These 3 Beers Brewed In New Jersey Are Among Best In America, Experts Decide

Three of the country's best beers are brewed right here in New Jersey. That's according to the judges at the Great American Beer Festival, held earlier this month in Denver, Colo.

One of the competition's gold medal winners is from New Jersey. The Garden State also boasted a silver winner and a bronze winner.

The Brewers Association's Great American Beer Festival was held Oct. 5 - 7 and featured the best beers from 800 breweries. More than 60,000 people attended the event, and nearly 3,900 beers were included in the competition.

Here are the winning beers from New Jersey, the category for which they won, and who brewed them:

GOLD

Porter Aged on Palo Santo Wood (wood and barrel aged beer) — Spellbound Brewing, Mount Holly

Beer Advocate rating: 4.11/5

How Beer Advocate reviewers describe it:

• " Very smooth and silky drink, dark, roasty, with some dried milk chocolate goodness. A flavorful porter with exceptionally smooth drink-ability."
• "Very pleasant. You get the wood taste. There's some coconut and chocolate taste. Almost a bit of licorice or anise. Reminds me very much of a mounds/bounty bar. Easily one of if not my favorite beer I have ever had."
• "Overall this beer is one of my favorites... worth seeking out."

SILVER

Bad Hombre (chili beer) — Eight & Sand Beer Co., Woodbury

Beer Advocate rating: 4.66/5

How a Beer Advocate reviewer describes it:

• "Fantastic milk stout brewed with cinnamon vanilla peppers and coffee! All the flavors blend so nicely together and shine well. Perfect amount of heat on the back end!"

BRONZE

Tripel Horse (Belgian-style tripel) — River Horse Brewing Co, Ewing

Beer Advocate rating: 3.7/5

How Beer Advocate reviewers describe it:

• "Pours a very murky shade of orange-brown, with only a slight half-inch of head that dissipates to a very thin layer after a while. Aroma is a huge explosion of candied sugar, dark fruits, banana, clove, cinnamon, and everything you could want in a dessert type beer. Taste follows suit, with the sweetness and spices taking up the majority of the flavor, but there's a nice kick of belgian yeasty flavor that combines on the finish with just a slight hit of alcohol to create what, in my opinion, is one of the best examples of an American take on the Tripel style."
• "Though Trenton may be rough and tumble, this beer is more like Ewing, is just an average joe."
• A lil' paler than some Belgians, nice fruity aroma, slightly weak at 10 abv, but still very tasty, it drinks like a middle of a road Belgian.

Photo courtesy Brewers Association