6 Minnesota breweries, including Spilled Grain and Lupulin, win U.S. Open Beer awards

Some lesser-known Minnesota breweries earned national recognition alongside a few local favorites in the U.S. Open Beer Championship results announced Monday.

Spilled Grain Brewhouse in Annandale and Lupulin in Big Lake each won three awards, while newcomer Haggard Barrel Brewing in St. Louis Park won one gold award in the contest, which is based in Oxford, Ohio, and judged more than 9,000 varieties of beers from around the country.

Other winners from Minnesota included popular Twin Cities mainstays Venn Brewing (Minneapolis) and Forgotten Star Brewery (Fridley) and year-old Hackamore Brewing Co. in Chanhassen.

Spilled Grain Brewhouse’s top win was a gold award in the old/strong ale category for its Bearded Man beer, which won in the same category last year. This adds to more than 40 prior wins for the reputable brewery at other national contests, including Colorado’s Great American Beer Festival.

“We are one of Minnesota’s most-awarded breweries,” Spilled Grain representatives proudly boasted Tuesday.

Housed along Hwy. 55 and open since 2015, SGB also won a bronze award in the white-wine-barrel-aged category with its Batch 1000 wheatwine (aged in pinot noir barrels; yes, the U.S. Open Beer categories get pretty specific). And one more win for Spilled Grain: It took a silver for best root beer (a major category for any parent who’s dragged a kid to a taproom).

As for Haggard Barrel, the fast-rising newcomer on the Twin Cities brewery scene — it only just began selling its product in January — won a gold in the sour smoothie category with its fruity brew Glonky, a lactose-free sour ale laced with soursop, papaya and guava. Haggard Barrel does not have a taproom, but its brews are available in cans at its brewery shop, 6413 Cambridge St., and in a few specialty liquor stores around the Twin Cities.

Around the nation, the top-ranked brewery in the U.S. Open Beer Championship was Third Eye Brewing in Hamilton, Ohio, which won four gold medals, two silver medals and two bronze medals. It was followed by Atlanta’s Monday Night Brewing and Sun King Brewing in Indianapolis.

Toppling Goliath in Decorah, Iowa — which has become increasingly popular in Minnesota — came in eighth place nationally, winning one gold, three silvers and two bronzes for beers including its Pseudo Sue (pale ale) and Munich Weiss (hefeweizen).

Here’s a list of all the Minnesota winners: