36 Awards Presented by New York State Brewers Association in Virtual Awards Ceremony

The New York State Brewers Association (NYSBA) announced the winners of its fourth annual New York State Craft Beer Competition. The awards ceremony took place virtually on Thursday, May 7 at 7:00 p.m. with over 130 breweries in attendance. It was also live streamed on Facebook and YouTube to an additional 350+ viewers.

Thirty-six awards were presented across 12 categories and the best of show award. The Governor’s Craft Beer Cup given to the best of show beer was awarded to Big aLICe Brewing Co. for The Many Lives of Our Lives in the Fruit and Spice Beer – sour category. This beer also took gold in the NYS Ingredient Award category, sponsored by NY Hop Guild, which recognizes a beer that uses NYS hops and all other ingredients at the current 60% standard. 135 entries in the competition met this threshold.

“While we cannot celebrate together in person, we still wanted to honor the high-quality beers coming out of New York State,” said Paul Leone, executive director of the New York State Brewers Association. “The virtual ceremony allowed us to not only connect with breweries across the state but also consumers, who normally don’t get to see the awards being announced. We hope it will further encourage consumers to support these and other New York State breweries.”

Winners of the 2020 New York State Craft Beer Competition are:

Category 1: American DIPA
Gold: Spider Bite Beer Co. – Open Wide EXP
Silver: Middle Ages Brewing – Late Knight IPA
Bronze: Brown’s Brewing Company – Intonation

Category 2: American IPA
Gold: Industrial Arts Brewing – Power Tools
Silver: Frog Alley Brewing – Re4resh IPA
Bronze: Interboro Spirits and Ales – Premiere

Category 3: American IPA Variations
Gold: Prison City Pub & Brewery – Elegant Pride
Silver: 42 North Brewing – White Oak Borderland
Bronze: Mad Jack Brewing Co. – Stomping Grounds IPL

Category 4: Fruit and Spice Beer – sour
Gold: Big aLICe Brewing Co. – The Many Lives of Our Lives
Silver: Grimm Artisanal Ales – Boysen Rebus
Bronze: K2 Brothers Brewing – Blue Razz Sour

Category 5: Fruit and Spice Beer – non-sour
Gold: Lake Placid Pub & Brewery – Salted Caramel Waffle Beer
Silver: West Kill Brewing – Saphouse
Bronze: Lunkenheimer Craft Brewing Co. – Elderberry Kolsch

Category 6: Hazy IPA
Gold: Thin Man Brewery – Trial By Wombat
Silver: Threes Brewing – Dare To Know
Bronze: Great South Bay Brewery – Holographic Haze

Category 7: Hazy Pale Ale
Gold: Unified Beerworks – Right Time and Place
Silver: Five Boroughs Brewing Co. – Tiny Juicy IPA
Bronze: ONCO Fermentations – Richard, or is it Dick?

Category 8: Kettle and Simple Sours
Gold: Brooklyn Brewery – Bel Air
Silver: No silver medal awarded
Bronze: Clemson Bros Brewery – M-Town Haze

Category 9: Pale Ale
Gold: Lunkenheimer Craft Brewing Co. – Exit 40 Pale Ale
Silver: Twisted Rail Brewing Company – Ale Aboard Pale Ale
Bronze: Mill House Brewing Company – Pk Pale

Category 10: Wheat Beer (American, Wit, Hefe)
Gold: Drowned Lands – Gather House
Silver: Brewery Ommegang – Witte
Bronze: Transmitter Brewing – W8 Belgin Wit

Category 11: NYS Ingredient Beer (at the current 60% threshold)
Gold: Big aLICe Brewing Co. – The Many Lives of Our Lives
Silver: Lunkenheimer Craft Brewing Co. – Exit 40 Pale Ale
Bronze: Eli Fish Brewing – Champagne Guapi: Red, Fidens Brewing Company – Necessary Means for a Necessary Means

Category 12: NYS Collaboration Beer
Gold: Mad Jack Brewing Co. in collaboration with CH Evans Brewing – Stomping Grounds IPL
Silver: Kings Court Brewing in collaboration with Torch and Crown Brewing Co. – Taconic Mist Hazy Pale Ale
Bronze: No bronze medal awarded

Governor’s Craft Beer Cup
Winner: Big aLICe Brewing Co. – The Many Lives of Our Lives

Judging for the 12 categories and special award took place on Saturday, March 14, 2020 in Rochester, N.Y. with the help of Raise a Glass Foundation, an organization with expertise in coordinating beverage competitions of the highest caliber. Due to the limit of group gatherings prior to the NYS On Pause order, only half of the Competition’s 25 beer style categories could be judged. Entries were blind judged by a panel of respected and influential individuals in the New York beer industry based on pre-established criteria and using a custom scoring sheet developed by NYSBA. The top three finishers in each of the beer style categories received gold, silver and bronze medals.

The 2020 New York State Craft Beer Competition is sponsored by 1886 Malt House, a New York based ingredient supplier and the awards ceremony was presented by Marathon Energy, a privately held energy supply company.

For additional information about the Competition, visit: https://newyorkcraftbeer.com/2020-competition/.