Cincinnati Really Shows UP To The 2025 Great American Beer Festival!
Written By: The Gnarly Gnome
10/21/25
It’s the best. I’ll just say it, even if it’s definitely only an opinion. That’s right, Cincinnati is the best place to grab a beer. While I will fully admit that I am biased, we’ve got solid data to show why we should be in that discussion. As we come out of Great American Beer Festival there’s a whole bucket of medals coming home to Cincinnati (and also to Ohio in broader terms) that I think we need to talk about!
Cincinnati’s Great American Beer Festival Medals For 2025
Let’s just skip right to the good stuff. Instead of tucking this way down at the end of the blog post, we’ll throw it out right on the get-go. Here’s all the medals that are coming home to our local breweries this year.
Brink
- Lil Zoomie – Gold Medal
- Moozie – Gold Medal
Narrow Path
- Polar Bear – Silver Medal
- Mounds Of Importance – Bronze Medal (with Third Eye)
Rhinegeist
- Ghost Pils – Bronze Medal
- Ring Of Kerry – Silver Medal
Streetside
- Sofa King – Gold Medal
Third Eye
- Brewery of the Year
- Wired Euphoria – Silver Medal
- Gourd Darn It! – Gold Medal
- Higher Conciousness – Gold Medal
- Route 4 Reviv-Ale – Gold Medal (with Municipal Brew Works)
- Mounds Of Importance – Bronze Medal (with Narrow Path)
My Overall Takeaway
There’s a ton of great beer being made around the country. As the craft beer movement has evolved, grown up, and aged, it’s gotten better and better. The next takeaway is that with that quality to see 21 medals come home to Ohio AND to see the list of how many of those are from right here in Cincinnati? Well… it makes me feel great about the beer around here, to say the least.
Ever since starting this blog I’ve been called a “homer” and people have said it like it was a bad thing. This is another one of those examples that we CAN (not that we have to, but that we can) drink mostly local beer, and still manage to drink some of the best beer in the country – and that’s something that I can definitely get behind.
Third Eye
Ever since they opened their doors in 2020, Third Eye has been on an incredible run when it comes to winning medals. They are now the most award-winning brewery in the city of Cincinnati, and show no signs of slowing that down. This is the second time that they’ve won Brewery of the Year at GABF… and seeing both of the medaling collaboration beers out of Cincy being done with them is pretty freaking telling.
They know how to make medal winning beers!
Brink
Brink has won a medal at every single GABF since they opened their doors, and to call that a difficult feat is quite the understatement. They did it with multiple award-winning ‘Lil Zoomie’ and Cincinnati’s most award winning beer, Moozie. At this point, it feels strange to have a competition anywhere in which Moozie DOESN’T win an award. It’s that freaking good.
Rhinegeist
Rhinegeist took home two medals this year – and one of them was for their brand new Non-Alcoholic Pilsner, called Ghost Pils. It’s awesome to see a win for this category here in Cincinnati!
Narrow Path
I think that Narrow Path is one of the most underrated breweries here in town. It feels like not enough people are singing their praises. Their small taproom in Loveland is the perfect place to grab a beer, and remember all the things that made us fall in love with the industry in the first place. When they take home big medals like this, it warms my heart and hopefully inspires a new group of people to discover the taproom for themselves!
Streetside
Streetside is another one of those small, neighborhood spots that I feel too few people venture out of their normal bubble to go check out. Last year they won for an English style, and this year for a big, red IPA – it’s a perfect showcase of how the brewery makes great beer, but doesn’t let one stylistic theme define who they are. They aren’t afraid to dip their toes into lots of different beer styles – and they do it so freaking good.
Municipal Brew Works
It goes without saying that when a brewery gets their first medal at Great American Beer Festival it’s a big deal. These guys are so well deserving. I feel like Municipal Brew Works doesn’t even get close to the recognition that they deserve and a medal like this is a great step towards that recognition here in Cincinnati!