Several Minnesota breweries win awards at national competition

A national beer competition brought more than 9,000 beers to Ohio this month and several from Minnesota rose to the top.

While the judges at the U.S. Open Beer Championship chose Toppling Goliath Brewing, of Decorah, Iowa, as the grand national champion, Minnesota was represented well by several breweries.

Winners from Minnesota included:

• Pantown Brewing (St. Cloud) won gold in the “Cream Stout” category with Drop Forge;
• Spilled Grain Brewhouse (Annandale) won gold in the “Old Ale/Strong Ale” category for Bearded Man;
• Spilled Grain Brewhouse’s Oktoberfest winning gold in the “Märzen/Oktoberfest” category;
• Forgotten Star Brewing Company (Fridley) won gold in the “Baltic Porter” category for Dark Skies;
• Lupulin Brewing Company (Big Lake) won gold in the “Dortmunder Export” category with Dortmunder;
• Lift Bridge Brewery (Stillwater) won gold in the “American Berry/Fruit Beer – General/Other” category for Mango Blonde;
• Lift Bridge Brewery’s Lift Bridge Root Beer winning gold in the “Root Beer – Adult” category;
• Lift Bridge Brewery’s Juice-Z winning silver in the “Juicy or Hazy Strong Pale Ale” category;
• Lupulin Brewing Company’s Scribbled Lines Rene v.2 winning silver in the “Barrel Aged Sour Beer” category;
• Lupulin Brewing Company’s Little Black Rain Cloud winning silver in the “Wood/Barrel Aged Scotch Ale” category;
• Spilled Grain Brewhouse’s Root Beer winning silver in the “Root Beer – Kids” category;
• Lupulin Brewing Company’s Not Bad for a Strip Mall Brewery winning bronze in the “Triple IPA” category;
• Forgotten Star Brewing Company’s Bonspiel Bock winning bronze in the “Bock” category;
• Lift Bridge Brewery’s Lime Time winning bronze in the “American Berry/Fruit Beer – Lime” category;
• Lupulin Brewing Company’s Barrel God Cuvée ’23 winning bronze in the “Barrel Aged Strong Stout/Porter Extreme” category;

Lupulin Brewing, which also has a location in Sioux Falls, S.D., ended up tied for 10th overall in the competition.

The U.S. Open Beer Championship says it judges more beer styles than any other competition in the world.

Click here to see the full results.