Congrats to us. We won two silver metals at the Eighth Annual Festival of Wood and Barrel Aged Beer this past weekend. For those of you who haven’t been before, it’s one of the best beer festivals in the midwest every year that it’s thrown. Two sessions for a great price, and barrel aged beers from around the country. Here’s how the Illinois Craft Brewer’s Guild describes it:
The Festival of Wood and Barrel Aged BeerSM is not only about sampling many of the rarest beers anywhere. Before any beer is tasted by the public, a panel of industry experts judge each beer in the National Wood Aged Beer Competition against a set of standard guidelines. Each judge has experience with barrel aging or significant sensory experience, and the panels award gold, silver and bronze medals in ten categories. Rather than beers being judged largely on wood aging and strength, we have broken our categories down to also reflect the underlying beer style. Each beer is judged on the basis of how that underlying style reflects the expression of wood and/or barrel character. Several of the most experienced judges then select a best of show from all the category winners: The Champion Wood Aged Beer for 2010!
We won silver for Chocolate City, our Robert the Bruce Scottish style ale aged in a bourbon barrel with Marion Berries, and also for Conquistador de Muerte, our Mokolo Milk stout aged in a bourbon barrel with brandy soaked Mexican chilies.
Go to http://illinoisbeer.com/ for the full results.