Ohio Brought Lager to an IPA Fight: The 2026 GABF Winners

The Great American Beer Festival moved outdoors this year, to Levitt Pavilion in Denver on October 10 and 11. The part that matters to brewers happened before anyone poured a sample: blind judging, style by style, with the 2026 competition open only to American breweries. When the medal list went up, six Ohio breweries were on it with nine medals between them, and four of those were gold.

Nine is a long way from last year's state record of 21. Look closer at what won, though, and the story gets more interesting than the count. Six of Ohio's nine medals went to lagers. The two most crowded categories in Denver were juicy or hazy IPA and West Coast IPA, with 260 and 277 entries respectively. Ohio's brewers showed up with clean, cold, unforgiving beer, the kind with nowhere to hide a flaw, and they came home with hardware.

Here is every Ohio medal, the story behind each brewery, and where to go drink the winners yourself.

 

Every Ohio Medal at the 2026 Great American Beer Festival

Medal	Beer	Brewery	City	Category (Entries)
Gold	Shower Beer	Masthead Brewing Co.	Cleveland	American Lager (94)
Gold	Oni Giri	Masthead Brewing Co.	Cleveland	Rice Lager (110)
Gold	Road Pop	Akronym Brewing	Akron	International Light Lager (38)
Gold	Fèileadh Mòr	Ghost Tree Brewing Co.	Amherst	International-Style Amber Lager (50)
Silver	Dort Light	Great Lakes Brewing Co.	Cleveland	International Light Lager (38)
Silver	8th Anniversary Lager	Fat Head's Brewery	Middleburg Heights	Dortmunder or German-Style Festbier (161)
Silver	Kelly's Private Stash Ferds Addition	Third Eye Brewing Co.	Hamilton	Dessert or Pastry Beer (67)
Bronze	Wired Euphoria	Third Eye Brewing Co.	Hamilton	Coffee Stout or Porter (53)
Bronze	Higher Purpose	Third Eye Brewing Co.	Hamilton	Sweet Stout or Cream Stout (42)

Source: the Brewers Association's official 2026 GABF winners list. For background on the organization behind the competition, read our interview with Brewers Association CEO Bob Pease.

DOWNLOAD: 2026 GABF ALL WINNERS PDF

Masthead Brewing Co., Cleveland: Two Golds From the Hazy IPA House

Masthead built its reputation on hazy IPAs and Neapolitan-style pizza, served inside the Bryant Building, a 1921 car dealership on Superior Avenue that now sits on the National Register of Historic Places. So naturally it went to Denver and won two golds with lager.

Shower Beer took gold in American Lager against 94 entries. The name tells you exactly what it's for, and anyone who has finished mowing a lawn in August understands the assignment. Oni Giri took gold in Rice Lager, the biggest field Ohio won in this year at 110 entries and one of the categories the Brewers Association added or reworked for 2026. Rice lager is a style that lives or dies on restraint. There is no hop bomb or barrel to hide behind, only crispness and balance, and Masthead nailed it twice.

That makes Masthead the only Ohio brewery with two golds this year, and the one Cleveland should be buying rounds for. If you're planning a pizza night around it, our beer and food pairing guide has a few ideas.

Visit: 1261 Superior Ave., Cleveland, OH 44114 | mastheadbrewingco.com

Akronym Brewing, Akron: The Comeback Gold

This is the medal with the best story attached. Akronym closed in 2024 after nearly seven years downtown. It reopened in the fall of 2025 under a new owner from the Brew Kettle, with original brewmaster Shawn Adams back at the kettles and a stated plan to lean into what Akronym always did best, which is lager.

About a year later, Road Pop won gold in International Light Lager. That is what a plan looks like when it works.

The taproom still occupies its spot in the downtown parking deck on East Market Street, with a tented biergarten and a streetside patio. If you've been telling yourself you'd get back to Akronym one of these days, a gold medal is as good an excuse as you're going to get.

Visit: 58 E. Market St., Akron, OH 44308 | akronymbrewing.com

Great Lakes Brewing Co., Cleveland: A Four-Month-Old Beer With a Silver Medal

Here's the part Northeast Ohio should be loud about: International Light Lager had three medals to give, and two of them went to breweries about 40 miles apart. Akronym took gold and Great Lakes took silver with Dort Light.

Dort Light only launched on June 3, 2026. It's a 2.9% ABV, 90-calorie version of Dortmunder Gold, brewed with the same malt, hops and proprietary yeast that carried Dortmunder Gold to its first GABF gold medal back in 1990. Great Lakes was Ohio's first brewpub and microbrewery when brothers Patrick and Daniel Conway opened it in Ohio City in 1988. Thirty-eight years later, the brewery is still medaling with lager, and it took a beer less than five months old to do it.

A light beer that tastes like something is harder to make than it sounds. The judges in Denver agreed.

Visit: Brewpub at 2516 Market Ave., Cleveland, OH 44113 | greatlakesbrewing.com

Fat Head's Brewery, Middleburg Heights: Silver in One of the Deepest Fields in Denver

Fat Head's walked into 2026 as the defending Brewery of the Year in the 15,001 to 100,000 barrel division after a five-medal haul in 2025. This year it came home with one, and it was a tough one to win.

8th Anniversary Lager took silver in Dortmunder or German-Style Festbier, a category that drew 161 entries. Only a handful of categories in the entire competition were more crowded. October is festbier season across the country, which means every brewery with a lager tank enters one, and standing out in that crowd takes real precision.

The Middleburg Heights brewery and beer hall opened in 2018 right off I-71, with 250 seats, 20 taps, sandwiches roughly the size of your head and a dog-friendly patio. Fat Head's also runs a brewpub in North Olmsted at 24581 Lorain Road.

