Vail Brewing Company claims two awards at U.S. Open Beer Championships

Vail Brewing Company recently earned two 2026 U.S. Open Beer Championship awards for its Pete’s Stash Pale Ale and Mexican Lager. The U.S. Open Beer Championships is one of the premier competitions celebrating American brewing excellence and is the third-largest beer competition in the United States. The competition, held in Oxford, Ohio, judges thousands of beers in categories like pale ales, IPAs, stouts, ales, lagers, hybrids, barrel aged and specialty beers.

Garrett Scahill is the co-founder and head brewer at Vail Brewing Company, which has locations in Eagle-Vail, Vail Village and now Gypsum. He said that Vail Brewing Company usually submits beers to the Great American Beer Festival and World Beer Cup and have won awards in those competitions. Scahill said they have traveled to a few of the Great American Beer Festival and World Beer Cup competitions, but he found out about the recent winnings online.

“I went to the website after the ceremony was over and the winners were listed there and I just skimmed it and saw Pete’s Stash had won a silver medal and I got super excited and was like, ‘Sweet! Another medal for Pete,’ and then, to be honest, I didn’t even know we got a silver for the Mexican Lager until the medals were sent and we opened them, and there was two in there. And then I went back to the website and was surprised to know that we won silver for that as well.”

Earning two medals versus one was a pleasant surprise.

“We’ve always been really serious and passionate about the beer. It’s not a hobby for us. It’s a passion. It’s a job,” Scahill said. “To make great beer, cleanliness has to be number one, we pride ourselves on that. It’s super important during every step of the process from mashing all the way to having it come out of the can or tap, we’re hyper-focused on quality and making sure it’s done right.”

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Although Pete’s Stash Pale Ale is normally submitted for awards, the Mexican Lager entry almost didn’t happen.

“We don’t necessarily brew for beer competitions. We kind of see what we have on the schedule and then what’s probably planned for about that time of the competitions and then as we get closer, we hopefully have those beers available. There’s been times where we’ve had to pull out of a category because we didn’t have that beer ready,” Scahill said.

He said that their new facility in Gypsum, which is still ramping up, will allow them to make more varieties of beer.

“With our small facility in Eagle-Vail, we don’t really have the opportunity to sit too long on a beer in a tank because we go through the beer so quickly. So, we typically brew lagers in the spring and fall when we’re in the off-season,” Scahill said. “Our plan is to have a light lager that we have on all the time, and then another one rotating between our Mexican Lager or our Italian Pilsner and so forth.”

Vail Brewing Company got its start in 2014 and despite numerous awards from judges he doesn’t even know, Scahill credits the community for supporting a ski bum and veteran-owned brewery all these years and during the transition into its new facility near the Eagle County Airport.

“It’s challenging to move a brewery, but people just keep coming back and saying how much they love the beer and how much they support us and are willing to wait if we run out of something,” Scahill said. “We appreciate everybody giving us that support. But once this is up and running, we should never run out of anything.”

Scahill said he’s happy to join other local companies who are also winning awards like 10th Mountain Whiskey & Spirits Company and Minturn Whisky Company.

“I think it’s great for our whole valley to have these award-winning and passionate breweries and distilleries,” Scahill said. “In fact, we now serve 10th Mountain’s products in addition to our beers. We will also be a part of Minturn’s Hometown Throwdown on Sept. 26, and we’ll be serving beers alongside Minturn Whisky Company and Wild Mountain Cellars. It’s great to do little community events like that and showcase products from the county.”