The best brewery in the U.S. is in Ohio according to this year's U.S. Open Beer Championship.
Third Eye Brewing out of Hamilton, Ohio took home the U.S. Open Beer Championship’s ultimate award and was named the 2024 Grand National Champion, the competition announced on Monday night, July 8. This means it is the highest point scorer this year and 2024’s best brewery, according to the competition.
“I am incredibly proud of our Team at Third Eye Brewing and grateful to see all our hard work recognized,” Kelly Montgomery, head brewer and co-owner of Third Eye Brewing, told me shortly after the award was announced. “Winning Grand Champion is a dream come true for all of us at Third Eye.”
The U.S. Open Beer Championship was founded in 2009 in Ohio by brewer Dow Scoggins and is one of the most prestigious brewery festivals in the world along with notable festivals such as the World Beer Cup and The Great American Beer Festival. Unique among U.S. beer festivals, the U.S. Open Beer Championship allows award-winning homebrewers to compete against professional breweries. This is the first time the competition’s top award has gone to an Ohio brewery, Scoggins told me. He added, he’s excited it went to a brewer with Montgomery’s pedigree. “Kelly is a three-time winner of the Great American Beer Festival’s Brewer of the Year and the only brewer to receive this honor at two different breweries,” Scoggins said.
Even though I’m always intrigued by the winners of major competitions, it’s important to note that many great breweries don’t compete in them each year. That said, I always look to the U.S. Open Beer Championship winners to help learn about new great breweries across the country as achieving success in this festival is a clear sign of excellence. For example, Third Eye Brewing emerged out of a competition field that included more than 9,000 beers across 170 different styles.
The Ohio brewery did this by winning four gold medals, two silver medals and two bronze medals. Interestingly, the brewery’s victory was not only a victory for itself but for dark beers in general. Instead of the IPAs, pilsners, pale ales and other light beers that have come to dominate craft beer sales, each of Third Eye Brewing’s four gold medal-winning beers were dark beers. These award-winning beers are Higher Consciousness (a Scotch ale), Double Astral (an imperial chocolate oatmeal stout), Dark Aura (a chocolate oatmeal stout), and Inner Sight (a brown ale).
“We love our IPAs and other pale ales at Third Eye but we wanted to focus on our darker styles that have won other national competitions,” Montgomery said.
Scoggins added, “Only dark beers is a first. Cherry Street Brewing in Georgia has won the U.S. Open once but always does well because of their barrel aging program and high gravity beers—barleywines, imperial stouts, and strong scotch ales.”
Founded in 2020, Third Eye Brewing has locations in both Sharonville and Hamilton, Ohio, but it’s rare to find it outside of the state. Even so, the brewery is no stranger to beer competition success, having won the Brewery of the Year at the 2023 Great American Beer Festival. I haven’t had the chance, to sample this brewery yet, but they’re now top of my list.
The second-highest-scoring brewery at the Competition was Monday Night Brewing out of Atlanta, Georgia, which took home four gold medals and four bronze medals. The gold medals were for the beers Spoken Wisdom, Tears of Our Enemies, Madrigal, and Simple Illusion. I haven’t had these specific beers from Monday Night Brewing but I have enjoyed several other offerings and the brewery is definitely one to watch.
Coming in third was Sun King Brewery out of Indianapolis, Indiana, which won three golds for their Barrel Aged Scout Badge, Banana Daquiri and their Collaboration Beer, Up For Anything, brewed with 18th Street Brewery. They also took home a silver and two bronze medals. This is the latest chapter of success at the U.S. Open Beer Championship for Sun King Brewery, which was the competition’s Grand National Champion in 2019 and 2022.
Update July 9, 2024: This story was updated to add quotes from Kelly Montgomery, head brewer and co-owner of Third Eye Brewing and Dow Scoggins, founder of the U.S. Open Beer Championship.
