Several Ohio craft breweries, including some from the Greater Cincinnati area, won big at a prestigious beer competition.
The Ohio Craft Brewers Association said 11 independent Ohio breweries won a total of 21 medals at the Great American Beer Festival, held in Denver last week. The annual festival featured more than 1,550 breweries across the country, with 8,300 submissions to determine the best beers in the nation.
This year’s wins set a new state record, which was previously set in 2023 with a total of 19 medals across 12 breweries.
“This is a banner day for Ohio craft beer,” Mary MacDonald, executive director of the Ohio Craft Brewers Association, said in a press release. “Our breweries deserve so much recognition for the high-quality, world-class and award-winning beers they brew, as well as their innovation beyond beer and the ways they positively contribute to their local communities.”
Third Eye Brewing in Sharonville and Hamilton won a Brewery of the Year award and earned the most medals among breweries in the “2,001-5000 barrel division.” Third Eye won gold medals for its pumpkin beer, Gourd Darn It!; Scotch ale, Higher Consciousness; and New England IPA, Route 4 Revive-ALE, a collaboration with Municipal Brew Works in Hamilton. It also won a silver medal for its coffee stout, Wired Euphoria, and a bronze medal for Mounds of Importance, a milk stout made in collaboration with Narrow Path Brewing in Loveland.
Other local winners include Brink Brewing in College Hill, which earned gold medals for its coffee stout, Lil Zoomie, and milk stout, Moozie. Over-the-Rhine’s Rhinegeist Brewery took home a silver medal for Ring of Kerry, a Munich-style Helles, and a bronze Medal for Ghost Pils, a nonalcoholic pilsner. Streetside Brewery in Columbia Tusculum and Narrow Path also won a medal each — a gold medal for Streetside’s Sofa King red IPA and a silver medal for Narrow Path’s coffee beer, Polar Bear.
The Ohio Craft Brewers Association says 65 Ohio craft breweries have won a combined total of 230 medals, including 81 gold, at the Great American Beer Festival since 1987.