Bad Dad and Chilly Water Pick Up Medals at NABA While Taxman Cleans Up At World Beer Awards

16 Sep Bad Dad and Chilly Water Pick Up Medals at NABA While Taxman Cleans Up At World Beer Awards

by Mark E. Lasbury for Indiana On Tap

The 2021 International Beer/Cider Awards gave out medals in late August with two Indiana breweries winning multiple medals. The North American Brewer’s Association was formed in Idaho in 1996 and has endeavored to secure craft beer’s role in modern culture since that time. They run the Mountain Brewers Beer Fest as the culminating event of the Idaho Beer Week, which took place from august 23-28 this year.

Being held in Idaho, most of the participating breweries for the competition come from the Pacific Northwest (Utah, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Montana, Wyoming). Nevertheless, Bad Dad Brewery from Fairmount and Chilly Water Brewing from Indianapolis garnered two medals apiece in this year’s contest.

Bad Dad won a silver medal in the oatmeal stout category for their very popular You’re Grounded Mister, a coffee stout, coming in behind only the Black Ghost from Madison River Brewing in Montana. Their other medal was a well-earned bronze in the Dunkelweizen Bock category (oddly specific), finishing behind California and Montana breweries.

For Dan Kryzwicki and Chilly Water Brewing, their medals came in two very different categories. They won a silver in the German Style Rauchbier group with their staple beer, Smoke on the Lager. This continues a tradition of Indiana doing very well in the Rauchbier categories (Four Day Ray, Primeval Brewing, etc.). They were bested only by von Ebert Brewing from Oregon in this category.

Chilly Water’s other medal was a bronze in the Munich Style Dark group, with their Dark Side of the Munich. This is right up Chilly Water’s alley, as it is a lager beer, just one of the lagers that Chilly Water is known for. They were bested only by beers from New Orleans and Portland.

In just the past couple of days, the World Beer Awards announced their winners for 2021. Taxman Brewing from Bargersville once again dominated this UK-based competition with five medal winners and one “World’s Best” winner. This is an interesting competition wherein there are nine large groups that encompass many categories of beer.

Taxman was awarded as the United states winner for three different categories, including golds for Deduction in the Dark Dubbel group, the Maple Barrel Qualified in the Flavored Beer Category, and the Invester in the Belgian Pale Strong category. They also won a silver in that last category with their No Sparge Imperial Golden Ale. This final beer has been a huge favorite of mine for the past 3-4 months; it’s an expensive beer to make, but so worth it.

The biggest win for Taxman came in the Dark Beer super category, which included the winners of nine different groups of dark beers. Their Belgian Quadruppel called Qualified won the Belgian Dark Strong group, and was then named the best dark beer in the world against the nine category winners in the dark beer group.

Congratulations to all the winners in these recent competitions and please remember three things, 1) it takes guts to put your beer out there to be criticized by others, 2) many fantastic beers aren’t entered into competitions and therefore don’t win medals, and 3) if a beer does win a medal (or multiple medals over time), it’s a good indication that you should be drinking it – even if it isn’t “your style.”

BTW and way off topic, get to Triton Brewing in Lawrence to try the Star 19 wet hop IPA using Indiana Chinook freshly harvested hops from Crazy Horse Hops and the All IN Lager, a great American Lager using all Indiana grains, Indiana malts from Sugar Creek Malt Company in Lebanon, and Indiana Crystal hops from Crazy Horse in Knightstown.