2021 NAGBW Awards

Once again its time for the yearly awards – first it was the Great American Beer Festival – and now its the North American Guild of Beer Writers awards that coincides (or comes out around the same time) with the Great American Beer Festival. I have covered this last year, as well as covered the Great American Beer Festival awards that were given out to Pennsylvania Breweries. You can check out those articles here:

• 2021 Great American Beer Festival: Pennsylvania Award Winners
• 2020 Great American Beer Festival: Pennsylvania Award Winners
• 2019 Great American Beer Festival: Pennsylvania Award Winners
• 2020 North American Guild of Beer Writers Awards

Awards

The below is the list of the 2021 NAGBW Awards and links to their works (when / where applicable). You can follow the link here for the full Notebook Report from the award ceremony that was held on October 9th: NAGBW Notebook Report. There was over 300 entrants for 14 different categories, with articles submitted from multiple countries. This list is the winners.

Best Beer Review

1. Eoghan Walsh: Zinnebir — A Beer for Living In, Pellicle Magazine
2. Martyn Cornell: So What Happens if You Mix the New Guinness 0.0 with Guinness Foreign Extra Stout?, Zythophile
3. Jonny Garrett: 15 Years of Endless Summer — How Thornbridge Jaipur Changed British Beer, Good Beer Hunting

Honorable Mention: Em Sauter: Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales: Oro de Calabaza Beer Review, The Alcohol Professor

Best Short Form Writing

1. Eoghan Walsh: Thirst // This Must Be The Place, Brussels Beer City
2. Ashley Joanna: The Postman, Belgian Smaak
3. Breandán Kearney: B-Roll no. 590, Good Beer Hunting

Best Book

1. Tom Acitelli, Pilsner: How the Beer of Kings Changed the World
2. Paul Kan: Hawai’i Beer: A History of Brewing in Paradise
3. Eoghan Walsh: Brussels Beer City: Stories from Brussels’ Brewing Past

Honorable Mention: Andreas Krennmair: Vienna Lager

Best Historical Writing

1. Mark Dredge: Respect Your Elders — How Fuggle and Golding Hops Changed Modern Beer Forever, Good Beer Hunting
2. Brian Alberts: Streets as Stages — The Munich Beer Riots of 1844, Good Beer Hunting
3. Tom Acitelli: Grab and Go — How Imperialism Aided the Spread of European Beer, Good Beer Hunting

Best Technical Writing

1. Jeff Alworth: The Future of Yeast, Beervana Blog
2. Jeff Alworth: How a Hop Earns Its Name, Beervana Blog
3. Scott Simpson: New Words for an Old Thing – The Triumph and Blindness of Sensory Science, Good Beer Hunting

Honorable Mention: Will Hawkes: On the Wagon – The Innovations Behind the Non-Alcoholic Renaissance in British Brewing, Good Beer Hunting

Best Travel Writing

1. Bailey Berg: Way Up North — Exploring the Growing Beer Scene in Fairbanks, Alaska, Good Beer Hunting
2. Samer Khudairi: With Great Thirst Comes Great Responsibility — Ebenezer’s Pub in Lovell, Maine, Pellicle Magazine
3. Holly Regan: Past Meets Presence — A Voyage to Seattle’s Ballard Brewery District, Good Beer Hunting

Honorable Mention: Claire Bullen: The Land of Fire and Kveik — Farmhouse Brewing at the Crossroads in Voss, Norway, Good Beer Hunting

Best Food and Beer Writing

1. Eoghan Walsh: Hop Gastrobar and the Emergence of Bistronomic Beer Cuisine in Leuven, Belgian Smaak
2. Catie Joyce-Bulay: These Farmers Want You to Drink Your Hops and Eat Them Too, Atlas Obscura
3. David Nilsen: Cacao, Brewing, and the Price of Nostalgia—Toward a Better Future for Chocolate Beer, Good Beer Hunting

Honorable Mention: Breandán Kearney: The Great Flemish Stew Debate (Includes Recipe)—What are the hotly-contested variations of Belgium’s National Dish?, Belgian Smaak

