GABF awards
I counted 17 medals for Philly-area breweries at today’s award ceremonies at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver. Get the entire list here.
I’ll slice and dice this more in Friday’s column, but for now a few things are striking:
- Iron Hill won gold for its Vienna Lager, a house beer. I’ve written before that the reason brewpubs do so well at this event is that, because of their size, they’re better able to produce unique one-offs that judges love. But Vienna Lager is one of Iron Hill’s daily beers, always on tap. The beer’s recipe was tweaked a couple years ago, and - in addition to this gold - it has also taken a silver at the World Beer Cup. Justin Sproul of IHB’s Newark location gets the props.
- Flying Fish of Cherry Hill, N.J., finally brought home some hardware, a silver for its Belgian Abbey Dubbel, a beer I’ve always felt was under-rated (and a helluva cash bargain). Brewery Casey Hughes was sky high at the convention center; I only wish I could’ve tracked down and high-fived the company’s Gene Muller, who was inspired to found his craft brewery after attending the GABF many years ago.
- Dogfish Head nailed the specialty beer category, a catch-off for any damn thing a brewer can concoct (seems perfect for Sam Calagione). Palo Santo Marron took bronze and Red & White, which might the best beer DFH ever brewed, took gold.
- Home boy Lew Bryson was one of the three Michael Jackson beer journalism award winners, joining past Philly award winners Carolyn Smagalski, Marnie Old and yours truly. Philly: America’s Best Beer-Writing City.
They don’t hand out awards for t-shirts, but Iron Hill deserves something for the one its staff is wearing out here. The slogan on the back declares, “Our beer snobs can beat up your wine snobs.”
October 12th, 2008 at 8:05 am
[…] Based upon the reporting of Don Russell, who is on the scene, I have reversed the beers credited to Iron HIll’s two Delaware […]