Do you care about beer awards?

Like you, I enjoy browsing them and if I recognize a brewery or beer that I've passed on or just ignored in the past it will nudge me towards checking them out.

I also like to see if any local brewers faired well, just for that sweet sweet vicarious pride. And I reserve the right to feel that pride for any brewery I have the most tangential association with

 

Used to, but that was back in the day when learned via emails & magazines/beer news papers

This should be a point of pride. but these days; so many options.

 

I care about beer awards about as much as I care about what film or actor won an Oscar—which is to say, not much. Who wins, and just as importantly who is nominated, informs my understanding of who is considered to be doing the best work in the industry this year, and it does that pretty accurately—but I’m under no illusions that if I drink beer X I’m drinking literally the best IPA or imperial stout produced this year, just as if I see film X I’m watching the best film produced this year—such things are simply too subjective. All such awards are as much about industry self-promotion as they are about recognizing excellence, and they should be regarded as such.

 

It's worth noting that the blind nature of beer contests makes them unique compared to other contests of subjective enjoyment.

Beer contests are constrained by the practicality of not being able to divulge their contestant lists, which would make the results much more meaningful to consumers and make participation much more risky to participating brewers

 

This is what makes beer awards more valid in my opinion.

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In my experience, it seems that most awarded beers, are in the least pretty well made.

Do I care about and rave about the awards? Not really, but like you said if it’s a local favorite it’s a nice little point of pride.

On the Flipside of this how many great and well executed beers do not have awards??? A lot I’d say…

 

I do., especially on a regional or local level. I lived in Fort Myers, Florida b4 moving to France last year.

Fort Myers Brewing Co. is not only one of the top busiest taprooms in the state of Florida, but their beers have earned +40 state, national and international awards! Their Chocolate Stout medaled in the Chocolate Beer Category multiple years at the World Beer Cup, the largest &most prestigious professional beer competition in the world.

The Best Florida Beer Professional Championship named Fort Myers Brewing Co. as the Best Large Brewery in Florida just 3 years after they opened.
They won 15 gold, 6 silver and 9 bronze medals since 2014, including 2023 runner up for Best Beer in Florida for their High 5 IPA.

I will patronize that commitment to excellence because it encourages winning breweries to continue producing superior product.,.

 

I do check them out, especially the NAs. Sorry the shipping costs and other restrictions often prevents me from getting those awarded.

 

It's cool to see local spots bring home awards but overall not a huge deal to me.

 

I like to feel validated when beers and breweries I like win awards from those wise, just, and overall good-looking judges.

I like to feel indignant when beers and breweries I like are cheated by those incompetent, under-handed, generally-of-poor-moral-quality judges.

Seeing a beer win out over a beer I really like makes me want to try it.

 

You’re right, that is an important distinction. I guess I’d only add to my previous comment that most random beer drinkers are probably not aware of how the selection process works, and thus might assume it’s similar to other awards and are not swayed all that much by the results. I’m sure all the winners are deserving, but again such things are really subjective so the value to me in knowing who won is pretty llmited. It’s also the case that on any list of winners I probably have access to only a small fraction of the beers, so on a practical level I don’t pay too much attention to lists of beers I will never be able to taste for myself.

 

It doesn't happen often, but I love it when a favorite brewery gets the recognition it deserves. PIVO's (Calmar, IA) Old Balltown BBBASCDCBMS (BBA flavored milk stout) and Decorah Nordic Gruit both won GABF medals in '19 and '20.

 

A beer or a brewery getting an award will not influence my decision to purchase in any capacity whatsoever. That said, it is cool when a brewery I like gets recognition for something they've done.

 

No, I really don’t care but I will however browse through the list out of curiosity.

 

Definitely. While I don't necessarily put a ton of stock in awards meaning something is the "best," it's really, really rare for something winning awards to be a full-on bad beer. Especially if it's a style I enjoy. It's similar to BA and Untappd reviews...only conducted by trained judges. That's how I look at most awards - they're like reviews from an especially reliable reviewer. If a place near me or a place I'm visiting has an award-winning beer for a style I like, I'll typically order one.

 

I'll usually look at the list to see which breweries have won that are available to me. Even living here in California I'd say about 90% of the winning breweries and beers are ones that I'll never have access to. But if I see one that made the list and I happen to come across it, then sure, why not give it a try?

 

On that day, they had the best beer in a certain style, blind tested by a panel of judges, over all the other entrants in that style. So I put some stock in it that it's a pretty good beer worth trying, if I see it for purchase.

 

I'm sure it's fun for all involved, but the entries in most of these competitions are voluntary so the sample-size is self-selecting, and from what I can tell has a lot to do with geography and generation. I live in NY and the substantial majority of the breweries who particpate in the bigger festivals are either not available to me, or are bigger brands who've been around forever and I don't need to be told about. And then I very rarely see any of the breweries in my area who I think are great.

I feel like these events were more important in the days when craft breweries were scattered few and far between, so it gave a way for a disparate group to come together, but these days there's more saturation even just geographically, and I wouldn't be surprised if the lack of new-school hype breweries in most of these have as much to do with changes in the overall culture as as with those breweries reluctance to find out that their 4.5 Untappd rated hazy doesn't medal.

 

No. It's cool for the breweries to get recognized, I guess. But I don't think I've ever made a purchase based off of any award.

 

I enjoy looking at the lists and talking about the winners (a WA brewery that I'm unfamiliar with won several medals this year), but awards don't make or break a brewery for me.