Oktoberfest season is over, but Minnesota’s reputation for German-style beers might be turning into a year-round thing.
Two Twin Cities-area breweries won gold medals at last weekend’s Great American Beer Festival in Denver, and in both cases the wins were for Germanic brews.
Big Lake’s Lupulin Brewing took top honors in the German-Style Maerzen category with its seasonal Oktoberfest Märzen brand beer. Lupulin beat out 160 U.S. beers in that bracket, one of the most popular categories at the annual competition, which is judged by other members of the nationwide Brewers Association.
Minnesota’s other 2025 gold-medal winner was Minneapolis’ Northbound Smokehouse & Brewpub, whose already reputable Eisbock won in GABF’s German-Style Doppelbock or Eisbock category. That’s the second year in a row Northbound has won gold with that beer.
For Lupulin, it was the third time the west-suburb brewery has won a GABF medal for a German-style beer, following another gold in 2017 with its Dortmunder and a Bronze in 2020 for its Doppelbock.
“It’s a testament to our brew team that we’re known as more of a hop-forward brewery, and yet we’re winning with these classic styles,” said Jeff Zierdt, president of Lupulin, which built its reputation on its hopped-up Hooey and Fashion Mullet IPAs.
Luckily, Zierdt said his team brewed plenty of the Oktoberfest Märzen this year, so he expects it to be available on tap at Lupulin’s taproom and in cans on shelves around town through at least the end of October.
“German beers are a big part of Minnesota’s brewing heritage, going all the way back to Schell’s, which is still making great German-style pilsners,” Zierdt said, while also pointing to Northbound’s win. “We are following their lead.”
