Washington brewery submissions needed for 2020's Washington Beer Awards.
image courtesy the Washington Beer Awards
Press Release
We are proud to invite you to enter the Eighth Annual Washington Beer Awards, the craft beer competition designed specifically to support Washington’s professional brewers. This Washington-only competition provides an opportunity for all of Washington’s craft brewers to compete in a blind judging format. It allows recognition of brewing excellence in Washington and provides feedback supporting future competition entry decisions. Our goal is to provide an unbiased and affordable competition for Washington brewers and raise awareness of Washington craft beer both within the state and on the national level. We have coordinated with the Washington Beer Commission who endorses this competition as a great way to promote Washington breweries.
This competition provides an affordable venue for Washington brewers to compete locally and receive a higher caliber of judging than provided at many craft beer competitions. We leverage invite-only trained judges with a focus on providing feedback tailored for the commercial community with detailed tasting observations assessed against the Brewers Association style guidelines used for entering other craft beer competitions.
The competition will be held in late May, in advance of the registration periods for competitions like the Great American Beer Festival. This helps support brewing and entry decisions, increasing your chances of attaining national recognition. Medals will be provided to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners and special awards will be provided to breweries with many winning beers.
Our 2019 competition brought in 1,467 entries from 193 breweries all over the state and presented over 240 awards to Washington brewers. We expect the competition to grow this year permitting even more award categories and special awards including a Collaboration category as well as a Pro-Am competition, Best Washington Agricultural Product Inspired Beer, Best Washington Malt Beer, and recognition of the Washington Breweries of the Year. We also plan to offer a special Fresh Hop competition again in the fall to support recognition of those seasonal styles.
The competition is executed by the longest running organizers of the largest beer competitions in the Northwest. With experience in professional competitions, knowledge of the needs of the craft brewing community, and ties to the local judging pool, we aim to provide the highest caliber of a beer competition from a non-partisan third party to ensure the legitimacy of your awards.
The registration period will be open from March 10th to March 31st with entries due in early May. Winners will be announced at the Washington Brewers Festival on June 20th in a ceremony at the main stage before the main festivities commence (all entrants will be permitted to attend, independent of whether they are hosting a booth at the festival). Results will be posted online shortly afterwards.
Complete details and previous results for the Washington Beer Awards will be available at www.wabeerawards.com. You can sign up to be kept in the loop on competition updates on the website, our e-mail list, and our Facebook page.
We hope to have your involvement and participation in the 2020 competition.