Visit: 17450 Engle Lake Dr., Middleburg Heights, OH 44130 | fatheads.com

Third Eye Brewing Co., Hamilton and Sharonville: Three Medals, All Dark

While the rest of Ohio was winning with lager, Third Eye went the other direction and took three medals with dark beer. Kelly's Private Stash Ferds Addition earned silver in Dessert or Pastry Beer, Wired Euphoria took bronze in Coffee Stout or Porter, and Higher Purpose took bronze in Sweet Stout or Cream Stout. Stout fans, we've been making your case for years.

Three medals made Third Eye Ohio's most decorated brewery at this year's festival. It also continues a strong run. Third Eye was a Brewery of the Year winner at GABF in 2025, and earlier this summer it was named Grand National Champion at the U.S. Open Beer Championship with nine medals.

The GABF list credits Third Eye to Hamilton, where the brewery converted a former Pepsi bottling plant on South Erie Boulevard into a production brewery and taproom that opened in November 2023. The original Sharonville taproom on Chester Road opened in 2020. Third Eye's motto is "Live Life, Do Good, Drink Beer," and the brewery backs up the middle part. It has partnered with local businesses on releases that send a portion of sales to St. Vincent de Paul, which is exactly the kind of brewery we love pointing people toward. It's the same idea behind our Community for Causes work.

Visit Hamilton: 850 S. Erie Blvd., Hamilton, OH 45011
Visit Sharonville: 11276 Chester Rd., Sharonville, OH 45246
Website: thirdeyebrewing.com

Ghost Tree Brewing Co., Amherst: The Small-Town Gold

If you've never heard of Ghost Tree, that's exactly why this list matters. Fèileadh Mòr won gold in International-Style Amber Lager against 50 entries, putting a brewery from Amherst, Ohio on the same medal list as the big names from Portland and San Diego.

Ghost Tree is Amherst's first local brewery. It's veteran-owned, sits on historic Church Street, and pairs its beer with wood-fired pizza and a rotating gallery of local art on the walls. In 2025 the brewery announced plans to expand into the space Brew Kettle had occupied in Amherst. The beer's name comes from the Scottish Gaelic term for the great kilt, the long belted plaid worn in the Highlands, which suggests someone at Ghost Tree has a sense of humor and a sense of history.

Small breweries in small towns do not get to Denver by accident. This gold was earned.

Visit: Church Street, Amherst, OH 44001 |
Website: ghosttreebrewing.com/

Why Ohio's Lager Run Matters

Lager is the hardest style to fake. An IPA can lean on hops to cover a rough edge, and a barrel-aged stout can lean on bourbon. A light lager, a rice lager or a festbier has none of that. What's in the glass is the skill of the brewer, the quality of the water and how patiently the beer was conditioned in the tank.

When six of a state's nine medals come from lager categories, it tells you that Ohio's brewers have the fundamentals locked down. It also tells you something useful as a drinker: the best beer at your local brewery might not be the one with the wildest description on the chalkboard. Sometimes it's the clean, golden one nobody photographs. Pour it into the right glass and you'll see what the judges saw.

Plan Your Own Medal Run

Five of the six winners sit within about an hour of each other in Northeast Ohio. You could start in Amherst, swing through Middleburg Heights, hit Great Lakes and Masthead in Cleveland, and finish under the lights of Akronym's biergarten in Akron. Third Eye makes a worthy second trip down to Southwest Ohio, with two taprooms to choose from, and our Braxton Brewing Field Notes will give you another stop while you're down that way. For more road-tested routes, browse our Field Notes, and keep up with Ohio brewing news through the Ohio Craft Brewers Association.

That's the kind of route the Pub Ring was built for. Each round puts three local stops on your card, you collect stamps as you drink your way through them, and the people who get out and support those places climb the leaderboard for a regional prize. The Pub Ring Newsletter tells you which three stops are up next, so you're the first to know where to go. Get the card, grab a friend and go drink something that won a medal.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which Ohio breweries won medals at the 2026 Great American Beer Festival?

Six Ohio breweries won medals in 2026: Masthead Brewing Co. in Cleveland, Akronym Brewing in Akron, Ghost Tree Brewing Co. in Amherst, Great Lakes Brewing Co. in Cleveland, Fat Head's Brewery in Middleburg Heights, and Third Eye Brewing Co. in Hamilton.

How many medals did Ohio win at GABF 2026?

Ohio breweries won nine medals at the 2026 Great American Beer Festival: four gold, three silver and two bronze.

Which Ohio brewery won the most medals at GABF 2026?

Third Eye Brewing Co. won the most medals of any Ohio brewery, with one silver and two bronze, all in dark beer categories. Masthead Brewing Co. won the most gold medals, with two.

What Ohio beers won gold at the 2026 Great American Beer Festival?

The four Ohio gold medal beers were Masthead's Shower Beer (American Lager), Masthead's Oni Giri (Rice Lager), Akronym's Road Pop (International Light Lager) and Ghost Tree's Fèileadh Mòr (International-Style Amber Lager).

Where is the Great American Beer Festival held?

The Great American Beer Festival is held every year in Denver, Colorado. The 2026 festival took place October 10 and 11 at Levitt Pavilion, a new outdoor venue for the event.

Can I visit the Ohio breweries that won GABF medals?

Yes. All six breweries operate public taprooms in Ohio. Five are in Northeast Ohio, close enough to visit in a single day, and Third Eye has taprooms in Hamilton and Sharonville in Southwest Ohio.