Because winning at beer is best, last week local breweries put their best foot forward at the World Beer Cup and three of them have been awarded for thier respective feet. The WBC is an international beer competition founded by Association of Brewers' President Charlie Papazian, who is a nuclear engineer by trade and a craft-brewing aficionado by habit. And he also really likes pie. (Fascinating side note on Papazian: He created National Pie Day on January 23, his birthday, simply because he wanted to. And this was back in the mid-1970s before national food holidays were an everyday thing.)
Back to the beer competition held by the funnest guy ever... the World Beer Cup was started in 1996 in Colorado and is held every two years. This year 1,403 breweries sent in 4,754 beers from 58 countries in more than 90 styles. That's a lot of beer (but no pie).
Locally, Community Beer Company's Wit won its second major medal. Last summer this Belgian-style beer won silver at the U.S. Open Beer Championship. This time around Wit took gold in the witbier category, which included 60 other entries. This citrus, spicy white beer is an ode to Pierre Celis, who worked in one of the last breweries in Belgium to produce this particular style.
Another big winner locally was Deep Ellum Brewing Company's special release, 4 Swords, a Belgian-style quad. Head brewer Jeremy Hunt said this full-bodied spice-laden holiday beer was "inspired by the strong, dark ales from the Trappist Monastic brewers of Belgium."
Rahr Brewing in Fort Worth also won a bronze for StormCloud, their German-style India pale ale. Legend (or Rahr's website) says that when William Rahr was traversing the ocean on his voyage to America, he stood atop the tall mast of the ship and proclaimed to the storm clouds overhead: "Roll on old sea! And when you are done, when the storm clouds have destroyed themselves, we will still be standing and drinking!" Now all these years later, his offspring is indeed still standing, proudly at that. With beer (but no pie).
Below is a complete list of local and Texas winners.
Belgian-Style Witbier, 61 Entries Gold: Witbier, Community Beer Co., Dallas, TX
Belgian-Style Dark Strong Ale, 44 Entries Bronze: 4 Swords Belgian-Style Quad, Deep Ellum Brewing Co., Dallas, TX
English-Style India Pale Ale, 41 Entries Bronze: Stormcloud, Rahr and Sons Brewing Co., Fort Worth, TX
Other Lone Star State Winners Session Beer, 40 Entries Bronze: Le Petit Prince, Jester King Brewery, Austin, TX
German-Style Schwarzbier, 47 Entries Bronze: Black Thunder, Austin Beerworks, Austin, TX
American-Style Dark Lager, 18 Entries Silver: Santo, Saint Arnold Brewing Co., Houston, TX
Golden or Blonde Ale, 67 Entries Silver: Alibi Blonde, Circle Brewing Co., Austin, TX
Herb and Spice Beer, 101 Entries Silver: Bitterama, Kamala Brewing at the Whip In, Austin, TX
