European Beer Star 2021: Coveted awards go to 26 countries worldwide

At the European Beer Star 2021, more than 120 international beer experts awarded 213 beers with gold, silver and bronze in a two-day blind tasting. This year a total of 2395 beers in 70+1 categories competed for the coveted awards. In the newly created category "Free-Style Beer", for the first time in the 18-year history of the European Beer Star, storytelling - the story behind the beer - was included in the jury's assessment in addition to the quality of the beer's aroma and taste.

The glasses are empty, the winners of the European Beer Star 2021 have been determined! In a two-day blind tasting on 4 and 5 November at the Doemens Academy in Gräfelfing near Munich, an international jury of around 120 experts, consisting of brewmasters, trade journalists, beer sommeliers and other beer experts, objectively judged the beers submitted according to appearance, foam, aroma and taste as well as varietal characteristics. In each of the 70+1 categories of the beer competition, only the three best beers were awarded gold, silver and bronze according to the Olympic principle. A total of 2395 beers from 44 countries around the globe competed in the European Beer Star 2021.

Stefan Stang, General Manager Private Brauereien Bayern e.V., is proud of this year's edition of the beer competition: "After a difficult year and a half for the entire international brewing industry, we are very pleased to see such a great response to the European Beer Star 2021. After a dip in the number of entries last year, we are now almost back to the record level of 2019." With almost 2400 beers submitted this year, entries were 17% higher than last year. "The European Beer Star 2021 is the second best in its now 18-year history purely in terms of registration numbers," adds Stang.

Germany leads the medal table
With a total of 78 awards (29 gold, 28 silver, 21 bronze), the most awards at the European Beer Star 2021 went to Germany.
32 awards travelled over the Alps to Italy this year (4 gold, 15 silver, 13 bronze). Breweries from the USA (21 awards) and Belgium (20 awards) were also very successful at the world's most important beer competition of 2021.

The wheat beer experts from the Schneider Weisse brewery in Kelheim won three gold medals, as did the Bauhöfer family brewery from Renchen-Ulm, which shone with its bottom-fermented beers. In addition, Schlossbrauerei Unterbaar near Augsburg and Brauerei Gebrüder Maisel from Bayreuth were busy collecting awards with four each.

When asked about the best Pilsner, Schlossbrauerei Autenried provided the right answer and was awarded the gold medal in this category. The best "German-Style Helles" this year comes from Pfaffenhofen from Müllerbräu.

Medal collectors from Belgium and Italy
But it is not only in Germany that there are successful breweries at the European Beer Star 2021. With three awards in the categories "Belgian-Style Blond Ale", "Belgian-Style Dubbel" and "Belgian-Style Tripel", Bierbrouwerij de Koningshoeven proved once again that no-one can fool them so quickly when it comes to these beer styles. Another four awards go to the brewery Ritual Lab, which was only founded in 2015 and was particularly successful with its interpretations in the categories "Session Beer", "New Style Pale Ale", "New Style India Pale Ale" and "Ultra Strong Beer".

But even in the 18th year of its existence, there are still surprises at the European Beer Star. For the first time in the history of the beer competition, the Scandinavian countries Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark each won a Gold Award at the same time. Gold in the category "German Style Dunkler Bock" went to E.C. Dahls Brygerri from Norway, while the prize for the best "English-Style Strong Ale" went to Panimo Honkavuori Oy from Finland. Remmarlöv Gårdsbryggeri from Sweden won gold in the "Sweet Stout" category and Krenkerup Bryggeri from Denmark brewed the best "Smoke Beer".

Creativity award goes to creative brewery
For the first time, a category was created at the European Beer Star in which not only the beer quality is decisive for the evaluation. In the new special category "Free-Style Beer", storytelling - the story and the idea behind the beer - played a special role. The Kehrwieder Kreativbrauerei convinced the final jury the most with its "El Duderino". Inspired by the favourite drink of the main character in the film "The Big Lebowski" - the "White Russian" cocktail - the winning beer not only convinced with its terrific storytelling, but also with its creative recipe and excellent beer quality.

Award ceremony live on the internet
The announcement of the winning beers of the European Beer Star 2021 will take place on 9 November from 17:30. As last year, the award ceremony can unfortunately only take place digitally. However, so that everyone can be there live, the award ceremony will be broadcast live on the Youtube channel of the Private Breweries Association.

Link to the livestream: www.youtube.com/user/PrivateBrauereien

The complete list of winners with all the award-winning beers can be found on the homepage of the European Beer Star at www.european-beer-star.de/ebs-de/gewinner/.