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Brewing Achievement Awards 2010

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ba
Yesterday at the opening session of the Craft Brewers Conference in Chicago, the awards were given to “three successful members of the brewing community … for their dedication and service to the industry.” The three awards were as follows.

  • The Brewers Association Recognition Award went to Larry Bell, Founder and Owner of Bell’s Brewery, Inc.
  • The Brewers Association presented the Russell Schehrer Award for Innovation in Brewing to Ken Grossman, CEO/President of Sierra Nevada Brewing Company.
  • The Brewers Association presented the F.X. Matt Defense of the Industry Award to Steve Hindy, Chairman and President of The Brooklyn Brewery.

Dick Cantwell, from Elysian Brewery in Seattle presented the awards.

Dick Cantwell

The first award, from the press release:

The Brewers Association Recognition Award went to Larry Bell, Founder and Owner of Bell’s Brewery, Inc. Bell started the Kalamazoo Brewing Company and Bell’s Brewery, Inc. in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1985, the earliest craft brewery in the eastern half of the United States. Larry’s dedication to the industry includes serving as a former chair of the Brewers Association’s predecessor organization and acting as a driving force with current Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper for the creation of American Beer Month (which evolved into American Craft Beer Week).

Larry Bell

“Larry is a leader in our industry known for his innovative beers and the passion he brings to craft brewing,” said Brewers Association Board of Directors Chair Nick Matt, CEO of Matt Brewing Company. Mountain West Brewery Supply’s David Edgar noted in documents supporting Bell’s nomination that “Larry is continually pushing the envelope with experimenting with different grains, different yeast strains and plenty of hops.”

The second award, from the press release:

The Brewers Association presented the Russell Schehrer Award for Innovation in Brewing to Ken Grossman, CEO/President of Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. Grossman received this year’s award for his leadership in technical brewing science for craft brewers. He is still deeply involved in technical brewing projects at Sierra Nevada and has led numerous initiatives in the area of sustainability and beer quality.

“Ken Grossman founded Sierra Nevada Brewing Company 30 years ago based on one principle, to make the highest quality beer in America,” said Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River Brewing Co. in a nominating document. “I think Ken’s never-ending quest in life is to make Sierra Nevada’s beers even better than they already are.”

Ken Grossman

The Russell Schehrer Award for Innovation in Brewing was first given in 1997 to honor Russell Schehrer, who died in 1996 at 38 years old, for his contributions to the brewing industry. Schehrer was a founding partner and original head brewer at Colorado’s first brewpub, Wynkoop Brewing Co. He was also one of the first brewers to produce mead, doppel alt, cream stout and chili beer.

The third award, from the press release:

The Brewers Association presented the F.X. Matt Defense of the Industry Award to Steve Hindy, Chairman and President of The Brooklyn Brewery. Hindy recently testified in a Congressional hearing to communicate how state franchise laws can hinder the ability for small brewers to grow their businesses and how self-distribution is important to many small brewers to develop their access to market.

Steve Hindy

“Steve’s work on behalf of the industry is almost too great to list,” says Brewers Association Past Chair Richard Doyle of Harpoon Brewery. “His involvement on the Beer Institute board established credibility for craft brewers there and reaffirmed our place at the table.”

The F.X. Matt Award is given in honor of a champion of small brewers, F.X. Matt (1933-2001), president of the F.X. Matt Brewing Co. in Utica, New York from 1980-1989 and chairman from 1989-2001.

Alaskan Bill Howell Wins 2010 Beerdrinker Of The Year

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bdoty
Today at the Wynkoop Brewpub in Denver, Colorado the 2010 Beerdrinker of the Year was proclaimed. This year’s winner — Bill Howell — is a Sterling, Alaska college administrator, retired Navy officer, homebrewer, and beer educator. One of three national finalists at Wynkoop competing for the 2010 title, Howell withstood 2 hours of difficult beer-related questions from a panel of national beer experts to win the 14th annual title. He wins free beer for life at Wynkoop, a $250 bar tab at his favorite brewpub, St. Elias Brewing in Soldotna, AK, unmatched beer-lover glory and other prizes for winning the title.

Bill Howell with Free Beer For Life Card, 2-27-10

From Bill’s short beer resume:

William Howell, a Sterling, Alaska college administrator, retired Navy officer, homebrewer, and beer educator. In 2007 he created a new course for Kenai Peninsula College entitled The Art and History of Brewing, and has traveled extensively across Alaska and the West in pursuit of great beer. He also serves as an ally for various beer retailers and journalists, and blogs about his state’s rich beer culture.

