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

Thank you for visiting our blog. Please make sure to follow, bookmark, subscribe, and make sure to comment and leave feedback and like the blog posts you read. It will help us to better tailor the blog to you, the readers, likes and make this a better blog for everyone.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – Facebook, Facebook Group, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Influence. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

The North American Guild of Beer Writers

What is the North American Guild of Beer Writers you might ask? Quite possibly you’ve never heard of them, even if you do read several beer blogs on the internet. So what exactly are they? Are they a shadowy underworld movement similar to the Illuminati? Are they like the Free Masons of beer? Or are they similar to the Stonecutters?

Well, I’ll let them explain in their own words (from their website):

The North American Guild of Beer Writers (NAGBW) is the leading member organization of beer writers, authors, reporters, and podcasters who cover the beer industry. 

Some of us do it for fun, others make a living, or at least a portion of it, covering beer and brewing. We tirelessly cover the brewing industry and those who appreciate beer.

We are a group dedicated to elevating the level of our craft as we cover the art of brewing. We are serious in our purpose, but strive to enjoy ourselves in doing our jobs.

….

We host annual awards that highlight the accomplishments of our members. We also support the annual Diversity in Beer Writing Grant, with a goal to highlight the value of stories that can showcase diversity and inclusion – in all its forms and challenges – within beer.

North American Guild of Beer Writers – Home – North American Guild of Beer Writers Homepage

So thats the basis in a nutshell.

Every year they have an awards event a little bit after the Great American Beer Festival where they announce that year’s awards and winners for various writing and articles of the year. The selection timeframe is July through August and they announce the winners late September.

You can read the 2020 winners here: 2020 NAGBW Winners. I am not entered in anything for 2021, but will hopefully have some stuff to enter for the 2020 year.

So What Does This Mean

So what all does this mean for The Beer Thrillers? Shrugging… honestly not a whole lot that you all might see. A bit more behind the scenes happens for us here at The Beer Thrillers. Hopefully more notice, coverage, and attention.

We are looking to soon start doing podcasts and videos and much more travels and coverage here on The Beer Thrillers. We are also looking to pick up another writer (or two) and hopefully someone with more digital graphics skills and such, and get the site improved graphically, and with a lot more writing.

So please, if you like what you see, make sure to hit the like button, subscribe and follow our page, and be sure to share with all your friends. We appreciate it!

-B. Kline

Thank you for visiting our blog. Please make sure to follow, bookmark, subscribe, and make sure to comment and leave feedback and like the blog posts you read. It will help us to better tailor the blog to you, the readers, likes and make this a better blog for everyone.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – Facebook, Facebook Group, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Influence. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

Additional Links

• 2020 NAGBW Awards
• 2021 GABF Awards – Pennsylvania
• Great American Beer Festival
• 2021 Great American Beer Festival – Winners Announced – Brewer’s Association
• 2021 Great American Beer Festival Coverage – Forbes
• 2020 Great American Beer Festival Winners – Pennsylvania
• 2019 Great American Beer Festival Winners – Pennsylvania

Hop Culture, a popular site that has organized brewfests and events like Beers With(out) Beards, Juicy Brews, and others, is a digital beer (craft beer) website, blog, and brand. Hop Culture LLC is based out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Next Glass is based out of Charlotte, North Carolina. Next Glass has a lot of different software, app, and other systems already in place, and the acquisition of Hop Culture adds to their growing list of websites, apps, and other beer and beverage related brands and products.

From the Forbes article about the acquisition: “Hop Culture founder and CEO Kenny Gould says the partnership will help Next Glass develop a suite of business tools — a “cohesive ecosystem,” if you will — to streamline experiences for consumers and provide operational efficiencies for businesses in the beverage alcohol space, from producers to wholesalers to retailers.”

In a long piece that Kenny Gould published to Hop Culture after the announcement, he stated: “But first — know that I’m not going anywhere. Neither is my team. Although they’re not regularly in the limelight, Hop Culture Managing Editor John A. Paradiso and Head of Partnerships Grace Weitz each played essential roles in Hop Culture’s growth and development, and we all plan to continue our work with the company in expanded roles.”

