12 Sep Metazoa Brewing and Moontown Brewing – Both Win Brewery of the Year at GABF
by Mark E. Lasbury for Indiana On Tap
First off, I’m sorry for the shortness of this piece. I want to get the information out, and will revisit this topic again in a week or so, after we recover from Hops & Coaster Drops and make the 4th Annual Lagers in Lawrence a huge success on Sept. 18.
The Great American Beer Festival (GABF) in Denver, CO held its award program for their professional brewing competition last Friday night. Normally the competition award ceremony is surrounded by days of public tastings at GABF and other events around town, but the pandemic scaled back the festivities. Look for GABF to be back at full strength (associated events, Rare Beer tasting, GABF beer tastings).
image credit: Blind Owl Brewery
This year, the largest conference for the brewing industry (CBC, Craft Brewer’s Conference) changed its dates so that it coincided with the awards ceremony for GABF. That way, many of the breweries and brewers to be congratulated would be in town to accept their awards. Even with the pandemic still not behind us, the number of entries was a record, and if you were to win a medal or two, it would be great if you could be in Denver for the awards show.
Three Indiana breweries won medals in 2021, down from previous years, but oh – these were big wins.
Blind Owl Brewery in Indianapolis won a bronze medal for their International Lager called Tomanos. This was a great result, since there were 175 entrees in this category and because Ian Boswell and Erick had reworked this beer last year with a special emphasis on aiming for a medal for this beer. Plus, it’s tasty as heck.
image credit: Moontown Brewing
Moontown Brewing in Whitestown tied for the most medals in the entire competition with three, and in some big categories as well. GM Bobby Mattingly and brewer Cody Peczkowski were on hand in Denver to accept their silver medal for Moonlight, their American Cream Ale (147 entries), the bronze medal for 40th Parallel, their Bohemian Style Pilsener (161 entries), and the bronze for Skool House Bock, their bock beer (88 entries).
The reason it was especially nice that Cody and Bobby were at CBC and the awards ceremony was that they were called up later to accept the Brewery and Brewer of the Year for breweries making 501-1000 barrels/year. This is a prestigious award for any brewery in any year, but the 501-1000 barrel category is particularly large. Many of the breweries you visit around the United States fall into this category. Congratulations to the entire team at Moontown for this well-earned honor.
Metazoa Brewing in Indiana polis entered beers from their taproom brewery and their production brewery in the Stringtown neighborhood of the city, so even though they too won three total medals, they were not eligible for the “most medals” distinction since they were made at two different places. It is of little consequence when you see what they did win.
image credit: Metazoa Brewing
Metazoa took the gold medal for their herb/spice beer called Rosie the River Otter (115 entries). They also won gold for Trash Panda in the coffee beer category (75 entries). Finally, they took bronze for Go Apricot in the specialty saison group (85 entries). This follows a great tradition for medals in the saison group for Metazoa, with their Klipsringer dry hopped saison having won multiple awards.
Since Metazoa entered more than six beers, they were eligible for another honor, if they could score high enough. The Brewery Group Brewery and Brewer of the Year was awarded to the brewery with the highest avaerage score for all their beers entered – and that went to Metazoa as well. Owner Dave Worthington, VP Lauren Frederick, Brewmaster John J. Hall, Head of Brewing Operations Nick Betzner, lead brewer Rob Malad, Tara, Grace, and the entire brew staff should feel immense pride on their accomplishment.
Take the time to visit these award winning breweries in Central Indiana and et them know how much you appreciate their efforts on your behalf. They do craft beer and Indiana proud.
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