Award-winning beers

Good reason not to worry about percentages.

What the awards mean in general is "it's a good beer for the style."

 

They actually won a gold medal. The blue ribbon was on the bottle to denote the brand, later it became the name of the beer.



Enjoy

 

That complicates an already complicated situation.

That data does not reflect the idea that some beers are not entered every year. Some beers get entered one year and that's all. You would have to go back and figure out how many unique beers have been entered over the years, correct for multiple entries, correct for retired beers, and continue down the statistical rabbit hole. Yikes.

 

Yes, it complicates. But there's already so much noise in the situation a little more won't make things much worse.

Just think of the Award winners as an equivalence class. They all scored well and it's worth trying them to see if you like them. Is one "better" or "best?" No. Are there others that qualify to be in the equivalence class? Sure. But which are they?

 

Several liquor stores in my area will post the B/A score below the beer.
I have more faith in this than an award I’ve read about and more often than not, have forgotten.

 

Helluva sense of humor ya got there.

 

It’s true as told to me at the Best house last year. I even won some beer knowing it was a gold medal. Don’t remember the original name but it was not PBR. The old bottles were unlabeled.

Enjoy

 

La cumbre's elevated IPA won a gabf gold in 2011. That was
One of the first ipas to really introduce me to juicy and Citrusy hop flavors. Before that, it was bitter abrasive pine with a somewhat sweet malt presence. This one was dry with bright juicy hop aromas and
Flavors. I think I found that beer 2-3 months before the award. I wanna say I saw the award coming but it's tough to see at the past in that manner.

After that, I definitely started to seek out award winners here or there. Even past winners, I would go back 7-8 years and just try to see who was making quality brews. Anymore, I haven't really been doing that.

 

Both.

 

Pabst Select:

Started tying the ribbons on the bottles in 1882. Put the words "Blue Ribbon" on the Select label in 1985. First labeled the beer "Blue Ribbon" in 1898.*

Depends on which legend/PR story you believe*. As Best Brewing Co. they won a gold medal in Phila's Centennial Exposition in 1876, another in Paris' World's Fair in 1878, and, as Pabst, in 1893 at Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition (maybe the most controversial in a dispute between Pabst and Anheuser Busch) they won 5 medals and one honorable mention but beat out AB with 6 medals on "points" - 95 2/9 to 94 2/3. ( Things were different back then - no TV commercials so the "Beer Wars" was fought on different grounds.)

* I'm going by the Chronology in Thom. Cochran's The Pabst Brewing Co., The History of an American Business [1948]. Other sources differ.

 

My advice: Don’t take contests like this so literally. I doubt you spend much time wondering if the current “Miss Universe” is actually the most beautiful woman in the universe.

I have looked at award winning beers and used it as a shopping list though. There was exactly one time where I bought a beer because of an award and it ended up being a big “winner” for me too. Not my favorite, but a repeat purchase.

Be careful of the style and category shenanigans employed. Beers often win in categories that are different from how they are marketed. I don’t have an issue with that practice although I’ve been burned by it as a consumer. I do find it very illuminating.

 

Did you mean 1885 here?

“Blue Ribbon” was added to the beer name in 1895 and, in 1899, the brand name changed to Pabst Blue Ribbon, as we know it and love it (or at least tolerate it) today."

https://vinepair.com/articles/pbr-pabst-blue-ribbon-beer-guide/

Cheers!

 

Has anyone ever seen statistics or have knowledge of whether any winners in the GABF competition are ever entered again in following years and win again and again? When you get a repeat winner, you know you've got a truly great beer.

Not many people pay attention to the AAL category, but I'll guess that if any repeat winners occur that it would be Bud, Miller High Life and Coors duking it out each year. But I'm not so interested in that category and its cousin the Light AAL.

 

I'll let these two sources fight this one out between themselves.

 

Yeah, repeat wins happen.

 

FW had consecutive wins fot Union Jack at GABF.