NoDa Brewing Company Earns Bronze Medal at the 2021 Great American Beer Festival®

CAVU recognized at world’s largest professional beer competition

NoDa Brewing Company was awarded a bronze medal at the 2021 Great American Beer Festival (GABF) competition, presented by the Brewers Association®. The best beers in 97 beer categories covering 175 different beer styles (including all subcategories) were awarded gold, silver, and bronze medals at a ceremony at the Bellco Theatre in Denver on Friday evening during the Craft Brewers Conference® and live-streamed on The Brewing Network.

NoDa Brewing Company was recognized in the Golden or Blonde Ale beer-style category for its CAVU, a light-colored ale that presents itself with hints of tropical fruit and citrus from west coast hops. NoDa Brewing is a 60-barrel brewery located in Charlotte North Carolina that prides itself in serving great beer across the Carolinas.

“I’ve always believed CAVU was a quality but still unique example of a blonde ale and I’ve always hoped it would win an award for the style. Despite this, I rarely enter it into categories as we have so many brands and the number of entries for each competition is limited,” said Chad Henderson, head brewer at NoDa Brewing Company. “This GABF I thought we might as well give CAVU a shot and it was extremely satisfying seeing it up on the list for bronze! A lot of the more balanced styles like blonde ales get overlooked because they don’t go overboard on flavors so it’s nice for our CAVU to get some deserved attention.”

Judging took place in 34 sessions over 17 days with strict health and safety measures in place. 170 judges evaluated 9,680 entries from 2,192 breweries from all 50 states plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

“Despite being forced to cancel the festival portion of GABF, our brewing community rallied together to make this year’s GABF competition one for the books — our largest competition judged to date,” said Chris Swersey, competition director, Great American Beer Festival. “Judges continue to be impressed with the quality and innovation of all entries they evaluated. The Brewers Association is proud to honor this year’s deserving winners.”

For more information on the GABF competition, including a complete 2021 winners list and photos, visit GreatAmericanBeerFestival.com.