A Moment of Horn-Tooting

@Beervana Dude you cleaned up! Two golds, one bronze, and one "participant"

— Bill Night (@itspubnight) October 7, 2016

This morning, the North American Guild of Beer Writers announced their annual writing awards, and they sent some sugar my way. Over the past half-decade or so that they've been doing this ("we" actually--I'm a member and judged the first two years), the competition seems to have heated up. I completely crapped out this year in the blog category--after clawing my way to a bronze last year. (Bryan Roth has a hammer lock on the blog category.) I'd have to go back and look at the other categories I got skunked in--there were more--but there was something to celebrate, as well:

• Best book category, 1st for the Beer Bible.
• Best historical/technical writing, 1st for my Reinheitsgebot article at All About Beer.
• Best national/international reporting, 3rd for "Hop Shift" in All About Beer.
• And finally, for best podcast, Patrick and I picked up an honorable mention. (There's something delightfully perverse about our lo-fi production getting "honorable" anything.)

It's always meaningful to get recognition, but even more so from the peers who actually know the subject. Seeing the names of the people going by reminded me how strong the field of beer writing has become. I'm honored to be in their company.