Boulder, Colorado: Brewers from five continents earned awards from an elite international panel of judges this week in the 2008 Brewers Association World Beer Cup. The seventh bi-annual competition awarded medals to brewers from 21 countries ranging from Australia and Italy to Bolivia and Japan.

"Brewers all over the world participate in order to win recognition for their creativity and brewing ability," said Charlie Papazian, President of the Brewers Association, the US-based trade association that has put on the competition every two years since 1996. "For a brewer, a World Beer Cup gold medal allows them to say that their winning beer represents the best example of that beer style in the world."

This year, 644 breweries from 58 countries and 45 U.S. states vied for awards with 2,864 beers entered in 91 beer style categories. The top three entries in each category won gold, silver and bronze medals. Brewers from the United States won 185 of the 268 style category awards and four of the five Champion Brewery/Brewer awards.

Judges from 21 countries participated in this year's competition, working in teams to conduct blind tasting evaluations of the beers and determine the medals. Drawn from the ranks of professional brewers and brewing industry experts, 129 judges came mostly from international breweries, with 64 percent from outside the United States.

Highlights from the awards presentation:

-- Tonya Cornett of Bend Brewing Company became the first woman to win "Champion Brewer" honors. She collected two gold medals to earn the title in the "Small Brewpub" category.

-- Brewers from Japan collected 10 awards to keep company with traditional brewing centers like Germany, Belgium and the UK which collected 25, 11 and 5 medals respectively.

-- Illinois ranked fourth among U.S. states for total awards won, behind perennial leaders California, Colorado and Oregon.

For more information on the World Beer Cup and the Brewers Association or to view a complete list of winners and statistics visit www.WorldBeerCup.org. A second awards ceremony will be held May 8 in Germany. Logos photos and interviews are available. World Beer Cup 2008 sponsors are: Barth-Haas Group, Krones, Sahm, Siemens AG as Partner Sponsors and Ball Corporation as a Corporate Sponsor.

Copyright Business Wire 2008