New York Craft Beer Competition and Governor’s Excelsior Cup Results

Contact Email : paul@newyorkcraftbeer.com | Paul Leone

In its 1st year, the 2017 New York State Craft Beer competition awarded 63 medals to some of the best craft beers in New York State, plus awarded the 1st ever Governor’s Excelsior Cup to the brewery who was voted to have the best beer in the State.

Overview: New York State Craft Beer Competition

The competition took place in Rochester NY on Saturday, July 29th where gold, silver and bronze medals were awarded to winning breweries in 20 beer categories covering 40 different beer styles (including all subcategories), establishing the best examples of each style in the state. Gold medals were not awarded in 2 categories, and multiple medals were awarded in categories where there was a statistical tie.

Winners were chosen from 707 competition entries from 143 breweries making this the largest beer competition in New York State and the second largest state competition in the country (behind California).

The competition drew a panel of 40 professional beer judges and beer experts from across the state judging all 707 entries. 243 passed the qualification rounds and were judged in the scoring rounds to produce the Gold, Silver and Bronze winners. The 19 Gold medal winners went into the championship round, and after 2 elimination rounds the top 5 went head to head for the Governor’s Excelsior Cup and best beer in New York State.

Overall Competition Highlights

Governor’s Excelsior Cup was awarded to Threes Brewing (Brooklyn) for their Vliet Pilsner
Most medals won:
Three (3) medals were won by War Horse Brewing, Geneva NY (1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze)
Two (2) medals were won by 16 breweries
Style Categories

In its first year, the most-entered category was American-Style India Pale Ale (IPA), which saw 88 entries. The top five entered categories were:

Fruit and Spice Beer (66 entries)
Porter, Stout, Brown Ale (62 entries)
American Style Double India Pale Ale (51 entries)
Golden/Blonde Ale (48 entries)
Wheat Beer – American, Wit Hefe (39 entries)
Summary: 2017 New York Craft Brewers Competition and Governor’s Excelsior Cup

1st year
354 Breweries in New York State
707 beers entered
45 medal-winning breweries
63 total medals awarded
20 style categories judged, plus Governor’s Excelsior Cup
40 judges from across NYS
Category with highest number of entries: American-Style India Pale Ale: 88

Find the list of all winners here – Click here.