12 Jul After a Year’s Hiatus, Indiana Brewers’ Cup Awards New Crop of Medals
by Mark E. Lasbury for Indiana On Tap
On the evening of July 10th the Indiana State Fair held a virtual awards ceremony to honor medal winners of the Indiana Brewers Cup in both homebrewer and commercial categories, across more than 30 style groups. The pandemic cancelled the 2020 competition and the entries this year were down a bit because business and personal lives are still somewhat up in the air, but in all there were more than 500 homebrew entries and about 350 professional beers.
Homebrew Contest: The homebrew competition ranks as a Master Championship Level event through the American Homebrewers Association (AHA), and as such traditionally brings in entries from around the country This year was no different, with medalists from 11 different states, including Indiana, California, Illinois, Ohio, South Carolina, and others. In total, 118 homebrewers vied for awards, and 57 different brewers won medals, including Patrick Mousaw of Granger who recently won a medal at the AHA national competition.
Foam Blowers of Indiana was named the Homebrew Club of the Year. image credit: FBI
Nineteen homebrewers won two or more medals, and brewers such as Dean Steurwald of of Brownsburg and the Foam Blowers of Indiana (FBI), Jerad Lengerich of Decatur and the MASH club, Joel McGormley of Zionsville, Todd Cogswell of Lafayette, John Allison of Indy and FBI, Andrew Korty of Indy and FBI, and John Jacovetty of Seneca, SC each won four or more medals. The Homebrewer of the Year winner was determined by number of points (3 points for a 1st, 2 points for a 2nd, 1 point for a 3rd) as well as number of firsts, with Dean Steurwald taking top honors ahead of Jerad Lengerich and Joel McGormley. The Best in Show homebrew was the Piwo Grodziskie of Keith Goldstein of Indiana and the Circle City Zymurgy club.
The Homebrew Club of the year was FBI, based on total points, while Circle City Zymurgy (CCZ) won the Bill Friday Club Award for highest average points/beer. Congratulations to all the participants; we hope to enjoy your beer long into the future.
Professional Brewers Contest: Entries in 2021 were limited to 12/brewery, so there were a total of 348 entries from 45 different breweries in several different states. Of the 45 entered establishments, 37 of them won medals. Medals were awarded to commercial breweries in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and Illinois.
Metazoa Brewing was Indiana Brewery Champion and Grand Champion. image credit: Metazoa Brewing
Many of the beers that won medals are well known to Indiana drinkers. Why? Because they’re consistently great. Names like Rip Cord, Barn Mischief, Qualified, Saucy Intruder, Teddy Bear Kisses variants, South Simcoe, Mulligan, Pachanga, Kuntz Lager, and Because I said So are commonly heard coming from drinkers lips, but lesser known beers that aren’t distributed much or at all were also recognized for being great – like Dopple Dribble, Titus, Glory for the Fallen, Trash Panda, and Blind Squirrel.
Primeval Brewing of Noblesville led the way with seven medals in their first Indiana Brewers Cup as a professional brewery, including for their amazing rauchbier called Rauch My World that I have every time I am there. Metazoa Brewing in Indianapolis came away with six medals, while Grand Junction Brewing in Westfield and Upland Brewing in Bloomington have five each. Daredevil Brewing of Speedway, Bad Dad Brewing of Fairmount, Taxman Brewing of Bargersville, and Black Acre Brewing of Irvington each won four medals apiece.
Breweries with multiple gold medals included Field Brewing of Westfield, Centerpoint Brewing of Indy, Daredevil, Metazoa, Black Acre, Treehive of Rantoul, IL, and Sun King Fishers Small Batch Brewery. Mulligan Scotch Ale from Grand Junction was named the Best of Show beer in the professional category, while Metazoa Brewing was named both the Indiana Champion Brewery and the Grand Champion Brewery based on points (same format of the homebrewer competition).
Congratulations to all the winners and all the entrants. Check out the complete results at the IBC webpage here.
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