The Best Beer Writing of 2022

Over the summer, judges started poring through hundreds of entries in the annual North American Guild of Beer Writers journalism awards, and yesterday afternoon they announced the winners. Despite the name, anyone in the world can join the guild, and many outside our continent do. This makes the awards truly international, and a good reflection of the state of the best writing.

Like beer competitions, judging happens blind. [Correction: Stan Hieronymus tells me this is no longer true. It was back when I was judging. The writer regrets the error.] It’s a little less hermetically-sealed than beer comps, of course, because writers usually read each others’ work. I judged these awards the first 2-3 years they were revived a decade ago, and would recognize some of the entries. There’s really no way around that. (If you think the Pulitzer judges aren’t aware of who they’re reading, I have a hell of deal on the Burnside Bridge I’d like to discuss with you.) To the best they’re able, though, judges are evaluating the work, not the writer.

I’ve been extremely proud of the results. Now women win about half the awards each year. This year they won 44% of the awards, but placed first in eight of fourteen categories. New and emerging writers have a good shot. Writers from historically underrepresented groups—in addition to the women, BIPOC and LGBTQ writers—won a number of awards. When I judged those first couple years, the winners and especially the entrants were overwhelmingly white men. I don’t have the actuals, but it had to be over 85%. It is far from coincidental that the quality of writing over that decade has improved dramatically. I judged some very poor work in the early years.

All of which is to say that if you win an award for your writing, you’ve written something excellent and competed with the world’s best writers. As a member of this growing union of scribblers, I am so proud of the work we’re doing. It reflects well on our profession. For people working in the beer industry, you should also be proud and pleased. It means you’ve gotten better, more accurate, and more interesting coverage than ever.

If you’d like to see the winners and click through to read their work (and please do—it means a lot to writers), the Guild has the complete list along with links here. Congratulations, my delightful peers—I’m so proud of you!