The Texas Craft Brewers Guild awarded 81 medals to 57 small and independent breweries from across the Lone Star State in the non-profit trade association’s first statewide craft beer competition. The best Texas craft beers in 27 medal categories covering 150+ different beer styles were awarded gold, silver, and bronze medals during an awards ceremony at the Texas Craft Brewers Guild’s Annual Meeting at Hilton Austin on Saturday, Feb. 12. Judging took place January 29-30 in Austin with 37 judges evaluating 755 anonymized entries from 131 breweries hailing from all different corners of the state. The Texas Craft Brewers Cup judging pool was comprised of experienced brewing industry professionals and members of the homebrewing community with extensive Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) judging experience.

“One of the key missions of the Texas Craft Brewers Guild is to celebrate the outstanding quality of Texas craft beer and a professional craft competition might be the best celebration of them all,” Texas Craft Brewers Guild Executive Director Charles Vallhonrat said. “With more than 750 entries in the competition, our medalists represent the pinnacle of quality in an outrageously wide range of craft beer styles.”

As the organization behind the annual Texas Craft Brewers Festival, and the Texas Brewery Passport app which helps beer enthusiasts find and visit Guild member breweries, Vallhonrat believes the Texas Craft Brewers Cup will be yet another tool in the Guild’s toolkit to help attract new fans and bring longtime beer lovers back to taprooms at a time when small and independent breweries have a lot to gain from the promotion of Texas’ highest quality craft beers.

“The Texas Craft Brewers Guild felt the time was right to introduce a Texas-only craft beer competition, Vallhonrat said. “While we’ve discussed a competition for years, we waited for the right moment in time when we have the most diverse set of brewery business models, the widest array of styles to work with, and the critical mass of craft breweries literally across the state to make the competition the ultimate brewing benchmark for the state.”