Winners of First Annual Texas Craft Brewers Cup Revealed at Brewers Gathering
AUSTIN, Texas (February 12, 2022) —The Texas Craft Brewers Guild awarded 81 medals to 57 small and independent breweries from across the Lone Star State in the non-profit trade association’s first statewide craft beer competition.
The best Texas craft beers in 27 medal categories covering 150+ different beer styles were awarded gold, silver, and bronze medals during an awards ceremony at the Texas Craft Brewers Guild’s Annual Meeting at Hilton Austin on Saturday, February 12. Judging took place January 29-30 in Austin with 37 judges evaluating 755 anonymized entries from 131 breweries hailing from all different corners of the state. The Texas Craft Brewers Cup judging pool was comprised of experienced brewing industry professionals and members of the homebrewing community with extensive Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) judging experience.
Celebrating The Outstanding Quality of Texas Craft Beer
“One of the key missions of the Texas Craft Brewers Guild is to celebrate the outstanding quality of Texas craft beer and a professional craft competition might be the best celebration of them all,” Texas Craft Brewers Guild Executive Director Charles Vallhonrat said. “With more than 750 entries in the competition, our medalists represent the pinnacle of quality in an outrageously wide range of craft beer styles.”
As the organization behind the annual Texas Craft Brewers Festival, and the Texas Brewery Passport app which helps beer enthusiasts find and visit Guild member breweries, Vallhonrat believes the Texas Craft Brewers Cup will be yet another tool in the Guild’s toolkit to help attract new fans and bring longtime beer lovers back to taprooms at a time when small and independent breweries have a lot to gain from the promotion of Texas’ highest quality craft beers.
“The Texas Craft Brewers Guild felt the time was right to introduce a Texas-only craft beer competition, Vallhonrat said. “While we’ve discussed a competition for years, we waited for the right moment in time when we have the most diverse set of brewery business models, the widest array of styles to work with, and the critical mass of craft breweries literally across the state to make the competition the ultimate brewing benchmark for the state.”
Texas Craft Brewers Cup Competition Statistics
- 1st annual competition
- 755 total beers judged
- 150+ beer styles
- 131 competing Texas craft breweries
- 27 medal categories
- 81 total medals awarded
- 57 medal winning breweries
- 2 Brewery of the Year winners (awarded based on cumulative medal points)
- 37 judges
- 16 amazing volunteers
- Each participating brewery could enter up to 8 beers
Most-Entered Styles Categories
The winners of the top five most-entered categories were:
Category 1: PILSNER (56 entries) – Sponsored by Community Cultures Yeast Lab
GOLD: Gold – Live Oak Brewing Company (Austin)
SILVER: Hans’ Pils — Real Ale Brewing Company (Blanco)
BRONZE: Patek Pils — Pondaseta Brewing Co. (Amarillo)
Category 11: HAZY IPA (54 entries) – Sponsored by Saxco
GOLD: Leaf Peeper — Hold Out Brewing (Austin)
SILVER: Spirit of Energy — False Idol Brewing (North Richland Hills)
BRONZE: Shelter in Haze — Brotherwell Brewing (Waco)
Category 5: SESSION AND STANDARD GERMAN & CZECH LAGERS (43 entries)
GOLD: Dye-It Pils — Infamous Brewing Company (Austin)
SILVER: Her Black Wings — Oddwood Brewing (Austin)
BRONZE: Double Backbone — Hound Song Brewing Co. (Columbus)
Category 10: AMERICAN IPA (42 entries) — Sponsored by Cask Branding
GOLD: Secret Beach — Meanwhile Brewing Company (Austin)
SILVER: Balcones Cold IPA — Balcones Distilling (Waco)
BRONZE: 2 Live & Die In LA — False Idol Brewing (North Richland Hills)
Category 7: CLASSIC UK STYLES (40 entries)
GOLD: Wicket Awesome — Eureka Heights Brew CO (Houston)
SILVER: Alcalde — Wichita Falls Brewing Company (Wichita Falls)
BRONZE: Prairie Fire Irish Red — Fitzhugh Brewing (Dripping Springs)
Brewery of the Year Awards
-Sponsored by Dynamo Distributing
Based on cumulative medal points (3 points for Gold, 2 points for Silver, 1 point for Bronze) across the competition.
0 – 799 bbl Group
Black Star Co-op (Austin)
800+ bbl Group
Real Ale Brewing Company (Blanco)
