FoBAB 2025 Winners, Right Here In Cincinnati!

Written By: The Gnarly Gnome

The Festival of Barrel-Aged beer takes place in Chicago every single fall, a celebration of (if you can’t figure it out…) all things barrel-aged. What started as a small gathering of 18 breweries back in 2003, has now grown to a juggernaut of a beer competition with two tasting sessions and more than 300 different beers, ciders, meads and perries across 13 different style categories.

Cincinnati is no stranger to winning medals at FoBAB, either. In fact, if you go all the way back to 2014 the very first medal from the festival came back to Cincinnati thanks to Ei8ht Ball Brewing. You remember that year, right? In addition to a gold medal at FoBAB, they also won a bronze medal for it at that year’s Great American Beer Festival. That one medal led a charge that now sits at 19 different medals from the competition here in Cincinnati – which includes THREE more from this year, alone.

Let’s get at it.

This Year’s Winners

Nine Giant

This is (in my opinion) the biggest medal that Nine Giant has taken home in their history. The tiny brewpub doesn’t lean into the competition world nearly as much as some bigger places do – which is a big reason that this one brought the smile to my face that it did when they won. Their beer ‘Cassavetes’, a Barrel-Aged Saison with Brettanomyces.

While I haven’t had the beer… make no mistake about it, not only do I trust Nine Giant pretty much with any beer they put in front of me – Brett Saisons are one of my favorite styles… I LOVE them. I say all that to let you know that you need to snag this if you see it on tap, sometime – and I’ll be doing the same!

Third Eye

I don’t need to tell you, again how familiar Third Eye is with winning medals, right? This is Cincinnati’s most award winning brewery (they’re quickly approaching 100 medals in their short five years of business). This is only the second time they’ve walked away from FoBAB with a medal though. Last time (last year) they won with their ‘Private Consciousness’.

This year? They brought home two more medals, one for their Kelly’s Private Stash and the other for a special blend called “Dow’s 65th Birthday Blend”, named after Dow Scoggins – founder of the US Open Beer Championships.

My Takeaway

Awards, medals… you know what I’m going to say about them (If you’ve ever read my thoughts about previous wins). On one hand, they don’t really matter all that much… there are great breweries that don’t win medals, and wonderful beers that haven’t, either.

That being said, I still think that they mean something. I don’t 100% know what that something is, but it’s there. When you see breweries that continuously win awards at big competitions, it’s a sign that they are definitely doing something well.

I’m reminded over and over how great the beer is in this city, and when I see awards like these it helps to remind me that I’m not just thinking that because I love Cincinnati. Other folks might agree with me!