The Best Beer-Related Journalism of 2026
Two things are true about the state of beer journalism in 2026: it has never been harder and less remunerative to cover the beer industry, and we’ve never seen a corps of journalists do as good a job.
Go See the Winners
For a full list of all the winners, go to the NAGBW's blog, The Reporter's Notebook for more.
Yesterday afternoon, as I was distracted by a very frustrating Green Bay Packers football game, the North American Guild of Beer Writers (NAGBW) announced the winners of their annual writing competition. It is not the kind of event that attracts much notice—I saw zero articles about it in my RSS feed this morning—but it represents a critical part of the ecosystem that has boosted interest in beer over the past 40 years. in other words, you should care.
The situation in professional, independent media is extremely dire. As I have written a lot in recent years, wave after wave of challenges have weakened a once-robust information environment. First there was the internet, which undermined the lucrative print-and-advertise model of traditional journalism. Then came social media, which further separated “news” (often actually opinion) from any reasonable way of funding journalism. And now we have the challenges of AI, which simultaneously deprives those now-diminished news sites of clicks (and their already-meager revenue stream) while replacing writers with summaries of their work, and readers who increasingly don’t care about writing at all—just the most abbreviated facts.
Amazingly, the number of excellent writers covering some aspect of beer continues to explode. This includes a crop of DIY historians who have revolutionized what we know about the past, flinty business journalists covering the vicissitudes of a multi-billion industry, journalists covering the technical aspects of beer, hops, and malt, travel and review writers, technical and academic writers … and bloggers!
These professionals have collectively educated us tremendously about the world of beer. Now brewers who have never been to Europe understand precisely how to make a tripel or světlý ležák. A generation ago, brewers were making pilsners with American two-row malt, single infusion mashing, and ale yeast. One of my themes on this site was the one-time ubiquity of romantic facts—which now live on the fringes of the internet.
Please go have a look at the winners and admire their work. Once, covering the beer beat was considered a minor and amateurish calling—something only a hobbyist would do. That’s changed: these are professional writers, not engines of AI slop, and the work they’re doing is the equal of that in any corner of journalism.
Inevitable Hornblowing,
But More Praise for Others, Too
At the risk of having buried the lead, I would like to announce that you are presently reading the best blog or newsletter, according to the NAGBW judges. Yay! I normally don’t find myself at the top of this list, and I need to relish it on those rare occasions it happens. When you look at the list of winners in this category, you see why it’s an incredible honor.
One of my favorite writers is my friend, Franz Hofer, the Canadian historian who divides his time between Austria and Oklahoma. For years, he has been writing these gorgeous reports about the history, culture, and beer styles of very local places at Tempest in a Tankard. It’s not just great info, but beautiful writing. And Franz only got honorable mention!
I edged out Dave Infante’s Fingers, somehow. Dave is the hardest-working journalist in the beer biz, and he goes very, very deeply into subjects others barely scratch—including, notably, distribution, a subject he now owns. Despite often dry topics, his writing is always fun and entertaining. Doug Veliky’s Beer Crunchers took third, and given a different panel of judges, it might have won the whole shebang. Doug’s perspective and background as a brewery insider is unique, and each post is distinctively a Veliky post. Finally, Sayre Piotrkowski was awarded an “emerging voice” citation, on his way to five wins this year. We’ll definitely being hearing a lot more from Sayre!
It is an enormous honor to win among this competition, and I am very grateful to the judges, and proud of all the people who competed in this category.
I also took a pair of 2nd places for commentary and local reporting, both for pieces published on this site. Any time a post from my blog wins an award when the competition may include everything from city alt-weeklies to the New York Times, I am incredibly grateful. I have always felt a little inadequate as a mere blogger, so these awards encourage me to keep it up. (And as a full disclosure, pieces I submitted lost a lot more than they won—denominators everyone!)
The Competition and Big Winners
Current NAGBW President Pat Walls put together a fantastic presentation, and as a scholar and program director, came armed with stats. It’s worth noting that the NAGBW competition is an international one.
250 entries came from 78 writers and podcasters across 11 countries, half the US states, and three provinces.
The 42 winners came from seven countries, 17 US states, and two Canadian provinces.
I will confess that I don’t quite understand the “writer of the year” award, because there were two. The Belgian-based Irish writer Breandán Kearney earned “Writer of the Year,” while Manchester, UK-based Matthew Curtis won “Winningest Writer of the Year” for his three first and two second-place wins. So congratulations to them both!