From the PRNewswire press release about the news: “The Hop Culture team has built an engaging and important platform with voices and events that resonate within the industry,” said Trace Smith, CEO of Next Glass. “We’re excited and proud to welcome a brand and team with values and a vision that so closely mirror our own.”

Founded in 2017 by journalist Kenny Gould, Hop Culture got its start promoting small, independent craft breweries via their Instagram and digital magazine. Over time, the company also grew to include a popular merchandise line and event series.

“Hop Culture couldn’t be more excited about this partnership,” said Gould. “At Next Glass, Trace and his team have put together the largest network of beer drinkers in the world, and we look forward to working with them to continue producing compelling content and world-class events.”

Untappd was founded on October 22nd, 2010 by Greg Avola. From wikipedia: “Untappd is a geosocial networking service and mobile phone application founded by Greg Avola and Tim Mather that allows its users to check in as they drink beers, and share these check-ins and their locations with their friends” As of 2017 it was estimated that Untappd had 9 Million Users and 125 Internal Employees.

Beer Advocate was founded in the early days of the internet (and craft beer) – in 1996 as a website for rating and cataloging beer. It along with Rate Beer (founded in 2000) were the pioneers for beer rating systems, until smart phone technology and apps paved the way for Untappd.

Gould: “Breweries (and other alcohol producers) operating a lot of different systems have to rely on disparate tools, and you start to see why that’s a problem when you look at scale, going forward, they’ll have one company and endless integration for a seamless back end experience.”

Gould claims that Hop Culture will keep its same journalism, with the same editors, and same workers (working from home currently) despite the buy-out. He states that it is a mutual buy-out that will offer Hop Culture and Next Glass much for the future. While Hop Culture gets to stay relatively its own thing, Next Glass gets out of the deal – is someone to oversee branding (both internal and client / external needs), a ready to go team that is already connected to the beer community (and with strong ties to a thriving craft beer scene in Pittsburgh), and a brand that has demonstrated success at hosting small, medium, and large scale events and festivals.

According to the Forbes article (under why the purchase was made in 2020): “Seven-year-old Next Glass has grown tremendously this year, from buying Hop Culture, Oznr and some of BeerAdvocate’s assets, to naming a new CEO, taking in investment from Providence Strategic Growth, and hiring its first consort of executives and managers.

Just as Gould gets excited talking about his newfound ability to draw on a far greater pool of resources than his four-year-old beer-magazine startup ever allowed, Next Glass CEO Trace Smith says the deal with Providence, which went through in March, gives his business the resources to do more in the future, including boosting its presence in Europe; recover from COVID losses; and launch initiatives to help the hospitality industry much sooner.      

“We certainly hope this is a temporary speed bump, and we understand that the economic conditions might be soft coming out of it,” Smith tells the Greater Wilmington Business Journal. “But that additional capital will help us regrow more quickly post-COVID-19 and will help us bring more (furloughed) team members back.” For his part, the 30-year-old Gould’s instincts haven’t led him astray. The Pittsburgh son and grandson of entrepreneurs started the Hop Culture website in 2017 as a way to highlight positive stories in the craft beer world. As Gould, who also works as a freelance writer and Forbes contributor, says, “I never set out to start a business. I set out to write about beer.”

Gould is hoping that with the purchase, Hop Culture can expand its efforts to be more inclusive in the beer community. With the goal of expanding Beer Kulture (black / African – American promotions), Beers With(out) Beards (women promotions), and starting a queer beer festival.

About Next Glass (from the PRNewswire Article): “Founded in 2013, Next Glass develops software and creates experiences that connect enthusiasts, retailers, and producers in the beverage alcohol industry. The Next Glass family of brands serves the unique and varied needs of the industry via multiple platforms. Its award-winning Untappd mobile application and BeerAdvocate website are used by millions of beer enthusiasts around the world and its menu publishing software tool, Untappd for Business, enables venues to streamline publication and promotion of their beer, wine, cocktail, and food menus while Oznr, the leader in direct to consumer technology for the craft beverage industry, partners with craft producers to manage their membership programs, can/bottle release pre-sales, and event ticketing. The Company’s recently-introduced Untappd Marketplace enables alcohol resellers to streamline ordering of beer, wine, and spirits from wholesalers and self-distributing breweries. The Company’s Live! division produces world class festivals and events for the Untappd and BeerAdvocate communities.”

