More Brew News

Sprecher Brewery outside of Milwaukee recently won a load of awards at the 2006 Los Angeles County Commercial Beer competition.

Gold Medal Winners
Special Amber, Vienna-Style Lager category
Oktoberfest, German-Style Marzen/Oktoberfest category
Dopple Bock, Doppelbock Beers category
Black Bavarian, Robust Porter category
Irish Stout, Foreign (Export) – Style Stout category
Imperial Stout, Imperial Stout Category

Silver Medal Winners
Winter Brew, European-style Dark/Muchnerdunkel category
Sprecher Light, English Summer Ale
Piper’s Scotch Ale, Strong Scotch Ale

Bronze Medal Winners
Mai Bock, Bock Beers category
Barley Wine, Barley Wines category

Also, Men's Journal magazine did a survey of the best beers in America and Sprecher's Hefe Weiss was chosen as one of the 25 best beers in the land. So congrats to the folks at Sprecher!

To the west of Sprecher at the Tyranena Brewery, the Hop Whore was undressed last night as the first kegs were tapped. Look for it in stores soon. Their Gemuetlichkeit Oktoberfest is now available at your favorite local purveyor of suds. Lastly, brewmaster Rob Larson is making a Bourbon Barrel-Fermented Blueberry Lambic:

Yep... you read that correctly. Deb and Glenn ran over to Michigan for a few days... oh it must be a couple of months ago by now... to go pick blueberries. They graciously brought back 40 pounds of blueberries (that I believe they picked by hand). I macerated them by hand and mushed them into a 26 year old bourbon barrel that only moments before held an Imperial Brown Ale... then filled the barrel with post-fermentation brown ale then added a Lambic blend of sherry yeast, two Brettanomyces strains and Lactic Acid bacteria and closed the barrel off with a little homebrew fermentation lock. It has been slowly bubbling... and I expect that it should be done somewhere around January or February. Have absolutely no idea what it is going to taste like. The first use of the 26 year old bourbon barrels resulted in a very strong bourbon flavor... hopefully that will be reduced in the second use. Forty pounds of blueberries is a heck of a lot. Lambic is generally not made with post-fermentation beer... so we will just have to see how it goes.

Finally, the First Annual Fire Fest at Capital Brewery is still on for tomorrow, as far as I know. So head on down for the tapping of the first kegs of this year's batch of Autumnal Fire.