Beer State Champion 2024 chosen in 20 categories
Linz (OTS) – At the ceremonial award ceremony for the Austrian Beer Challenge (ABC) 2024 on Friday (June 21, 2024), the results of the 20th National Beer Championship were announced and the national championship titles were awarded to the best commercial breweries and the best hobby brewers in beer country Austria.
With a total of two national championship titles and two silver medals, the Hofstetten brewery from St. Martin im Mühlkreis can call itself “Brewery of the Year 2024”. Owner and master brewer Peter Krammer was represented by his son and 6th generation brewer Erik Krammer to accept the certificate of the prestigious title at the ABC Beer Gala in the lecture hall of the Linz brewery and to duly celebrate the victory on site.
Florian Javernik only entered the brewing business this year, after seven years of success as a hobby brewer, including at ABC. This year he managed to brew the “Beer of the Year 2024” with Flos Black. The fact that a dark lager is named “Best of Show”, i.e. the most convincing beer of all 20 category winners, is anything but a given, as it is an often underestimated beer style among the traditional domestic varieties.
Just as the national championship returned to the state of its origin for its 20th anniversary, Upper Austrian breweries also dominated this year’s ABC with 6 national championship titles and a total of 19 podium places. Lower Austria follows in the ranking of the top 3 places (14) ahead of Vienna (8), Carinthia (5), Burgenland (4), Salzburg, Styria and Vorarlberg (3 each) and Tyrol (2).
“For the first time, we can award breweries from every federal state. On the one hand, this is evidence of the high quality of beer across the country, and on the other hand, it is also evidence of the great acceptance of the Austrian Beer Challenge as the first and only national brewery championship. With 716 beers submitted, it is also the most successful in the more than 20 years of its existence,” says long-time ABC organizational manager Jörg Prähauser.
Among the hobby brewers, the Kremmel private brewery from Lustenau/Vorarlberg dominated with a total of six podium places and three national championship titles. Florian Kremmel has now regained the coveted title of “Hobby Brewer of the Year” after the same successes in 2021 and 2022. But that’s not all. Florian Kremmel’s national champion beer LEO was voted “Best of Show” among the hobby brewer beers in the final round of the blind tasting by 10 judges. As with commercial breweries, the best hobby beer is also a dark lager. This double success is all the more remarkable as the Kremmel private brewery wins most of the prizes with bottom-fermented beers, which requires a demand for perfection in absolutely flawless brewing processes, especially in the hobby brewer class.
Around 4,000 testers from all over Austria took part in the Community Award, which has been held since last year as part of the ABC and in cooperation with the Beer Tasting App. Over several weeks, beer consumers rated an anonymous sample package of light, bottom-fermented, classic Austrian beers on their mobile phones and tablets. Stiegl Goldbräu emerged as the winner. Geigenseer Edelsud Helles and Zipfer Urtyp were then among the audience’s favorites.
A success on the organizational side was the first definition of the Austrian Märzen beer style based on the international standards of the BJCP* variety guidelines by specialist book author Hubert Hanghofer with the support of several key figures in the domestic beer industry.
Background information:
All beers that can be submitted to the AB in almost 120 internationally recognized BJCP* variety guidelines were thematically grouped into a total of 20 categories for the ABC 2024. The national championship title as well as the second and third place winners were determined in these same 20 categories. The BierIG quality seal 2024 was awarded to a further 57 commercially available and 56 hobby brewer beers that made it to the final with a minimum number of points. With 312 beers from commercial breweries and 404 hobby brewer beers, a total of 716 beers were registered to take part in the ABC this year, which corresponds to an all-time record number of participating beers on the 20th anniversary of the State Championship for Breweries & Hobby Brewers.
The ABC tasting competition took place from May 31 to June 2, 2024 in the lecture hall of the Linz brewery. The Austrian Beer Challenge is Austria’s first and only national beer championship and the benchmark for domestic beer quality. This year, a total of more than 100 jurors from a top-class national (60%) and international (40%) jury tasted the beers in the completely independent blind tasting.
The ABC is the most important event of the BierIG association, an interest group for beer consumers, which has been committed to beer diversity and culture in Austria since its founding in 2002 and organizes the national championship exclusively with the support of volunteer club members.
Further information on the Austrian Beer Challenge and the award ceremony, including pictures and a complete list of winners, can be found at www.austrianbeerchallenge.at
*BJCP: Beer Judge Certification Program, Inc. is a global organization for the certification of judges for beer and related fermented products. The beer styles defined and described by the BJCP serve as the basis for judging in numerous championships and competitions around the world.
Inquiries & Contact:
BierIG – Interest group of beer consumers
Harry Mittermaier, President of BierIG
harry.mittermaier@bierig.org
+43 664 8329400
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