Kenny Gould wrote a long article on his site, giving a history of Hop Culture, as well as telling why he sold to Next Glass. He details the early years, how they became a business, their first festivals (the first of which was in October 2017),

He goes on to discuss the ‘glory years’, and ‘turning the wheel’, and then goes into the search for his ‘future’ rather than just looking forward to the weekend. As he says in his article: “So I began my search. Luckily, I wasn’t under any sort of deadline. Over the past couple years, the team and I worked against the odds to build an awesome little engine that supported us, our projects, and a great team of freelancers. I could afford to be choosy. I could steward my baby toward a solution that offered the greatest potential for a continuation of the mission, practices, and values we found important.

At first, I thought about approaching venture capital. I gathered my materials and started the research to find a great partner. But before I could send my first email, a Forbes interview changed my life.

Back in 2018, during a Brewers Association dinner at the Union Square Café, I met a Forbes writer who told me her friend in the food and drink section was looking for new contributors. What the hell, I thought. I can always do some more writing. So I threw my name in the hat and started contributing a couple articles a month, mostly highlighting underrepresented voices in brewing and the beer industry.”

You can read more from Kenny Gould at his article on Hop Culture here: “The Next Chapter”.

From his article on Hop Culture, Gould says: “Additionally, thank you. The past four years have exceeded all expectations I had for an exciting life. And I’ve been moved and inspired by every single person I’ve met along the way. From brewers to distributors, from retailers to fans and everyone in between, I’m in your debt. This ride has been nothing short of incredible.

And the best part? We’re only getting started.”

And to think, says Gould, Hop Culture started as a “glorified blog. I was doing it because it was fun.” (This certainly sounds familiar…….. I think I’ve used this line often times when co-workers, friends, and family ask me how my silly ‘blog’ thing is going; I’m just doing it for fun.)

For more information on the purchase, you can check out the following links:

• Forbes: Untappd and Beer Advocate’s Parent Company Accelerates its Buying Spree with Purchase of Hop Culture
• PRNewswire.com: Next Glass Acquires Hop Culture
• Hop Culture: Kenny Gould: The Next Chapter, or Why I Sold Hop Culture
• WRAL Tech Wire: Wilmington’s Next Glass showing a taste for deals, with latest buy
• Craft Brewing Business: Next Glass adds excellent craft beer hub Hop Culture to its portfolio

You can check out some of our latest craft beer news, brewery news, and industry news here: “BREWERY / INDUSTRY NEWS”. Including our latest about the BREW – The Museum of Beer, which is set to have an online exhibit opening on December 15th (Tuesday), 2020. The Museum will eventually be open in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Influence. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

Thank you everyone for reading. Any comments, questions, or anything you want to discuss at all, just leave a comment and I’ll make sure to get right back at ya. Love chatting with you guys about craft beer and breweries! Be sure to stay safe out there and keep supporting your small breweries and businesses, times are getting tough again, and all your support, no matter how little, can make the difference in a brewery staying open or shuttering their doors for good. Cheers everyone!

-B. Kline

For more information, you can check these references:
www.untappd.com
www.untappd.com/business
www.beeradvocate.com
www.oznr.com
www.untappd.tv
www.hopculture.com
www.instagram.com/hopculturemag

Be sure to check out our other articles on brewery openings:

• A Sneak Preview of Rubber Soul Brewing (Hummelstown)
• Midwest Coast Brewing Opens (Chicago)
• Rally Point – Cox Brewing Taproom Opens (Elizabethtown)
• Boneshire Brew Works to Open Second Taproom in Harrisburg (Harrisburg)
• Irv’s Pub Rebranded as Rotunda Brewing Pub (Hershey)
• Official BBQ (Pizza Boy Secondary Location) (Rutherford)
• The Grand Opening of Hemauer Brewing
• Pilger Ruh Brewing Needs Your Help (Pottsville)
• Highway Manor Brewing Co. (Camp Hill)
• Grand Opening: Rubber Soul Brewing Company (Hummelstown)
• Tap Room Opening: Howling Henry’s Brewery (Hummelstown)
• Little Fish Brewing Extending into Dayton
• Levity Brewing Expanding Taproom and Opening Second Location in Altoona
• BREW – The Museum of Beer

You can read about more brewery closures here:

• Stoudt’s Brewing Closing
• Crystal Ball Brewing Closes
• Voodoo Brewery Lancaster Closes
• Spigot Brewing Closes
• Full Pint Brewing Closes
• Night Shift Brewing Cancels Expansion
• Mikkeller Brewing NYC Closes Permanently

The below is the list of the 2020 NAGBW Awards and links to their works (when / where applicable).

