The 2026 Great American Beer Festival was probably the best of the modern era for the DMV, culminating in Alexandria’s Mieza Blendery winning Small Brewer of the Year. Alexandria’s Port City Brewing Company won this award in 2015.
Mieza earned this thanks to silver and bronze medals in Category: 35: Wood- and Barrel-Aged Sour Beer. There were 46 entries in that category. Silver was for Sulking in The Brush, an Oak Barrel-Aged Sour Blond Ale with Nectaron and Superdelic hops and second-use peaches. Minotaurs & Matadors, a Barrel-Aged Blond Sour Ale with Virginia-grown Malbec grapes, took bronze. I had both these beers last week, so I feel like a winner, too, though I was partial to the bronze medalist, so what do I know. Congrats to Mieza and Alex Lynch!
Since we mentioned Port City, they won gold for their Oktoberfest in Category: 55: Vienna-Style Lager. It’s not their first medal for this beer, and it won’t be the last, either. There were 82 entries in that category, and as predicted by this very site on Friday, October 9th, DC Brau’s Dueling Grounds took silver. Brau wasn’t done there. Old Time Lager also won silver, for Category: 42: American Lager (94 entries). It’s very cool to see the first two craft breweries inside the Beltway medal for the same style.
Keeping it DC, and keeping it silver, Henceforth’s Baltic Porter, Opposites Attract, showed up and showed out in Category: 19: Strong Porter. Interestingly, there were only 20 entries in that category. More importantly, it’s probably time for them to brew it again as the weather gets cooler, hint hint.
Maryland matched DC’s 3 medals. BabyCat Brewery in Kensington now has a GABF medal to go along with their World Beer Cup silver earlier in the year. Spruce Goose took bronze in Category: 7: Herb and Spice Beer (67 entries). Montgomery County wasn’t done there. Silver Branch’s Mundo Especial rice lager won silver in that category (41), impressive given the 110 beers entered. This weekend marked the reopening of Silver Branch Warrenton, so it’s win-win for them!
The only area brewery to medal in a style with more entries is Full Distance Brewing in Stafford, VA. Yucatan Sunrise took bronze in Category: 41: Mexican-Style Pale Lager, which had 146 entries.
That last Maryland medal is more of a day trip. Across the Bay Bridge, in Denton on the Choptank River, Eden Town Brewing was the youngest brewery to medal at the World Beer Cup. They’re not even a year old and now they have GABF hardware, too. Tiki Pontoon took silver in Category: 65: Gose (36 entries). It would be cool to see them at Wanderland in Columbia in a few weeks; maybe they can be convinced.
Virginia wasn’t done, with 13 medals total at GABF 2026. Savvy beer shoppers will recognize some of these from Northern Virginia beer stores, and Devils Backbone is available pretty much everywhere.
- Category: 56: German-Style Maerzen – 184 Entries
Silver: Oktoberfest, Bingo Beer Co., Richmond, VA
- Category: 43: Contemporary American Lager – 46 Entries
Gold: Gold Leaf Lager, Devils Backbone Brewing Co., Roseland, VA
- Category: 71: Scottish-Style Ale – 34 Entries
Gold: Satan’s Pony, South Street Brewery, Charlottesville, VA
Bronze: Monticello Mountain Ale, Blue Mountain Brewery, Afton, VA
- Category: 96: American Amber/Red Ale – 85 Entries
Gold: Planet 4, Billsburg Brewery, Williamsburg, VA
If there are surprises here, it’s that Sweetwater Tavern came home empty handed. They had previously medaled in 9 of the last 10 years. Caboose and Atlas similarly struck out, though both breweries earned hardware earlier in the year at the WBC.
In trends that are not great for the beer business, 7,267 beverage entries from 1,300 producers continues a decline in GABF participation. 8,315 beers and ciders from 1,555 entrants were evaluated at the 2025 GABF, while the 2024 Great American Beer Festival saw 8,836 beers judged, down from 9,298 beers in 2023 and 9,904 in 2022. In 2024 1,869 breweries and cideries competed, but in 2023 it was 2,033 breweries and 2022 saw 2,154 breweries. On the plus side, 49 states and DC were represented in the competition and we at DC Beer extend our hearty congratulations to the winners.
Our own Mike Stein was at GABF 2026; we hope to have some words from him soon.
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