Congratulations to five Florida breweries that have brought home medals from the 2026 Great American Beer Festival! And as if this many medals wasn’t enough, four of the five medals were gold!
Florida’s medal winners came from around the state, and they include:
For a complete list of winners or more information about the competition, please see the festival website.
About The Great American Beer Festival®
Press Release: The Brewers Association (BA) announced the beers and ciders taking home medals at this year’s Great American Beer Festival® (GABF) competition. New this year, the competition added categories including rice lager, hop water, and a one-time craft malt category, along with two new specialty beer subcategories and three new standalone gluten-free style categories.
A total of 243 breweries and cideries took home 336 medals in this year’s Great American Beer Festival competition. Over three days, 225 expert judges evaluated 7,267 beer and cider entries—including 54 Collaboration and 30 Pro-Am submissions—from breweries across 49 states, plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.
“The submissions from this year’s competition continue to reflect just how far American brewing and cidermaking have come,” said Chris Williams, competition director for the Brewers Association. “The addition of multiple new styles and unique concepts like the ‘Craft Malt Beer’ and ‘Hop Water’ categories gave producers fresh ground to explore. The overarching quality presented by so many of the contenders underlines how intensive the judging process is and how competitively these contenders rise to the occasion with entries that pushed each category forward. GABF remains one of the most competitive stages in craft beer, and these winners represent the very best our industry has to offer. Congratulations to this year’s medalists.”
The awards ceremony was held at Levitt Pavilion and live-streamed on The Brewing Network on Sunday, October 11, 2026, as part of the Great American Beer Festival.
GABF Competition Statistics
New categories: Rice Lager, Hop Water, Craft Malt Category, Multi-Adjunct Beer (subcategory of Specialty Beer), Hybrid/Crossover Beer (subcategory of Specialty Beer), Gluten-Free divided into Classic Ale or Lager, Hoppy, Specialty
7,267 entries (beer, cider, hop water) judges
1,300 breweries & cideries in the competition from 49 states, plus Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico
225 judges
200+ volunteers
Average number of beers entered in each category: 67
Category with the highest number of entries: Category 102: West Coast-Style India Pale Ale (277 entries)
336 total medals awarded
243 medal-winning breweries and cideries
125 first-time GABF competition entrants
12 first-time GABF competition winners
Five cider categories