Best Beer Review:

• Big Two Hearted — The Fascinating Story of Bell’s Iconic IPA by David Nilsen, Pellicle Magazine
• Brut Strength: A New Lost Abbey Venture by Ian Cheesman, West Coaster San Diego
• Where the Wild Things Are — The Joy of Harvey’s Sussex Best by Matthew Curtis, Pellicle Magazine

They also announced an honorable mention for: A Wake-Up Call — Mikkeller’s Beer Geek Breakfast by Jonny Garrett, Good Beer Hunting

Best Short Form Writing:

• Dirt Roads and Dead Deer – Kros Strain Brewery’s Vienna Lager by Mark Spence, Good Beer Hunting
• Meet The 99-Year-Old Who’s Still Volunteering at Union Craft Brewing by Michael Stein, Washington City Paper
• Cranberries in your beer? For Thanksgiving, look for styles that balance the tannic and tart fruit by Zak Stambor, Chicago Tribune

Best Book:

• Craft: An Argument by Pete Brown
• A Brief History of Lager: 500 Years of the World’s Favourite Beer by Mark Dredge
• Historical Brewing Techniques: The Lost Art of Farmhouse Brewing by Lars Marius Garshol

They also announced an honorable mention for: Denver Beer: A History of Mile High Brewing by Jonathan Shikes

Best Historical Writing:

• Flying With Clipped Wings — West Kerry Brewery, County Kerry, Ireland by Breandán Kearney, Good Beer Hunting
• Pandemic, Interrupted — A Besieged Beer Scene in 1918 Milwaukee by Brian Alberts, Good Beer Hunting
• Craft Beer’s Unlikely Alchemist by Theresa McCulla, Gastronomica

Best Technical Writing:

• The Intersection of Finance and Data by Douglas Veliky, Beer Crunchers
• Foeder Gatherers — Tracing the Growing Popularity of Beer’s New Favorite Vessel by Lily Waite, Good Beer Hunting
• A Fire Being Kindled — The Revolutionary Story of Kveik, Norway’s Extraordinary Farmhouse Yeast by Claire Bullen, Good Beer Hunting

They also announced an honorable mention for: Welcome to Fringe Division — The Innovative Malting Technology That’s Producing Better Beer by Matthew Curtis, Good Beer Hunting

Best Beer and Food Writing:

• Craft Cousins: Beer & Chocolate by David Nilsen, Cacao Magazine
• Malts and Meats: Crafting Beer-Based Barbecue by John Carruthers, Craft Beer & Brewing
• Native Vinegar Co. is just starting, but it already has thousands of workers by Bob Batz Jr., Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

With an honorable mention for: Michelin-starred Band of Bohemia isn’t Chicago’s best brewery — but here’s why it’s among the most essential by Josh Noel, Chicago Tribune

Best Beer Travel Writing:

• Amazing, Quirky Beers of Lithuania by Jeff Alworth, Beervana Blog
• If you want craft beer in Munich, it’s pure Helles by Martyn Cornell, Zythophile Blog
• Where the Streets are Paved with Bottle Caps — Exploring Berlin’s Nascent Craft Beer Scene by Lily Waite, Good Beer Hunting

An honorable mention for: A Lifetime Spent Weathering the Storm — Adnams Brewery in Suffolk, U.K. by Adrian Tierney-Jones, Good Beer Hunting

Best Beer Business Writing:

