Analysis
Findings from the medal record, each with the evidence behind it. Every report follows Filters, has a table for every chart, and saves charts as PNG.
Findings
Concentration of medals
From 2021 to 2026, 947 breweries won 1,904 medals. The top tenth of those breweries by medal count won 32 percent of them, and 58 percent of the breweries won exactly one.
The leaders
Westbound & Down Brewing Co. leads with 14 medals. The full ranking, weighted by points (gold 3, silver 2, bronze 1), is in the Top breweries report.
How it is measured
Only complete official lists count. Breweries are matched on a normalized name, so renamed printings and location suffixes roll up to one brewery.
First time medalists
92 breweries won their first medal in the record in 2026. Together they took 103 of the year's 336 medals (31 percent), including 35 golds.
How first time is defined
A first time medalist has no medal in any loaded year before 2026. Another 0 breweries medaled earlier only in partial years; they are first in the complete record (2021 to 2026) and listed separately.
Names to check
15 first time medalists share a city and a name word with an earlier medalist, or one name contains the other. They stay separate unless the data shows they are the same brewery, and the page lists them for checking.
Medal odds by category
Entries per medal ranges from 4.5 in Amber to Dark Non-Alcohol Beer to 115.4 in Juicy or Hazy India Pale Ale, with a median of 21.2 across categories, 2021 to 2026.
How it is measured
Entries per medal is a category's entry count divided by the medals it awarded that year. Entry counts come from the official winners lists. It reads as odds: how many entries each medal had to beat.
What it does not say
It is not any one beer's chance of winning: it says nothing about how a beer is judged, and a category can award fewer than three medals. 0 medals have no published entry count and are left out.
Per capita and per GDP leaders
California wins the most medals in total. Per million residents, Oregon leads with 36.6 medals. Per $100 billion of real GDP, Oregon leads with 60.1 medals. All figures cover 2021 to 2026.
How it is measured
Each medal counts against its own year's Census population and real GDP. 2026 medals use 2025 figures, the latest published. The geography dashboard adds Census regions, Federal Reserve districts, and demographic controls.
What it does not say
A rate shows where medals land, not why. The record has no entry counts by state, so a high rate can mean more entries, better results, or both.
Style trends
Fruit, Spice, and Specialty won the largest share of medals in 2026: 18 percent, against 20 percent in 2021. Cider and Mead gained the most share (4.5 points) and Smoke and Wood lost the most (2.7 points).
How it is measured
Share is a family's medals divided by all medals in the year. Style families are this site's grouping of the official categories, not an official one.
What it does not say
Medal share follows the category list as much as brewing. Each category awards up to three medals, so a family's share rises when the competition adds categories in it.
Reports
- Top Breweries Medal and point leaders, and the longest active streaks.
- Top Categories The most entered categories, the hardest to medal in, and the style families that win the most.
- By State Medals by state, per million residents, and per dollar of real GDP.
- By Region Medals by Census region and division.
- Ownership and Investors How many medals go to independent breweries, and who owns the rest.
- Economics Estimated barrels, ARR, margins, and distribution for every medalist.
- Trends Entries, medals, breweries, and style family share by year.
- Brewery of the Year Brewery and Brewer of the Year awards by size bracket.
- 2018 · Partial: Only a sample of medals from secondary sources is loaded.
- 2019 · Partial: Only a sample of medals from secondary sources is loaded.
- 2020 · Not Loaded: The competition year is in range, but no results are loaded.
- 2021 · Complete: The official winners list is loaded.
- 2022 · Complete: The official winners list is loaded.
- 2023 · Complete: The official winners list is loaded.
- 2024 · Complete: The official winners list is loaded.
- 2025 · Complete: The official winners list is loaded.
- 2026 · Complete: The official winners list is loaded.