In a year tossed upside down in many ways, the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) pivoted to maintain its long-running awards competition.
Though no one physically attended the awards ceremony on Oct. 16, Utah breweries definitely showed up.
Proper Brewing Co. won Gold for its flagship Proper Beer. It beat out 92 other entries in the English Ale category.
“Our flagship English-style golden ale has always been a winner amongst our team,” Proper wrote on Instagram. “and now it’s a winner at the largest beer competition in the USA.”
Templin Family Brewing, meantime, won Bronze for its popular Granary Kellerbier. The Kellerbier or Zwickelbier category featured 71 entries. It marks the second straight year T.F., which opened in October 2018, medaled at GABF. Last year it won silver for its Rauchbier.
Utah’s newest brewery also picked up some hardware. Grid City Beer Works, which opened in April 2020, won Bronze for its Honey Cream Ale. The Honey Beer category included 72 beers.
“Did this just happen?” Grid City wrote on Instagram after the award was announced, adding that the winning beer was the first batch of Honey Cream Ale head brewer Jeremy Gross had brewed on its system.
The 2020 competition featured 8,806 beers judged in 91 categories.
GABF: Utah Winners (category in parentheses)
Utah brewers picked up three medals at the 2020 GABF, following up on a six-medal showing at the 2019 event. Here’s a full list of 2020 winners.
In all, 272 medals were awarded. At the end of 2019, more than 8,000 breweries operated in the United States.
Grid City Beer Works
- Bronze — Grid City Honey Cream Ale (13 – Honey Beer)
Proper Brewing
- Gold — Proper Beer (51 – English Ale)
Templin Family (T.F.) Brewing
- Bronze — Granary Kellerbier (31 – Kellerbier or Zwickelbier)
