures in place. The awards ceremony was held virtually on October 16, kicking off the two-day online programming portion of the Great American Beer Festival.
“This year’s GABF competition may have looked a little different, but the beers entered into the competition were as impressive and innovative as ever,” said Chris Swersey, competition manager, Great American Beer Festival. “This has arguably been one of the most challenging years breweries have ever faced, so we hope these awards serve as a symbol not only of brewing excellence but also the resiliency of the craft brewing community as a whole.”