23 Sep Indiana Breweries Take Three Gold Medals at GABF
by Mark E. Lasbury for Indiana On Tap
Four Indiana craft breweries brought home a total of five medals from the Great American Beer Festival in Denver this past weekend. Nearly 8500 beers from 2400 breweries and across 102 competition categories were entered into competition in 2018. This was 500 more beers and 200 more breweries than in 2017, indicating that participating breweries are entering more beers each year (on average).
Both the competition and the festival surrounding it continue to grow each year, with an additional 100,000 sq. ft. of space added this year. More than 4000 beers were sampled during the public tasting sessions from 800 different breweries. More than 62,000 patrons attended one or more of the festivals, and the award ceremonies for the competition were packed. Much was made of the fact that the festival did not sell out as quickly as in recent years; the implication being that the craft beer movement is slowing down, but really it was due to the additional hundreds of tickets put on sale for each session. The numbers don’t lie, craft beer is still moving ahead strongly.
Iris Dillon (center) of the Brewers of Indiana Guild pouring at the BIG booth during GABF. image credit: Brewers of Indiana Guild
Indiana fared well in both the competition and the festival. Many local breweries poured their beer for the rabid attendees Thursday, Friday and twice on Saturday, including Backstep Brewing from Crawfordsville, Danny Boy Beer Works and Flix Brewhouse in Carmel, Chapman’s Brewing from Angola, Indiana City, Metazoa, Sun King, Daredevil, and Triton from Indianapolis, Moontown Brewing in Whitestown, Off Square in Crown Point, Shoreline Brewery of Michigan City, The Tap and Upland from Bloomington, Three Floyds out of Munster, Taxman Brewing from Bargersville, and ZwanzigZ Brewing in Columbus.
The Brewers of Indiana Guild had a booth and poured additional Indiana beers again this year, remaining a model of guild activity and organization for other states. They poured the following beers and breweries: 3 Floyds Brewpub – Zombie Dust, Centerpoint Brewing – Blood Orange IPA, Central State Brewing – Garden and Dad Bod, Four Day Ray Brewing – Hot Pink, HopLore Brewing – Outskirts Dreamsicle (raspberry), Mad Anthony Brewing – Auburn Lager, Scarlet Lane Brewing Company – Katrina, Summit City Brewerks – Mango Monkey, Switchyard Brewing Company – Lavender Blonde, and Upland Brewing Company/Indiana Beer Brigade – spontaneous wood-aged sour. Look for many of these same breweries to be pouring beer at the upcoming Broad Ripple Beer Fest on October 27th.
As far as the competition went, Taxman Brewing lead the way with two medals – a silver in the Belgian-Style Strong Specialty Ale category (65 entries) for their Qualified and a bronze for Deduction in the Belgian-Style Dubbel or Quadruppel category (57 entries), In 2017, Deduction took a silver in this same category, while Qualified took a bronze in 2015. The other three medals garnered by Indiana breweries this year were all of the gold variety.
Two GABF medals were a great way to celebrate Taxman’s 4th Anniversary. image credit: Taxman Brewing
Upland Brewing won top honors in the Gose category (112 entries) for their Two of Tarts. This is a rounded finishing beer from the salt that has plenty of fruit and sourness up front. Surprisingly, this was Upland’s first GABF medal since its Sour Reserve won gold in 2012. Different breweries have different agendas, some enter beers every year and some enter rarely.
Flix Brewhouse followed up their silver for Generation Alt in 2015 with their second GABF medal, a gold for Carmel-ite, a Belgian tripel (68 entries) with a deep golden color and plenty of Belgian funk. Finally, The Tap Brewing Bloomington continues to have success with their imperial stout (86 entries) called Kill The Lights. This beer has won several medals in the last year, including a silver at the Best of Craft Beer Awards in January and a bronze at the World Beer Cup in May of this year.
Congratulations to all the breweries that represented Indiana so well. We are lucky to have artisans who care so much about their products and community. Click here for a searchable list of all the winning beers and breweries from this year.
banner image credit: Taste Magazine
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