Best Business Writing

1. Mike Kallenberger: The Brand of Craft Beer: Has It Been Diluted?, The New Brewer
2. Josh Noel: Can shortage leaves Chicago breweries scrambling, adding yet another COVID-19 hurdle — and spelling the demise of at least 1 brand, Chicago Tribune
3. Kate Bernot: Rebel Without A Cause — Stone Brewing Searches for an Identity Amidst Lawsuits, Closures, and Controversies, Good Beer Hunting

Honorable Mention: Beth Demmon: Division in the Ranks — How Should Leadership Organizations Handle Members Breaking the Rules?, Good Beer Hunting

Best Commentary

1. Beth Demmon: Work, Worth, and Wreckage — When Your Job Is Your Life, What Happens When You Lose It?, Good Beer Hunting
2. Alicia Kennedy: Crisis Cava in a Colony, and Other Ways of Coping in Old San Juan, Good Beer Hunting
3. Kate Bernot: Great Consequence — Beer Industry Struggles to Define and Deliver Justice for Sexual Harassment, Assault Survivors, Good Beer Hunting

Honorable Mention: Samer Khudairi: (Un)Holy Water — The Middle Eastern Voices Shaping the Global Beer Narrative, Good Beer Hunting

Best Beer Podcast / Broadcast

1. Breandán Kearney: The Belgian Smaak Podcast
2. Sarah Flora: Brewing After Hours Podcast
3. Matthew Curtis: The Pellicle Podcast
4. Will Siss: It Starts With Beer

Best Blog

1. Jeff Alworth: Beervana Blog
2. Beth Demmon: Prohibitchin’
3. Eoghan Walsh: Brussels Beer City

Honorable Mention: Oliver Gray: This Must Be the Place

Best Brewery Profile

1. Christopher DeWolf: City on Fire — How Young Master Brewery Became the Face of Craft Beer in Restive Hong Kong, Good Beer Hunting
2. Matthew Curtis: Everything in its Right Place — The Brewery of St. Mars of the Desert, Sheffield, Pellicle Magazine
3. David Nilsen: Tending the Fires — Carillon Brewing Company in Dayton, Ohio, Good Beer Hunting

Honorable Mention: Emily Monaco: Let Them Drink Bread — Cocomiette in Isère, France, Good Beer Hunting

Best Local Reporting

1. Breandán Kearney: Putting Hops on the Table in Belgium’s Westhoek—On Leroy Breweries, Poperinge Hop Growers, and the Agricultural Identity of a People, Belgian Smaak
2. Lucy Corne: Hop Farming in the Face of Adversity — Khaya Maloney in Johannesburg, South Africa, Good Beer Hunting 
3. Paige Latham Didora: Business as Unusual — How Five Minneapolis and St. Paul Bars and Restaurants Responded to the George Floyd Protests, Good Beer Hunting

Best National / International Reporting

1. Jerard Fagerberg: Waiting on the Tides — How Outdated Liquor Laws Trap Craft Brewers Between Regulation and Rebellion, Good Beer Hunting
2. Kate Bernot: Tyranny of the Tickers — How Untappd Ratings Became Craft Beer’s Most Fickle Prize, Good Beer Hunting
3. David Jesudason: Desi Style — The History and Significance of England’s Anglo-Asian Pubs, Pellicle Magazine

Honorable Mention: John McMahon: Waiting for a “Year of Change” — How Thai Brewers are Fighting Against a Government-Backed Beer Duopoly, Good Beer Hunting

Thanks For Reading

2022 will be the first year I will be able to submit articles and entries into other categories. (Since I just recently joined.) Hopefully, fingers crossed, we’ll be seeing The Beer Thrillers listed amongst these awards. Who knows, we’ll find out. In the meantime, make sure to check out the blog, and all of our features – beer reviews, brewery profiles / reviews, interviews, book reviews, hike reviews, travelogues, and so much more.

Cheers!

-B. Kline

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