These are the state’s best beers, according to the 2025 Minnesota Brewers Cup

Even with a lot of gloomy industry news to discuss, brewery representatives from around the state still got to the fun stuff at the Minnesota Brewers Conference last weekend: They drank a lot of beer and celebrated the best of it.

Many smaller, newer and/or lesser-known breweries took a lot of the top honors in the Minnesota Brewers Cup, a contest and awards ceremony that took place at the Hilton Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport Hotel in Bloomington as a part of the conference.

Minnetonka’s Boom Island Brewing had a surprise win atop the best in show category. It wasn’t an unexpected win for the reputable brewery itself, but for the style of beer it won with: a pumpkin ale it calls Punkin’ Pie, which also topped the individual category for best spice, herb or vegetable beer.

Runners-up on the best in show list were: another western suburb brewing hub, Plymouth’s Luce Line Brewing Co., with its Maibock (also the winner in the German and international pale lagers category); and Annandale’s national-award-winning Spilled Grain Brewhouse with Bearded Man Old Ale (which topped the strong beer list).

More than 450 beers total were submitted by 90-plus breweries from around the state for this year’s Brewers Cup, which is put on by the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild as an all-Minnesota version of national competitions like Denver’s Great American Beer Festival. The contest is conducted as a blind taste-test by a team of 15 or so judges from within the industry.

While bigger breweries like Surly and Summit have won big nods in prior years — Surly’s old-fave IPA won best in show in 2024 — this year’s Minnesota Brewers Cup pointed to the state becoming more of an “egalitarian” brewing community, said Bob Galligan, the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild’s director of government and industry relations.

“It shows how even smaller brewers around the state have upped their game in matching the reputation Minnesota has earned for producing high-quality beers,” Galligan said.

Some of the other breweries to win Brewers Cup awards last weekend included: Princeton’s Sunken Ship Brewing Co., which won in both the stouts category (with its Aran Sweater) and for best English, Scottish or Irish ale (the Old Crown); Big Lake’s Lupulin Brewing for best hazy IPA (Boss Battle) and best German or New Zealand pilsner or export lager (Dortmunder); Grand Rapids’ Klockow Brewing for best American amber, brown and pale ale (BHK nut brown ale); Spring Park’s Back Channel Brewing for best Czech-style lager (Jagr), and Minneapolis newcomer Brühaven Craft Co. for specialty beers (Over the Line smoked lager).

A few larger or better-known breweries did win in some categories. The oldest beermaker in Minnesota, Schell’s in New Ulm, won for best amber (Firebrick). Utepils in Minneapolis also topped the German ales category with its ever-popular Ewald the Golden hefeweizen.

One bittersweet win came in the double and specialty IPA category, which went to Falling Knife with its double hazy Cosmic Trailblazer. The northeast Minneapolis brewery was hit by the sudden death of its co-founding brewer Tom Berg last week.

Along with the rising challenges in the industry that led to spate of recent brewery closings — including Dangerous Man just last month — Galligan said this year’s Brewers Cup “offered some nice catharsis for all the bad news.”

Here’s the full list of winners from the 2025 Minnesota Brewers Cup.

Specialty Beers

Wood-Aged Beers

Spice, Herb and Vegetable Beers

Fruit and Spice Beers

Wild, Sour and Funky Ales

Strong Beers

Belgian and Monastic Ales

American Amber, Brown and Pale Ales

Stouts

English Brown Ales and Porters

English, Scottish and Irish Ales

Double and Specialty IPAs

Hazy IPAs

American IPAs

German Ales

German and New Zealand Pils and Export Lagers

Czech Lagers

Dark Lagers

Amber Lagers

German and International Pale Lagers

American Blonde, Wheat and Cream Ales

American Lagers

Member-Voted Awards