Athletic Brewing Company, a leader in the non-alcoholic brewing scene, is having an awesome year, adding winning awards at three major beer competitions to their list. They also won the International Beer Challenge 2020 “Brewer of the Year North America,” and continue to be recognized for reimagining beer for the modern, active adult.

At the World Beer Awards, Athletic Upside Dawn (Specialty Beer, Gluten-Free); Athletic All-Out Stout (No & Low Alcohol, Stout & Porter); Athletic Cream Ale (No & Low Alcohol, Lager) and Athletic Downwinder Gose (No & Low Alcohol, Flavored) were all named “Best in Country” in Round 1. Athletic Wit’s Peak (No & Low Alcohol, Wheat) earned a silver medal. 

At the US Open Beer Championship, Athletic Run Wild (NA, IPA), Athletic All Out Stout (NA, Stout), and Athletic Raspberry Gose (NA, Gose) all earned gold medals. Athletic Downwinder Gose (NA, Gose) won silver.

At the Great American Beer Festival, Athletic won two of three NA medals. Athletic Closer by the Mile earned silver and Athletic Downwinder Gose earned the bronze. The Brewers Association (BA) awarded 290 medals to 265 breweries across the country during the 2021 Great American Beer Festival awards ceremony in the largest competition to date.

“These awards are a reflection of the thousands of hours that our brewing and lab teams have invested in perfecting their craft across an incredible range of styles,” said Co-Founder John Walker. “We can proudly say that we’ve taken non-alcoholic beer out of the penalty box to compete shoulder-to-shoulder with the best alcoholic craft beers in the world, and winning awards against them.”

As the pandemic continued to make it a challenge for the brewing industry, brewers started to see an opening for the health-conscious non-alcoholic beer market, which in the U.S, skyrocketed to $230 million in 2020. The craft non-alcoholic beer category is up over 300 percent year-to-date again this year according to Nielsen. In just four years, Athletic has grown from one 10,000 barrel capacity brewery headquartered in Connecticut to an additional 125,000 barrels in San Diego in 2020. Next year, Athletic will add an additional 150,000 barrels of capacity at a second Connecticut brewery located in Milford. 

“Our goal is to open up new occasions for beer. Our drinkers range from parents, elite athletes, weekend warriors, success-driven professionals, and mindful adults who just seek a better balance in life without alcohol,” said Shufelt.