The awards ceremony was held last Wednesday World Beer Cup, the largest beer competition in the world. To give an idea of the numbers achieved by this initiative, the edition just concluded recorded approximately 9,300 beers registered from 2,060 breweries, coming from 50 different nations and evaluated (blindly) by 280 international judges. Although the numbers are rather down compared to 2023, with -9.8% of participating beers which would deserve a separate analysis, the World Beer Cup remains a competition of notable importance in the international beer scene. And therefore the only medal won by an Italian brewery is particularly prestigious: the feat was achieved by the Abruzzo Half-stepwhich he took home a fantastic gold with its Red Stone IPA. The recognition for our movement stops here, according to a now well-established constant that does not depend on the (in)ability of Italian producers, but on the setting of the competition.
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If we are not mistaken, the one obtained by Mezzopasso is the third gold medal for an Italian beer in the history of the World Beer Cup. It arrives after those of Vodù del Birrificio Italiano (2010) and Mancina del Birrificio del Forte (2018), allowing Italy to return to the top step of a single category after six years. This should restore the value of the recognition obtained by the company from Popoli, in the province of Pescara, however no stranger to similar exploits in international competitions. Just a few months ago, for example, his Millican Extra had won the award for best beer overall at the Brussels Beer Challenge, also accompanied on that occasion by a bronze, obtained by Red Stone (5.9%) in the beer category. English IPA.
The category of the World Beer Cup in which Red Stone triumphed is that of English Ale, which includes both the original IPAs and the British-style Golden Ales and Pale Ales. The production of Mezzopasso preceded two American beers, in order Working An Angle by Three Leg Run Brewery (Chester, VA) and the very famous Gumballhead by 3 Floyds Brewing (Munster, IN). The Abruzzo brewery therefore confirms itself a very valid exponent of classical styles of British origin – the aforementioned Millican Extra is an English Strong Ale – and certainly deserves attention in a historical moment in which in Italy there is a certain interest in similar types of breweries.
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For the rest, the World Beer Cup showed the usual characteristics that make it a decidedly US-centric contest. In fact, there were just 66 foreign medals, i.e. 20% of the total – in other international competitions domestic breweries usually obtain 30-40% of the overall awards – although it should be underlined that 17 were won by Canadian breweries. If we exclude Germany, which obtained a good haul with twelve awards, the situation for the rest of Europe is rather sad: two medals for the Netherlands, one for Spain, France, Norway and, of course, Italy. As It is above all the absences that make noise, such as the striking ones in the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Czech Republic and Irelandjust to name a few brewing superpowers.
This obvious imbalance is the most conspicuous mole of the World Beer Cup, an initiative that aspires to be considered a sort of “Beer Olympics”. And it’s a shame, because the organizational machine put in place by the Brewers Association is enormous, as demonstrated by the many statistics that accompany the results every year. In addition to the numbers already mentioned at the beginning, it is worth pointing out that the total categories were 110 (172 considering the subcategories), 7 days of tastings and 54 average beers registered in each category. In this regard, those with the most registrations were, in order, Juicy or Hazy India Pale Ale (326), West-Coast Style India Pale Ale (281) and – listen, listen! – German-Style Pilsener (221). At this point you will ask yourself cHow many opponents did Mezzopasso’s Red Stone have to face: well the respective category counted 86 registrations, a total well above the average. A further element of merit for the exceptional result of the Abruzzo brewery.