His beer philosophy: “I have been a lover of craft beers since 1984 and a homebrewer since 1989. Since my retirement from active duty I’ve been really been able to “get serious” about beer. I decided it was time to start giving something back to the world of craft beer that had given me so much.”

Bill Howell, 2010 Beerdrinker, 2-27-10
The newly crowned king with the judges. Congratulations, Bill.

The other two finalists were:

Phil Farrell, a Cumming, Georgia commercial pilot, homebrewer, beer judge and 2007 Beerdrinker finalist. He has tasted beer in every country in Europe, 1000 of the world’s pubs and 400 brewpubs. His basement beer pub features six taps, two refrigerators, and a 15-gallon brewing system.

Logan Perkins, a Denver, Colorado beer enthusiast who has tried nearly 5000 beers in 45 states, 21 European countries and 5 Asian nations. He has conducted extensive travels across then US since 2008, visiting America’s breweries and beer towns. Perkins was a 2007 Beerdrinker of the Year finalist and 2009 semifinalist.

James Beard Foundation Nominates 4 Beer Personalities

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james-beard
The semi-finalist nominations for the prestigious James Beard Foundation awards were recently released. If you’re not familiar with the awards, here’s a description from their website.

Deemed “the Oscars of the food world,” by Time magazine, The James Beard Foundation Awards are the country’s most coveted honor for chefs; food and beverage professionals; broadcast media, journalists, and authors working on food; and restaurant architects and designers.

In the misnamed category “Outstanding Wine and Spirits Professional,” four luminaries from the world of beer made the cut. Those semi-finalists are Larry Bell (Bell’s Brewery), Sam Calagione (Dogfish Head Craft Brewery), Jim Koch (Boston Beer Co.) and Garrett Oliver (Brooklyn Brewery), any one of which deserves to win, or at least move on to the final round. Of the 20 semifinalists in each category, five final nominees will be announced March 22, and the awards themselves will be presented May 3.

At the risk of losing my own media nomination (that’s a joke BTW) isn’t it time to lose the wine and spirits bias? With 20% of the semi-finalists from the world of craft beer, wouldn’t something like “Outstanding Beverage Professional” be more appropriate and less insulting?

Toronado Barley Wine Festival Results 2010

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toronado
Here are the results from the 2010 Toronado Barley Wine Festival in San Francisco:

The other beers that reached the final round were AleSmith Old Numbskull, Alpine Brewing Great, Anchor Old Foghorn, and Big Sky Old Blue Hair.

Congratulations to all the winners.

Bistro Double IPA Winners 2010

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bistro
Pizza Port‘s Welcome Back Wipeout IPA was chosen best in show at the 10th annual Double IPA Festival today at the Bistro in Hayward, California. That’s the second year in a row that a Pizza Port beer has won. The full winner’s list is below.

Below is a video of Vic and Cynthia announcing the winners.

Pacific Coast Holiday Tasting Results

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Before Christmas, I attended the 21st annual holiday tasting at Pacific Coast Brewing in Oakland. It was my first time at the long-running event and I had a terrific time. Owner Steve Wolfe and brewmaster Don Gortemiller were gracious hosts and I spent the afternoon with several friends and colleagues. I also didn’t realize just how much food would be served — which I should add was a welcome development — with the fifteen beers. Having done this for decades, they have the process down. Every fifteen minutes a new beer was poured and in between a new dish was made available for noshing.

Steve Wolfe & Don Gortemiller, a bit lighter
Pacific Coast Brewing’s Steve Wolfe with brewmaster Don Gortemiller.

Don and Steve chose all the beers with an eye toward serving the most special beers they could get their hands on, and ones which were appropriate for the holiday season. Nine of the fifteen were holiday seasonals, and three were anniversary ales.

Mario, me, Steve Wolfe, Don Gortemiller & Mike Pitsker
Mario Rubio, from Brewed For Thought, me, Steve Wolfe, Don Gortemiller and Mike Pitsker, from the Celebrator Beer News.

Every attendee was provided with an elaborate scoring sheet along with some guidelines on how to score each beer. Most people in the brewpub seemed to take scoring the beers very seriously. At the end of the tasting, the completed sheets are collected and tabulated. Brewmaster Don Gortemiller released the results of the 2009 tasting a few days before Christmas. This year’s winner was the Double Jack from Firestone Walker Brewing in Paso Robles, California. Deschutes Black Butte XXI came in second and third place went to the collaboration between Dogfish Head Brewery and Sierra Nevada Brewing, Life & Limb. To see the full tally, check out the results on Pacific Coast’s website.

