Arkansas brewery wins big at 2020 Great American Beer Festival

The Lost Forty crew celebrates its medal win / Courtesy photo

Arkansas’ own Lost Forty Brewing took home one of the most coveted honors at the 2020 Great American Beer Festival’s virtual award ceremony on Saturday.

The Little Rock-based brewery was named Mid-Size Brewing Company and Mid-Size Brewing Company Brewer of the Year.

The mid-size category is considered a top award. It honors breweries that produce between 15,000 and 6 million barrels of beer per year. Any company that brews more beer is no longer considered a craft brewery.

It’s a remarkable accomplishment considering Lost Forty barely qualified for the category with a 16,000-barrel output last year.

“What an incredible, and unexpected, honor,” said Lost Forty co-founder Russ McDonough. “And what a great testament to our talented, passionate, and dedicated crew at Lost Forty. I couldn’t be more proud!”

Lost Forty also won a gold medal in the Brett Beer category for its Bottle Conditioned Day Drinker. The Belgian blonde ale was created as part of the brewery’s small-batch experimental ‘Wild Barrels Project’ series which employs the use of wild yeasts and live bacteria cultures to create unique flavor profiles.

Presented by the Brewers Association, GABF is the largest commercial beer competition in the world and recognizes the most outstanding beers produced in the United States.