• Colorado Loses HQ: Why Molson Coors Had to Leave – and What Denver is Learning in Its Wake by Ed Sealover, Denver Business Journal
• Chicago craft breweries scramble amid coronavirus downturn, trying to react to a crisis they don’t quite understand by Josh Noel, Chicago Tribune
• Coming in Hot With the Cold Snacks — How Montucky Became the Most Successful Beer Brand You’ve Never Heard Of by Kate Bernot, Good Beer Hunting

An honorable mention was also given to: Healthier Booze: It’s a Lifestyle (Trend) by Joe Stange, Craft Beer & Brewing

Best Beer Criticism, Essay, and / or Commentary:

• Under the Influence by Beth Demmon, Caña Magazine
• Mutated Anxieties — Living (and Parenting) While Black in the Face of Law Enforcement and COVID-19 by Jamaal Lemon, Good Beer Hunting
• Craft, Community, and Children: The State of Parenting in the American Beer Industry by Beth Demmon, CraftBeer.com

Best Beer Blog:

• Larsblog by Lars Marius Garshol
• Zythophile by Martyn Cornell
• Pints and Panels by Em Sauter

Best Beer Podcast, Radio, Broadcast, or Audio:

• Good Beer Hunting Podcast by Good Beer Hunting Staff, Good Beer Hunting
• Beerlandia Podcast by Jeremy Storton, 1859 Oregon’s Magazine
• Beer Sessions Radio by Jimmy Carbone, Heritage Radio Network

An honorable mention was given to: Cabin Fever by Eoghan Walsh, Brussels Beer City

Best Local Beer Reporting:

• Bringing Everyone in — How Temescal’s Queer First Fridays Became One of Beer’s Most Inclusive Events by Ashley Rodriguez, Good Beer Hunting
• Gravity of the Situation — Has 450 North Addressed Its Quality Control Issues … and Does Anyone Care? by Kate Bernot, Good Beer Hunting
• Beer industry burnout brings lauded Texas brewer to Chicago for a new chapter and a new project, Keeping Together by Josh Noel, Chicago Tribune

Honorable mention: The Pursuit of Freshness — Admiral Maltings in Alameda, California by Alyssa Pereira, Good Beer Hunting

Best National or International Beer Reporting:

• Crisis at the Fire Front — Australia’s Brewing Industry Deals with Disaster as Bushfires Rage by Luke Robertson, Good Beer Hunting
• Say It Out Loud — Who Do Breweries Talk About When They Talk About “Community”? by Kate Bernot, Good Beer Hunting
• Embracing Tradition — To Create a Style for the Future, South African Brewers Look to the Past by Lucy Corne, Good Beer Hunting

You can read more about the awards given, the NAGBW in general, at The Reporter’s Notebook:

• Reporter’s Notebook

To read more about the Pennsylvania GABF Winners, click here:

• 2020 Pennsylvania GABF Winners

For more beer industry news, you can view our articles on the following:

You can read about more brewery closures here:

• Stoudt’s Brewing Closing
• Crystal Ball Brewing Closes
• Voodoo Brewery Lancaster Closes
• Spigot Brewing Closes
• Full Pint Brewing Closes
• Night Shift Brewing Cancels Expansion
• Mikkeller Brewing NYC Closes Permanently

And in better, happier news, check out our articles on brewery openings:

Be sure to check out our other articles on brewery openings:

• A Sneak Preview of Rubber Soul Brewing (Hummelstown)
• Midwest Coast Brewing Opens (Chicago)
• Rally Point – Cox Brewing Taproom Opens (Elizabethtown)
• Boneshire Brew Works to Open Second Taproom in Harrisburg (Harrisburg)
• Irv’s Pub Rebranded as Rotunda Brewing Pub (Hershey)
• Official BBQ (Pizza Boy Secondary Location) (Rutherford)
• Pilger Ruh Brewing Needs Your Help (Pottsville)
• Highway Manor Brewing Co. (Camp Hill)
• Grand Opening: Rubber Soul Brewing Company (Hummelstown)
• Tap Room Opening: Howling Henry’s Brewery (Hummelstown)

Hopefully, someday soon, maybe I’ll have some writing nominated, or at least even read by the NAGBW. One can only hope, fingers crossed, toes crossed, etc.

Until then, make sure to follow us and share us please. Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Influence. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

As always, thanks for reading, stay safe!

Cheers!

-B. Kline