When the Great International Beer, Cider, Mead & Sake Competition (GIBCMSC) returns to Connecticut on November 7, cider will once again share the judging tables with beer, mead, sake and an increasingly broad assortment of beverages.
It wasn’t always that way.
Nearly three decades ago, when the competition was getting started in Providence, Rhode Island, cider was barely on the radar. Gregg Glaser, who has organized the competition since its earliest days, remembers cider arriving perhaps during its second year.
Ria Windcaller has judged the competition since 2003 and remembers Boston Beer Company’s Hard Core Cider among those early entries, years before Angry Orchard arrived.
“Hard Core stood out because Boston Beer and Woodchuck were the only companies submitting cider at the time. A whole whopping three ciders! Meanwhile, there were hundreds of beers being judged.” — Ria Windcaller, longtime Great International competition judge
Glaser’s own competition records only go back to 2011, though he recalls ACE Cider and Woodchuck among the early cider names.
Today, cider has a defined place in a competition that has itself become something of a record of how the drinks business has changed.
From a Providence Beer Fest to a Drinks Competition
The Great International began when Glaser was asked to organize a competition as a “value-added” component of a Providence beer festival.
His involvement wasn’t something that came later. Glaser was the original producer and organizer, beginning the work in 1996. The competition started modestly before eventually moving into the city’s large convention center in downtown Providence, Rhode Island.
When the beer festival’s owner retired, Glaser purchased the competition following the 2016 event. With the festival no longer attached to it, there was little reason for him to continue traveling to Providence to stage the judging, so the event moved closer to his Connecticut home.
The 28th competition will be held November 7, 2026, in Norwalk, Connecticut. Last year’s competition attracted 363 entries judged by 58 beverage professionals, with another 12 people serving as stewards. Over its history, the competition reports having judged more than 11,000 entries.
And the name has gotten considerably longer along the way.
As drinking trends changed, Glaser added categories. Beer was joined by cider and mead, then sake, hard kombucha, hard seltzer, non-alcohol beer and ready-to-drink beverages.
“I kept adding categories as the biz changed & these categories became popular,” he said.
Sake was a somewhat more personal addition.
“Sake: because I love sake!” Glaser said.
A Competition Judged by the Trade
One characteristic has remained important to Glaser: this is a peer-review competition rather than a consumer tasting.
Judges are professionals working in the beverage industry, along with drinks and food journalists. Entries are tasted blind, with judges given information such as style, alcohol level and relevant ingredients or production notes, rather than the identity of the producer.
Glaser’s reasoning is straightforward.
“I thought the companies entering would be more interested in professional opinions rather than the general public/consumers,” he said.
And entrants don’t have to win a medal to get something back from the experience.
Every entrant receives the judges’ tasting notes. Winners receive certificates and medals, and Glaser distributes the results to beverage media.
For a producer, those notes may be one of the more useful parts of entering: a chance to put a cider anonymously in front of people who spend their working lives making, selling, buying, serving or writing about beverages.
Where Are the Ciders?
For all the growth cider has experienced since those early judging tables, Glaser has noticed a more recent shift that may be of particular interest to the cider industry.
“The # of cideries entering has fallen off post-Covid,” he said. “Almost no non-U.S. cideries are entering.”
He’s also noticed something about the kinds of cider arriving.
“Ciders are mostly mainstream,” Glaser said. “The funkier ciders don’t seem to be entering.”
That leaves him with a fairly specific wish list for 2026.
“More from France, U.K. & Spain! More funky ciders. Not just the mass market sweet ciders.”
It’s an interesting observation at a time when cider itself encompasses an enormous range: modern flavored ciders, traditional bittersweets, keeved ciders, bottle-conditioned ciders, wild fermentations, orchard-based American ciders, Spanish sidra, French cidre and perry, among many others.
A competition can only judge what producers choose to send. If fewer international and less-mainstream ciders reach the judging table, the entries inevitably show only part of what today’s cider world has to offer.
A Snapshot of What People Are Drinking
After nearly three decades of opening bottles and assembling judging panels, Glaser has had an unusual vantage point from which to watch beverage trends come and go.
Some things haven’t gone anywhere.
“IPAs are still King & Queen for beers,” he said.
But he is seeing more lagers than in years past. Meanwhile, the competition has adapted as new beverage categories have appeared on store shelves and in consumers’ glasses.
That may be one of the more interesting things about the Great International after 28 competitions. What began as an addition to a Providence beer festival has quietly documented decades of change in the drinks business.
Cider went from a curiosity represented by a few bottles to a beverage worthy of its own categories. Mead and sake joined the judging. Then came hard kombucha and hard seltzer. RTDs and non-alcohol beer followed.
And Glaser is still organizing it.
Why?
“It keeps me young & off the streets,” he joked. “I enjoy the organizing aspect. It keeps me in the loop with the drinks biz & all those great people.”
For cider producers interested in putting their bottles in front of that group, the deadline for 2026 entry forms is October 10. The 28th Great International Beer, Cider, Mead & Sake Competition takes place November 7, 2026, in Norwalk, Connecticut.
Competition information and entry details are available from the Great International Beer, Cider, Mead & Sake Competition.
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