Every year, the Best Florida Beer Championships are held to both promote the growing craft beer scene in the Sunshine State and to provide an avenue for the fun-yet-competitive nature that accompanies brewing. That competitiveness is seen from lowly homebrew competitions to the Great American Beer Festival, and for Floridians, in the annual BFBC, which was held this past Sunday, March 8.
This year, South Florida's list of winners has grown to include the newly opened MIA Brewing Co., Wynwood Brewing Co., Funky Buddha Brewery, and Due South Brewing Co.
See also: Celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Broward and Palm Beach Counties
Continuing their gold-medal run around beer competitions, Wynwood Brewing Co. received the top medal for its Magic City Pale Ale (which was part of our Florida Beer Friday series this past year), as well as for Rickenbacker Pilsner. It recently made national headlines by winning gold for Pop's Porter at the Great American Beer Festival in 2014.
One of Due South Brewing's core can-based offerings took home a bronze in the Pilsner group, while Funky Buddha Brewery grabbed a smattering of awards throughout four categories, including coming out on top in the German Wheat category with its flavorful Floridian Hefeweizen.
For the newly opened MIA Brewing, winning gold for Fontainebru in the French and Belgian Style Saison category (joining Biscayne Bay Brewing, which who snagged a bronze for its saison) as well as placing for My li'l Brony and Miami Weiss is sure to boost its ego, and rightly so.
"Cheers to all the Florida breweries that competed," the brewery posted on social media. "The beers were all exceptional. Florida craft beer is world class!"
You can see the full list of winners on this PDF by the Best Florida Beer organization, but we've highlighted the areas where South Florida breweries won, and who their competition was, in the list below.
Group 21: Pilsner
- 1st Wynwood Brewing Co., 31: German-Style Pilsener, Rickenbacker Pilsner, Nik Mebane
- 2nd Southern Brewing, 42C: American-Style Pilsener, Pre-Prohibition Pilsner, Brian Fenstermacher, Tyler Singletary, Justin Ferstl
- 3rd Due South Brewing Co., 42C: American-Style Pilsener, Craft American Lager
Group 61: Light Hybrid Beer
- 1st Seventh Sun Brewing Co., 12: Session Beer, Time Bomb
- 2nd Fort Myers Brewing Co., 47: German-Style Kolsch/Koln-Style Kolsch, Caloosahatchee Kolsch
- 3rd Mia Brewing, 12: Session Beer, My li'l Brony
Group 81: English Pale/Bitter/IPA
- 1st Wynwood Brewing Co., 68: Classic English-Style Pale Ale, Magic City Pale Ale, Nik Mebane
- 2nd First Magnitude Brewing Co., 65B: English-Style Dark Mild Ale, Drift, Eric Dreyer
Group 111: English Brown Ale
- 1st Cigar City Brewing, 72: English-Style Brown Ale, Maduro
- 2nd Funky Buddha Brewery, 91: American-Style Brown Ale, Doc Brown
- 3rd Florida Avenue Brewing Co., 72: English-Style Brown Ale, Florida Avenue Betchy Brown Ale
Group 151: German Wheat/Rye Beer
- 1st Funky Buddha Brewery, 50: South German-Style Hefeweizen/Hefeweissbier, Floridian
- 2nd MomoS Pizza Brewpub, 52A: South German-Style Bernsteinfarbenes Weizen/Weissbier, Donar's Dunkelweizen
- 3rd Mia Brewing, 50: South German-Style Hefeweizen/Hefeweissbier, Miami Weiss
Group 163: French and Belgian Style Saison
- 1st Mia Brewing, 55: French- and Belgian-Style Saison, Fontainebru
- 2nd Green Bench Brewing Co., 55: French- and Belgian-Style Saison Saison de Banc Vert, Daniel Cline
- 3rd Biscayne Bay Brewing Co., 55: French- and Belgian-Style Saison Saison, Laurence Livingston
Group 171: Sour Ale
- 1st Southern Brewing, 49A: Berliner-Style Weisse, Prickly Pear Raised Bungalow, Brian Fenstermacher, Tyler Singletary, Justin Ferstl
- 2nd Funky Buddha Brewery, 18A: American-Style Sour Ale, Key Lime Berliner
- 3rd Redlight Redlight Beer Parlour & Brewery, 23A: Wood- and Barrel-Aged Sour Beer, Black Morning, Ten10 Brewing
Group 212: Coffee or Chocolate Beer
- 1st Fort Myers Brewing Co., 7: Chocolate Beer, Chocolate Stout
- 2nd Angry Chair Brewing, 8: Coffee Beer, The Awakening, Ben Romano
- 3rd Funky Buddha Brewery, 8: Coffee Beer, Maple Bacon Coffee Porter
Doug Fairall is a craft beer blogger who focuses on Florida beers, and has been a homebrewer since 2010. For beer things in your Twitter feed, follow him @DougFairall and find the latest beer pics on Clean Plate's Instagram.
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