The 7 best breweries in America

By Leanna Garfield From Business Insider

Every year, the Great American Beer Festival holds a prestigious competition to select the best beers and breweries in the country.
Approximately 1,752 breweries participated in the most recent festival, which was hosted by the Brewers Association and took place in Denver, Colorado in October 2016.

A jury of more than 265 beer industry professionals from 12 countries announced the winners. Without knowing the brand names, they tasted each brewery’s selected beers according to specific flavor parameters (which you can read more about in this 68-page set of guidelines).

The breweries are broken into seven different size categories, ranging from “small brewpub” to “large brewing company.” The top one in each group was awarded the title of “champion brewery.”

April 7 is National Beer Day in the US. So check out the festival’s winners below.

Small Brewpub — ZwanzigZ Brewing

Location: Columbus, Indiana

Winning beers: Frankenwald Eisbock and The Ticket Chocolate Beer

Mid-Size Brewpub — Boxing Bear Brewing Co.

Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico

Winning beers: AlpenGlow and Black Muddy River

Large Brewpub — The Austin Beer Garden Brewing Co.

Location: Austin, Texas

Winning beer: Industry

Very Small Brewing Company — Brown Truck Brewery

Location: High Point, North Carolina

Winning beers: American Lager and Saison

Small Brewing Company — Überbrew

Location: Billings, Montana

Winning beers: Humulus Insani and Average at Best

Mid-Size Brewing Company — Karl Strauss Brewing Co.

Location: San Diego, California

Winning beers: Queen of Tarts and Liquid AC

Large Brewing Company — Pabst Brewing Co.

Location: Los Angeles, California

Winning beers: Pabst Blue Ribbon and Old Style Lager

IMAGES:

Great American Beer Festival/Facebook
A photo posted by ZwanzigZ (@zwanzigz) on Aug 16, 2016 at 7:50am PDT
A photo posted by Boxing Bear Brewing Co. (@boxingbearbrewing) on Aug 20, 2016 at 4:08pm PDT
A photo posted by Airren Heidle (@airren_noel) on Aug 6, 2016 at 10:54am PDT
A photo posted by Brown Truck Brewery (@browntruckbrewery) on Sep 27, 2016 at 5:48pm PDT
A photo posted by Überbrew (@uberbrew) on Mar 18, 2016 at 2:03pm PDT
A photo posted by Mindy (@lifeworthrecording) on Sep 17, 2016 at 6:48pm PDT
A photo posted by Pabst Blue Ribbon (@pabstblueribbon) on Oct 7, 2016 at 3:22pm PDT

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