What 3,515 Beer Medals Can Tell You
The Big Three really can brew, dominating the categories where they compete. Anheuser-Busch led all brewing companies with 60 medals; Miller claims 41; and Coors, 35. The Sandlot Brewery at Coors Field earned the Golden company another 15 medals in styles where micros usually dominate.
The only companies to win medals in all four competitions, despite the different criteria for excellence, were Boston Beer (53), Alaskan Brewing Co. (44) and Rogue Ales (25) .
Longevity pays off: breweries from the first wave of the modern beer revolution keep quietly winning awards: Stoudt, Sierra Nevada, Anchor, Anderson Valley.
What’s hot? A few breweries experience prolific periods where they earn an impressive number of awards per year for several years, suggesting something exciting is going on: Deschutes, Firestone Walker, New Glarus, and Spoetzl, among others.
The single most decorated beer in this list is the Smoked Porter from Alaskan Brewing Co., with 20 medals, awarded over a 14 year period, in all four major competitions.
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