Three hobby brewers, including two from Germany, won the top prizes at this year’s BEST BREW CHALLENGE. First place went to Hunter Brew from Schwarzenbek near Hamburg with their brown ale “Öckel”. Second place was awarded to the American amber lager “MANOBier” brewed by the eponymous Brazilian craft brewery, which has taken several prizes this year in its home country. “Amber Ale” by Kelleher, an Irish homebrewer based near Darmstadt for the last three years, came third.
The awards were presented at a ceremony at drinktec on 11 September 2017. It was chaired by “beer padre” Christian Köhler. BEST BREW CHALLENGE 2017 brought together 124 participants from 19 countries on 5 continents, who brewed beer simultaneously in May. Of these, 49 submitted their beers by mid-July, and professional tasters, sommeliers and master brewers chose the winning beer in a blind tasting at the end of July.
The BEST BREW CHALLENGE was held for the third time this year. Each year clear constraints are defined within which participating breweries and hobby brewers can unleash their creativity. This year they had to comply with the purity guidelines of the German Reinheitsgebot and use at least 49 % of pale BEST Heidelberg malt. With a wealth of ideas and a joy of experimentation, the participating breweries, brewpubs and homebrewers showed the variety of beers this can produce.
