Congrats to all for the recognition...strong showing for the state! Gold: 2012 Great Scot!, Peticolas Brewing Co., Dallas, TX Gold: London Homesick Ale, Oasis, Texas Brewing Co., Austin, TX Gold: Public Ale, Community Beer Co., Dallas, TX Gold: Sir William’s English Brown Ale, Grapevine Craft Brewery, Grapevine, TX Gold: Benedictum, Real Ale Brewing Co., Blanco, TX Gold: Quakertown, Armadillo Ale Works, Denton, TX Silver: Yellow Armadillo, Thirsty Planet Brewing, Austin, TX Silver: Aloha Piña, 5 Stones Artisan Brewery, Cibolo, TX Silver: Saint Arnold Summer Pils, Saint Arnold Brewing Co., Houston, TX Silver: Lobo Negro, Pedernales Brewing Co., Fredericksburg, TX Silver: Fire Eagle, Austin Beerworks, Austin, TX Bronze: Ascension, Community Beer Co., Dallas, TX Bronze: The Regulator, Rahr & Sons Brewing Co., Fort Worth, TX Bronze: Shiner Bock, Spoetzl Brewery, Shiner, TX Bronze: Saint Arnold Weedwacker, Saint Arnold Brewing Co., Houston, TX Bronze: Jaguar Shark, Pinthouse Pizza Craft Brewpub, Austin, TX
Benedictum night be the most underrated, and unknown beer in America. Not surprising though. Anyway, hurray for Texas beer well done.
You can at least assume these beers were better than others in their style from around the country. So if you think our worst is better than the rest of the country then that's still worth celebrating.
Lobo Negro? Lobo Lager was being pimped out by the local TotalWine in the ABQ, New Mexico area for awhile. Now it's missing. I think we need to clear ourselves of these preconceived thoughts on many beers.. The outsiders seem to think they out rate/rank a couple sets of a dozen other breweries around the nation. That's saying something in this blind format. The same can be said for the New Mexico GABF winners.. Imperial Red is always a third option for me at Marble. Either kudos to them for having a great variety, or my tastes have gone downhill. Double White, I have liked from day one. Class VI lager has been a mainstay for Chama River for years. They have a new head brewer. I wonder if that changed things. But upon visiting that place, it was always a 3rd or 4th option.. The same can be said for Il Vicino (now named Canteen brewhouse). My Dad loves the reds and ambers in general. but I have always steered a bit away from the now GABF Gold- Dougie Style Amber Ale, which is one of their regular lineup beers available at all locations (for awhile, it seemed like their winning beers were one off seasonals. So to see a mainstay win is a great thing). I hope to see it sell out. I guess I'm a beer front runner. I may go out and retry all of these and see what the "hype" is about.
weedwacker and summer pils? interesting, i dont like most of saint arnolds regular/seasonal release beers and I find those two in particular boring
A lot of the best were entered in different categories. Just didn't beat out the competition. Keeps getting more and more competitive in certain categories. I wish there was an extensive list to see where everything ranked (let me know if there is) from top to bottom
I don't believe they give a top to bottom...just a top 3. I do not even know a list of who entered into what category.
At least the breweries that I follow on social media, they gave what beers they entered into GABF just not the category but most of them were easy to tell which category it would go in.
GABF isn't about what beer is the most exciting or about ranking beers against one another if they're in different style categories. It's about what beer fits best into the description of the style category the beer was entered into. In other words even if you have an amazing beer and you put it into the wrong style you could lose.
Some more info on Texas medal wins, including photos, stats and reaction quotes from some of the winning Texas brewers: http://bitchbeer.org/2014/10/05/texas-breweries-take-home-16-medals-from-gabf-2014/
