2 Utah breweries win awards at 2025 World Beer Cup

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Two Utah-based breweries recently won awards at the 2025 World Beer Cup — a competition that is also known as “the Olympics of beer,” according to its website.

The competition featured more than 8,000 beers and ciders submitted from 50 countries. Winners were announced on May 1, and some awards went to Salt Lake City’s Proper Brewing Co. (founded in 2013) and Uinta Brewing Co.

(founded in 1993):

• Proper Brewing Co. took home the gold in the rye beer category, beating out 35 other entries. The brewery’s Steamy Wonder rye beer took first place in the competition.
• Uinta Brewing Co.’s Was Angeles ale got bronze in the American-style cream ale category, which had 93 other entries.

The World Beer Cup explains the difference between the awards on its website, saying that a beer that wins gold is “a world class beer,” while a beer that earns silver is described as one that is “excellent” but may “vary slightly from style parameters,” and a beer that earns bronze is said to be “a fine example of the style.”

“When industry professionals acknowledge the excellence in products from around the market, the beer drinker can be sure that those brands are the finest available,” Chris Williams, World Beer Cup competition director, says on the competition website.

The competition was first developed in 1996 and is an annual competition organized by the Brewers Association. It boasts more than 100 style categories and often has over 200 “highly qualified beer professionals” judging the entries.

“On a professional level, beer evaluation is a form of peer review,” Williams said. “The results are public, so consumers can learn what beers meet a high level of quality and what beers exemplify certain styles as interpreted by the judges.”