Pensacola, Navarre breweries score Florida best beer awards: Here are the 13 winning brews
The Best Florida Beer Competition is an annual challenge across the Sunshine State to answer one of the most pressing questions life has to offer: where can I find the best beer?
Last year, six Pensacola-area breweries took home gold, silver and bronze medals. This year, seven breweries across Escambia and Santa Rosa counties rose to the occasion, earning 13 awards collectively.
Here are the winners:
Learn about year's winners hereCheers! These Pensacola breweries won the Best Florida Beer contest
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Gold medals go to two Pensacola breweries
McGuire’s Irish Pub-Pensacola, 600 E. Gregory St.
Category: International stout
Type: Classic Irish-style dry stout
Total Entries: 18
Winning beer: McGuire’s Irish Stout
Big Top Brewing Company, 21 Romana St.
Category: Juicy or hazy strong pale ale
Total Entries: 16
Winning beer: Hazy Skywire
Silver medals go to three Pensacola area breweries
Coastal County Brewing Co., 3041 E. Olive Road
Category: Irish-style red ale
Total Entries: 10
Winning beer: Fred’s Irish Red
Coastal County Brewing Co., 3041 E. Olive Road
Category: American-style cream ale
Total Entries: 9
Winning beer: Coastal Cream Ale
Perfect Plain Brewing Co., 50 E. Garden St.
Category: Fruit beer
Total Entries: 15
Winning beer: Yachtside
Emerald Republic Brewing Company, 1414 W. Government St.
Category: Fruited American-style sour ale
Total Entries: 12
Winning beer: Gozen
Bronze medals go to six Pensacola area breweries
Big Top Brewery, 21 Romana St.
Category: Herb and spice beer
Total Entries: 11
Winning beer: Winter Red
Big Top Brewery, 21 Romana St.
Category: Belgian-style light ale
Type: Belgian-style blonde ale
Total Entries: 14
Winning beer: Summer in Bruges
Perfect Plain Brewing Co., 50 E. Garden St.
Category: Bohemian style pilsener
Total Entries: 9
Winning beer: Czech Pils
McGuire’s Irish Pub — Pensacola, 600 E. Gregory St.
Category: German-style ock
Total Entries: 10
Winning beer: McGuire’s Dopplebock
St. Michael’s Brewing Company, 2199 Highway 87, Navarre
Category: Scottish-style ale
Type: Scottish-style export ale
Total Entries: 7
Winning beer: Florida Highlander Scottish
Alga Beer Co., 2435 N. 12th Ave.
Category: Specialty beer
Type: Honey beer
Total Entries: 31
Winning beer: Neighborhood Beer
Emerald Republic Brewing Company, 1414 W. Government St.
Category: Chocolate or coffee beer
Type: Coffee beer
Total Entries: 15
Winning beer: Year Zero
How the competition works
The competition started as a small homebrewer's competition at the Florida State Fair two decades ago and became "too big for its britches" and has now transformed into one of the top competitions in the state, Jason Toft, vice president of Commercial Brewing of Best Florida Beer, told the News Journal last spring.
The unique part of the competition is that it is peer-reviewed with at least two judges per category, primarily all brewers themselves.
"We really pride ourselves on making it a peer-reviewed competition," Toft said.
The top qualifiers are then invited to the Annual Brewer's Ball in Tampa, where they bring a keg of their winning beer for everyone to taste. It isn't until the evening of the ball that the brewers find out how they placed.
There brewers will collaborate and receive feedback from some of the best brewers in the state.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Best Florida Beer Competition awards go to Pensacola, Navarre brewery
