On Wednesday evening, the Brewers Association held the 2023 World Beer Cup awards ceremony at the Music City Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Considered the largest beer competition in the world, the World Beer Cup accepted 10,213 beers entered by 2,376 breweries, from 51 participating countries. Four New Mexico breweries brought home some top honors among the 103 awarded categories.

New Mexico Wins:

• Category 17: Strong Porter (66 entries) – Starr Brothers Brewing Co. (Silver), Albuquerque, NM – Lampshade Porter
• Category 44: Vienna-Style Lager (109 entries) – Ex-Novo (Bronze), Corrales, NM – V for Vienna
• Category 45: German-Style Maerzen or Franconian-Style Rotbier (83 entries)  – Quarter Celtic Brewpub (Gold), Albuquerque, NM, Capri-derhosen
• Category 81: Sweet Stout or Cream Stout (58 entries) – Canteen Brewhouse (Silver), Albuquerque, NM – Work of Heart

The award was Starr Brothers’ first at the World Beer Cup. It had previously won a bronze medal for Lampshade at the 2018 Great American Beer Festival.

Ex Novo already had a silver for V for Vienna at the 2022 World Beer Cup.

Quarter Celtic’s previous WBC winner was Pedro O’Flannigan’s, which took bronze in 2018.

Canteen’s award is its seventh all time, tying it with Chama River for the most WBC awards for any New Mexico brewery. The last award for Canteen was a silver in 2016 for High Plains Pilsner.

The four awards in one WBC is tied for the third most in history with 2012, when La Cumbre claimed three and Nexus earned its first award. Only 2022 (five) and 2016 (six) had more awards come back to New Mexico.

The top five entered categories this year come as no surprise to anyone with Wood & Barrel-Aged Strong Stout coming in at No. 5 with 202 entries. International Light Lager was the fourth-most entered category with 220 entries. German-Style Pilsner was third with 233 entries, leaving Juicy or Hazy India Pale Ale and American-Style India Pale Ale with the top two entered categories with 374 and 412 entries, respectively.

For a complete list of 2023 winners follow this link to worldbeercup.org.

Congratulations to our New Mexico winners, and to all breweries who medaled this year. We in the Dark Side Brew Crew salute you!

Cheers!

— Luke