2016 was not without its challenges for Georgia’s craft brewers, but a lot of great things happened in Georgia beer as well. We had several new breweries and beer bars open up, and there’s a lot of great beer being brewed here today. Over the last couple of weeks we ran a survey asking for your input on the Best of Georgia Beer for 2016. With nearly 1,000 responses the results are in, and we’re excited to share them with you.

An unfortunate side note… We required a Google login on our survey in an effort to combat people voting multiple times. Unfortunately, some folks are just determined to get around these things and there was an obvious attempt at vote manipulation as evidenced by a consistent, unusual spelling of a certain phrase. Where we were almost certain votes were manipulated we threw those votes out and reported results without that data. This only affected one category.

Best Georgia IPA of 2016

Best Georgia Wild / Sour Ale of 2016

Three Taverns Rapturous Creature Comforts Athena Paradiso (Tart Cherry, Raspberry, & Cranberry) Orpheus Brewing Atalanta Reserva Creature Comforts The Curious #8 Monday Night Fu Manbrew Gose

The I Don’t Like Sour Beers award goes to “Eww”, which received one vote.

Best Georgia Stout / Imperial Stout of 2016

Creature Comforts Existence Monday Night Georgian Imperial Stout Southern Brewing Co. Bourbon Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout Orpheus Brewing Abandon All Hope Red Brick Hype Whale

The I Haven’t Heard of That One award goes to “Balls Deep”, which received one vote as Georgia’s best stout.

Best Georgia Brewery or Brewpub opened in 2016

Best Georgia Beer Fest

Wrecking Bar Strong Beer Fest SweetWater 420Fest Classic City Brew Fest Atlanta Cask Ale Tasting Suwanee Beer Fest

The I Don’t Like Your Stupid Beer Fests award goes to “They All Kinda Suck”, which received one vote.

Best Georgia Brewery

Creature Comforts Three Taverns Arches Brewing Orpheus Brewing Monday Night Brewing

The That Man IS a Brewery! award goes to Travis Herman, who received one vote as Georgia’s best brewery.

Best Georgia Brewpub

The That’s Not a Brewpub award goes to several of Georgia’s beer bars which received many, many votes in this category.

Best Georgia Beer Bar

Honorable Mention: World of Beer, across all locations, received enough votes to land in 4th place. However, several people mentioned specific locations and when breaking it down by location they were bumped from the Top 5. Still worth recognition as overall they are definitely a popular destination.

Best Georgia Bottle Shop

Best Georgia Craft Beer Radio Show That Broadcasts Every Saturday at 1:00 PM on Atlanta’s AM 920 The Answer and is Also Available Streaming and On-Demand

Totally Beer Guys Radio Beer Guys Radio Beer Guys Radio

We are honored and humbled to take all of the top 3 spots in this category and we’ll do our best to earn the win next year as well. 🙂

Looking ahead to 2017

There’s no sign of things slowing down in the New Year for Georgia’s craft beer community. Many new breweries and brewpubs are in the works now. Georgia’s brewers remain hopeful for some positive change to the beer laws, even if the past has shown it’s very much an uphill battle.

Cheers to 2016 and all that it brought us! Here’s to great things in the year ahead.