Beer #8: Firestone Walker Double Jack
This year’s winner, Firestone Walker Double Jack.

Below is a slideshow of the Pacific Coast Holiday Tasting. This Flickr gallery is best viewed in full screen. To view it that way, after clicking on the arrow in the center to start the slideshow, click on the button on the bottom right with the four arrows pointing outward on it, to see the photos in glorious full screen. Once in full screen slideshow mode, click on “Show Info” to identify each photo.

Charting Beer With Infographics

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My friend and colleague Rick Lyke has the good fortune to have a son-in-law who’s a graphic designer and really, really good at creating graphs or infographics, which is essentially a chart that tell a story. For the second year in a row, Rick has persuaded his son-in-law, Mike Wirth, to create an awesome infographic of various GABF medal statistics for his Lyke2Drink blog. Since he introduced this back in August, about a month before this year’s GABF, hopefully he won’t mind my sharing it. I’ve parsed some of the most interesting mini-charts within the infographic and displayed them below.

most-breweries-vs-total
These charts show the number of breweries by state and the total number by type or size of brewery.

breweries-vs-medals
This is a chart of states with the most per capita breweries vs. the states that have won the most cumulative medals since they began awarding medals through 2008.

top-amer-breweries-09
This is a chart of the breweries that have won the most cumulative medals since they began awarding medals through 2008.

top-amer-beers-09
This is a chart of the individual beers that have won the most cumulative medals since they began awarding medals through 2008.

west-coast-gabf-medals
Lastly, here is a detail of the west coast and the medals won by breweries in California, Oregon and Washington.

best-beer-america-2009
This is the entire infographic, show smaller of course, but click here to see it full size or see it at Mike Wirth’s website or with Rick Lyke’s original analysis.

Oregon Brewer Cuisinternship Winner Announced

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oregon-bounty
Oregon Bounty, who is the sponsor of the Cuisinternship contest to find interns for seven uniquely Oregonian artisan and craft pursuits, has begun announcing the winners, one each day.

The Brewmaster Cuisinternship winner was announced this morning. From the many entries, the finalists were whittled down to seven. From those seven, I chose three finalists. The winner was then chosen by Jamie Emmerson, brewmaster at Full Sail Brewing in Mt. Hood, where he’ll spend his beer-filled week.

The beer intern winner was Kevin Kozlen of Bloomington, Illinois. Here’s his video entry. Here’s what Kevin should experience:

Along the shores of the mighty Columbia River Gorge, Kevin will get a week-long lesson from some of the country’s craft brewing pioneers. From the hop farm to the mash tun to the microscope, he’ll feel, smell and taste beer from beginning to end. If he can tear yourself away from the tasting table, he’ll be able to explore the charming town of Hood River, unofficial U.S. capitol of windsurfing, beer drinking and hanging out.

Congratulation, Kevin. Have a great time.

Jeff “Lucky Pants” Babgy Wins Big

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pizza-port
Jeff Bagby, the head brewer at Pizza Port in Carlsbad, won big this year at the Great American Beer Festival. He picked up a whopping seven medals; four gold, one silver and two bronze. In addition, Pizza Port Carlsbad was awarded the Large Brewpub and Large Brewpub Brewer of the Year.

Below is a photo of Jeff, with Yiga Miyashira, up on stage picking up just one of his eight awards last Saturday. Notice the eyesore inducing polyester plaid pants? If you’re a regular to the GABF Award Ceremony, you may already remember that Jeff always seems to have on a pair of plaid pants. At first, I thought it was the same pair every year. But looking back over the last few reveals that it’s actually been a different pair of polyester plaid pants each year.

Given that Jeff and Pizza Port Carlsbad have won 19 medals in the last four years, I’d say his plaid pants are pretty darn lucky. Of course, being a great brewer helps, and I don’t want to take anything away from his mad skills. But I’d put even money on the pants making even the most mediocre brewer better. Below is a retrospective of Jeff’s “Lucky Pants” for the past four years.

2009 Lucky Pants
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2008 Lucky Pants
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2007 Lucky Pants
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2006 Lucky Pants
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If you, too, want or need a little luck — and let’s face it, who doesn’t? — I took a close up of the pattern on Jeff’s lucky pants and created some downloadable wallpaper in three different sizes. So now in addition to the Bulletin logo wallpaper page, you can also get Mr. Bagby’s wallpaper, too.

Jeff Bagby’s Lucky Pants 2009 Wallpaper

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