Wander Back Lager wins gold at World Beer Cup in crowded Helles category

South Jersey’s Wander Back Beerworks just got the kind of credibility that can change how drinkers see a new brewery. On April 29, Wander Back Lager won gold in Munich-Style Helles at the 2026 World Beer Cup, topping 156 entries in one of the competition’s busiest style categories.

That matters because Helles is not a style that hides behind hops or gimmicks. It rewards balance, freshness and a clean malt profile, and Brian Hink said the target was simple: “Helles is about finding the sweet spot where the beer is not too sweet, not too thin, and still something you want to keep drinking.” Wander Back’s beer was built to hit exactly that mark, the kind of lager that can win judges over and keep a tap handle moving in a crowded market.

The scale of the win gives it real weight. The World Beer Cup was held in Philadelphia on April 22 and the Brewers Association said the 2026 competition handed out 353 medals to 273 producers worldwide, marking 30 years of the contest. In a field that large, a gold medal in a classic lager category is more than a ribbon. It is a signal to beer buyers, bartenders and lager drinkers that Wander Back can execute on the hardest, most unforgiving end of the spectrum.

The brewery’s process explains a lot of that result. Craft Beer & Brewing reported that Wander Back Lager is brewed with 100 percent locally grown, floor-malted pils malt from Rabbit Hill Malt, and that Brian Hink and cofounder Justin Vitti built the brewery’s brewing, cellaring and packaging around the beer from the start. That kind of discipline matters in Helles, where every step shows up in the glass. If the malt is stale, the beer flattens. If fermentation is sloppy, the beer loses snap. If the balance slips, the whole point disappears.

The medal also arrives just as Wander Back is preparing for a bigger public debut. The brewery’s taproom is slated for 631 E. Landis Ave. in Vineland, inside the former Amish Market property that the city renovated into the Vineland Convention Center. NJ.com reported the location is part of the long-abandoned market site, and 42 Freeway said the convention center expected its first events in November 2025, with Wander Back opening in a portion of the city-owned building in 2026.

For a brewery founded in 2024, the timing is perfect. Wander Back now has a gold-medal lager, a local grain story and a future taproom address in Vineland. In a crowded beer market, that is the kind of launchpad that gets noticed.