Beer national champions 2024 crowned in 20 categories
Linz (OTS) – At the celebratory awards ceremony for the Austrian Beer Challenge (ABC) 2024 on Friday (June 21, 2024), the results of the 20th State Beer Championship were announced and the state championship titles were awarded to the best commercial breweries and the best hobby brewers in the beer country of Austria.
With a total of two state 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 receive the certificate of the prestigious to receive the title as part of the ABC Beer Gala in the auditorium of the Linzer Brewery and to celebrate the victory properly on site.
Florian Javernik only entered the brewing business this year after having already enjoyed success as a hobby brewer at ABC for seven years. This year he managed to brew the “Beer of the Year 2024” with Flos Black. The fact that a dark lager is chosen as “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 local varieties.
Just as the state championship returned to the state of its origin for its 20th anniversary, the Upper Austrian breweries also dominate this year’s ABC with 6 state championship titles and a total of 19 podium places. Lower Austria follows in the top 3 ranking (14), ahead of Vienna (8), Carinthia (5), Burgenland (4), Salzburg, Styria as well as 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 also shows the great acceptance of the Austrian Beer Challenge as the first and only state championship for breweries. With 716 beers submitted, it is also the most successful in the more than 20 years of its existence,” says long-time ABC organization manager Jörg Prähauser.
The Kremmel private brewery from Lustenau/Vorarlberg dominated among the hobby brewers with a total of six podium places and three state 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 enough. Florian Kremmel’s state champion beer LEO was voted “Best of Show” among hobby brewers’ beers by 10 jurors in the final round of blind tasting. As with commercial breweries, the best hobby beer is a dark lager. This double success is all the more remarkable because the Kremmel private brewery wins most of the prizes with bottom-fermented beers, which requires a demand for perfection in absolutely error-free brewing processes, especially in the hobby brewing 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. On their cell phones and tablets, beer consumers rated an anonymous sample package of light, bottom-fermented, classic Austrian beers over several weeks. Stiegl Goldbräu emerged as the winner. Afterwards, Geigenseer Edelsud Helles and Zipfer Urtyp were among the audience 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 experts in the local beer industry.
Background information:
All beers that can be submitted for AB in almost 120 internationally recognized BJCP* variety guidelines were grouped thematically into a total of 20 categories for ABC 2024. The state championship title as well as the second and third place winners were determined in these 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 beers from hobby brewers, a total of 716 beers were registered to take part in the ABC this year, which represents an all-time record for the number of participating beers on the 20th anniversary of the state championship for breweries and hobby brewers.
The ABC tasting competition took place from May 31st to June 2nd, 2024 in the lecture hall of the Linzer Brewery. The Austrian Beer Challenge is Austria’s first and only national beer championship and the benchmark for domestic beer quality. This year, at the completely independent blind tasting, a total of more than 100 jurors tasted from a top-class national (60%) and international (40%) jury.
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 it was founded in 2002 and organizes the state championship exclusively with the support of volunteer club members.
Further information about the Austrian Beer Challenge and award ceremony including pictures and a complete list of award 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 a basis for evaluation in numerous championships and competitions worldwide.
Questions & Contact:
BierIG – interest group of beer consumers
Harry Mittermaier, President BierIG
harry.mittermaier@bierig.org
+43 664 8329400