21 Nov The World Beer Cup is Coming to Indy in 2025 – Let’s Win This Thing
by Mark E. Lasbury for Indiana On Tap
Indianapolis was selected to host the Craft Brewers Conference (CBC) and BrewExpo America (a huge trade show) from April 28-May 1, 2025 downtown at the convention center. This is a premier event in the craft brewing industry, and some years it includes the awards ceremony for the World Beer Cup (WBC), the largest and perhaps most prestigious beer competition in the world. The fact that this is coming to Indy is a big deal, and Indiana breweries should go all out to make their fellow brewers feel at home and display the great beer that makes it home in Indiana.
Previous CBC conferences have brought 10,000 industry people to the host city, and with Indianapolis’ reputation (well deserved) for hosting amazing events, there should be an increase for 2025. There are seminars, workshops, social gatherings, Q & A sessions, governmental, regulatory, and lobbying help sessions, and certainly there will be tours of local brewhouses and breweries. The BrewExpo America had over 700 exhibitors in 2024, and with our central location, I would expect that to increase as well. And you don’t have to be a brewery to participate – anyone in the brewing, fermentation, distilling or otherwise adjacent industries.
image credit: World Beer Cup
As far as the competition goes, the WBC was held every other year before Covid, in even numbered years. After skipping 2020 for the pandemic, the competition resumed in 2022, but with the added twist of being held every year. There were contests in 2022, 2023, 2024, and now we have one coming to our capital in 2025.
Indiana has performed very well in previous competitions, winning medals and recognition as an overall leader in the industry. This has been especially true with the Belgian styles of beer, leading me (as unimportant as I am) to dub Indiana as Belgian West. Indiana’s previous results include: 3 medals in 2014, 4 medals in 2016, 6 medals in 2018, 9 medals in 2022, 3 medals in 2023, and 5 medals in 2024.
That result shows a quasi-arc of results, peaking in 2022, and likely also reflects a peak of submissions in that year. Any number of medals represents an achievement, as 10,000+ beers are entered from more than 50 countries, but only ~300 medals are awarded. In contrast, the Great American Beer Festival (GABF), the other largest of the competitions, has a couple thousand fewer entries with the vast majority being from the USA, but they award a slightly higher number of medals. This doesn’t diminish any medal won at GABF, but it does illustrate how hard it is to win even a single medal at WBC.
Bier Brewery has been highly successful at WBC. We’re counting on you guys to enter several beers for 2025. image credit: Bier Brewery
In the last couple of years, there has been an overall reduction in the number of participating breweries, beers entered, and therefore medals won by Indiana breweries at all competitions (with the exception of the Indiana Brewers Cup). The economy definitely has played a role in this reduction, as has the fallout from Covid and the general change in drinking habits/reduced beer consumption overall. I’m hoping that having the WBC awards ceremony and CBC in Indianapolis will reverse that trend – I’m hoping that we flood the entries and medals stand with great Indiana beers and breweries.
So how do Indiana breweries do that? The key is to get on the stick and get the registration done by the deadline of December 13, 2024. Then you’ve got time to hone in on those beers and get them shipped between March 24 – March 28, 2025. Here are the major things to consider:
The awards ceremony for WBC is always well attended – let’s pack the joint with craft beer fans, and Indiana craft beer fans in particular. image credit: New School Beer
1. The registration form is online, available at https://registration.worldbeercup.org/Apply1Info.aspx?init=. Read through the categories and rules beforehand, since there is a 60 minute limit to registering, it will reset after that.
2. The fee is $185/entry for 2025, so choose your beers carefully – but remember, it’s likely that this competition ceremony won’t come to Indiana again for many years, so this could be the time to really make your presence known.
3. Once you register your entries, get to honing in on the recipe and technique; you’ve got time to get a batch or two in the fermenters so that you can really dial them in or try something a bit different.
4. The interval to ship the beers to Colorado is March 24-28, 2025, and I realize that shipping cost is a real issue, but WBC has tried to help with that a bit. At the webpage, https://brewersassociation.wufoo.com/reports/wbc-2025-unofficial-consolidated-shipments-us/, you can look for self-reported consolidation sites in your area so you can split shipping costs with other breweries, You can also start your own consolidation shipping site with others in your area and list it at https://brewersassociation.wufoo.com/forms/wbc-2025-unofficial-consolidated-shipments/. I highly recommend talking amongst your neighboring breweries, it’s likely that they are thinking harder about competing in 2025 than in years past, simply because the awards ceremony will be in our state.
5. Register and attend the CBC and the awards ceremony at the convention center in the last of April. Cheer on your fellow brewers and raise everyone up, winner or just participant. I really appreciate the way that Ohio breweries take a version of the state flag that includes, “Drink Beer From Here” up to the podium as a sign of community. Could we get something similar (in spirit, not a copy) for Indiana breweries?
I fully realize that economic factors do, and should, play a role in whether a brewery participates and to what degree. I also realize that a medal may or may not have an effect on the bottom line for a brewery – that’s a completely justified reason not to participate. But I still hope you will – we Indiana craft beer fans loving bragging about the beer in our state, and here’s an opportunity to prove again how good it is.
To learn more about CBC and BrewExpo America, go to https://www.craftbrewersconference.com/trade-show/about-brewexpo-america.
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