Updated Friday, Nov. 27 — The news gets even better. Reuben’s Brews now reports the following: “After the great news the Crikey IPA won a gold medal at the Brussels Beer Challenge earlier this week, we were humbled to learn today that Crikey was selected as the best North American beer at the competition!”
Original Post:
The Brussels Beer Challenge is an international beer judging event that sees Belgium’s esteemed breweries enter their top beers in competition against some of the best beers from the USA and around the world. It is one of Europe’s most esteemed beer competitions. The results are known as The Brussels International Beer Awards.
This year, the field included 1,700 beers from 35 countries that were judged by an international panel of more than 80 judges. A couple of our local breweries earned some impressive honors.
Congratulations to Spokane’s No-Li Brewhouse and Seattle’s Reuben’s Brews. They both brought home gold medals.
No-Li Brewhouse of Spokane lead the way with two gold medals, securing more medals than any other USA brewery. In the Russian Imperial Stout category, Wrecking Ball Imperial Stout brought home the gold. In the American IPA (Higher than 6.5 ABV) category Born and Raised IPA brought home the gold.
For No-Li, the two medals follow last month’s sweep at another international competition, the 2020 World Beer Awards in England. No-Li swept the Hazy IPA category. Cascade Fog Hazy IPA won the gold and Red, White and Haze IPA won the silver.
At the 2020 Brussels International Beer Awards, in the Pacific IPA category, Crikey IPA by Reuben’s Brews brought home the gold. Crikey IPA also won gold medals at the 2017 Brussels Beer Challenge and 2016 Euro Beer Star. This beer has earned plenty of other medals and accolades as well.
As with any beer competition like this, there are caveats. Not every brewery and not every beer is represented in the competition. Just because your favorite IPA did not win a medal, that doesn’t mean it is not good, or that it is not the best. Events like these typically do not provide a list of which breweries did and did not submit beer.