Wren House leads AZ’s 9 honors at Great American Beer Festival

Arizona brewers came home from Denver over the weekend with nine honors from the 2026 Great American Beer Festival: three golds, two silvers, three bronzes, and an honorable mention, spread across eight breweries from Kingman to Tucson.

The festival, one of the world’s largest commercial beer competitions, moved outdoors this year to Levitt Pavilion, and the competition stayed as brutal as ever. Categories ran as deep as 277 entries.

Gold medals

Phoenix-based Wren House Brewing won gold in Dortmunder or German-Style Festbier with its Festbier, beating 160 other entries in one of the largest categories in the competition. That’s a lager crown in a category dominated by breweries that live and breathe German styles.

Wren House won a second gold in Wood- and Barrel-Aged Beer for Marzen (Whiskey Barrel Aged), a 23-entry field. Two golds, two very different expressions of malt-forward German lager. Not a bad weekend.

Saddle Mountain Brewing in Goodyear took gold in Experimental Beer with Dill You Take Me Higher?, topping 26 entries. The category rewards brewers who push past existing style guidelines, and the judges clearly bought in. Best beer name on the Arizona list, too.

Silver medals

Corbett Brewing in Tucson took silver in Smoke Beer for Cypress Pils, out of 42 entries. A smoked pilsner is a tightrope: too much smoke buries the crisp lager underneath, too little and it’s just a pils.

Rickety Cricket Brewing in Kingman earned silver in Barley Wine or Wheat Wine for Barrel Aged Bee’s Knees 2025 in a 28-entry field. It’s a reminder that some of the state’s best beer is brewed a long way from the Valley.

Bronze medals

Zona from 12 West Brewing in Gilbert took bronze in Contemporary American Lager, a 46-entry category. A beer built for 110-degree afternoons, now with a medal to prove it.

Scottsdale-based Fate Brewing‘s Pueblo Vienna Lager earned bronze in International-Style Amber Lager, out of 50 entries.

Barrio Nolan’s Porter from Barrio Brewing in Tucson took bronze in Porter or Stout against 54 entries, giving Tucson its second medal of the weekend.

Notice the theme: five of Arizona’s eight medals went to lagers or lager-based beers.

Honorable mention

The Brewery at Tirrito Farm, a little-known brewery in Willcox, rounded out Arizona’s weekend with an honorable mention for Helle’s Lager in Dortmunder or German-Style Festbier.