If Bock Could Talk

If the Winter Bock or Nip could talk it would be a loquacious lager. It would say:

“I am a brilliantly bold yet subtly smooth and delicious mahogany hued Weihnactsbockbier or Christmas Bock...strong enough to take the chill out of the winter air and the apprehension out your game. You won’t need mistletoe after you savor my succulently sweet and toasty tastiness. So be a good Boy Scout…prepare, and bring cab fare.

I am a fabulous friend of food, especially our rich and hardy holiday menu that accompanies me this celestial season. My bodaciousness blends with the spicy warmth of the Winter Chili…my flavor is as big as a Buffalo, whether in slider or burger form. My magnificent malty mouthfeel makes me the Bourbon of beer, the perfect partner to the Maker’s Meatloaf and Flatiron Steak. My Hersbrucker hops, imported for Germany, accentuate the herbal essence of the Rocky Mountain Rainbow Trout and Chicken Pot Pie. Finally, my hints of dark chocolate both contrast and compliment the creaminess of Pumpkin cheesecake.

Large life sustaining lagers like me originated a millennium ago, brewed to help devout monks facilitate their fasting for Advent…my higher alcohol content quelled hunger pangs, simultaneously summoning spiritual visions. Now I provide fortification against the elements for the more modern Deutschland yuletide tradition of outdoor Christmas Markets called Weihnachtsmarkt or the American equivalent indoor orgy of unbridled consumerism that is “The Mall.”

I am produced with prodigious pounds of the finest malted barley imported from the 131 year-old family owned Weyermann Malting Company of Bamberg, Germany. Marvelously bready Munich Malt, caramel-lishious CaraMunich, and dark roasted Carfa coalesce in a nicely nutty, slightly spicy, gumptious glass of goddess kissed goodness that you can’t resist.

Hoppy Holidays…It’s time to ROCK OUT WITH YOUR BOCK OUT!”

Original Gravity: 18
Alcohol by Volume: 7.5%
Bittering Units: 27

There was a record 3,500 different beers judged at the Great American Beer Festival this last week and we want to congratulate our medal winners.

Dan Satterthwaite (San Jose) won a bronze medal for his Rauch Bier and Rich Lovelady (Vegas) took a silver for his Eisbock.

It is an extremely tough competition and we are tremendously proud of all who entered.

For more information and a complete list of winners of this most massive festival go to www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com

Two Hundred Years of Beers.

It’s the bicentennial of beer and bratwurst served up by damsels in dirndls and lads in lederhosen. The Munich Oktoberfest commemorates the 1810 nuptials of Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese and is far and away the biggest beer fest in the world.

The Great American Beer Festival brags about pouring one ounce samples of 2,200 different beers to 49,000 visitors over 3 days in Denver, meanwhile the tents of Oktoberfest will welcome 6 million people over 16 days, and pour nearly 7 million liters of lager…that’s 236 million ounces.

Beer plays a principal part in German culture, they consume 42% more per capita than we do in the USA and Oktoberfest celebrations have become the St. Patrick’s or Columbus Days for Americans who claim German ancestry, even if just for a day. Although the Irish and Italians make more noise about it, many more of us hale from Deutschland, a full 15% or 50 million, that’s three times the number of Italian Americans. Snooki make way for Schnükie...pumping a beer filled boot or stiefel in the air.

The liquid in that bierstiefel has changed over the last two centuries. Initially the beers of Oktoberfest were dark amber or auburn hued with a distinctive malty sweetness, such as the GB Marzen. While deliciously smooth this style can get a little cloying, so the modern versions in Munich have morphed into dryer, lighter colored lagers with more pronounced hop character to balance the sweetness.

Our pale bronze Festbier is a keller or unfiltered lager style which brings forth the bountiful breadiness of the imported Weyermann Munich malts that are balanced by heavy handfuls of Hersbrucker hops. This makes for an impeccably balanced and easy drinking beer and is the perfect pairing partner for the magnificent menu that we offer this season. Nothing washes down the succulent sausage platter like a luscious liter of our Oktoberfest or Festbier.

Share a quiet beer with 15,000 of your closest friends.

There is something about beer that brings people together; it is a staple of stadium sporting events with many of them named after breweries including Coors Field, Miller Park and Busch Stadium.

Usually beer is simply the side bar social lubricant for such gatherings, but there are thousands of events around the world each year where imbibing fermented malt beverages is the center attraction and sole focus: The Beer Festival.

I have kind of a love/hate relationship with Brewer’s Festivals, though my affection for beer goes without saying as I have thrown my life away brewing, sharing my life’s passion in an “arses and elbows” frat party with tens of thousands is not really my idea of a good time. Often while everyone else is in relaxation or vacation mode we have to work, humping 160 pound kegs through drunken crowds. If only I had a dollar for every tipsy witticism like, “You can just put that in the back of my pickup right outside, it’s the yellow Chevy.” Definitely avoid these comments if you are wearing sandals as my hand truck rolls by.

I have far fonder memories of taking beer to one of my first festivals however. It was 21 years ago that my boss had me trek kegs up to the Beaver Creek ski area from our downtown Denver brewpub to pour at a beer and jazz fest. He also sent along a beautiful waitress with me to help, it’s all about marketing you know. That five hour ride in my brothers broken down station wagon that barely made it up the mountain, and afternoon serving beer on the summer ski slopes led to fantastic friendship, a whirlwind romance, a marriage of nineteen years, and two incredible kids. Now that’s a festival!

Romance is usually not the modus operandi for festival goers though, and while they can simply be an excuse to whoop it up with like minded imbibers, they serve a serious function for the craft brewing connoisseur and industry alike. It is a chance for the unheard of small breweries as well as their bigger brethren to show case boutique beers whose exposure might only be the very small local market inside the four walls of the brewery itself.

The Great American Beer Festival or GABF affords the ultimate opportunity for anyone interested in experiencing sheer volume of variety. It is held in my home town of Denver every fall, and as I write this in mid August has already completely sold out all the nearly 50,000 tickets for these three evenings and one day of debauchery. With 2,238 different beers from 462 breweries there is something to placate every palate.

I usually try to focus on one particular style at a time to see how it is being interpreted by the bevy of brewers, beginning with the subtle lighter styles such as Czech Pilsners for the first hour. Then I might move onto something more pungent like sour Belgian beers or hyper hoppy India Pale Ales, and by the end of the evening evolve to the big Bourbon barrel aged beers as the crowded convention center devolves into a massive mess. Beer may be the “beverage of moderation” but when the event costs $60 a ticket for as many one ounce samples as one can slurp, it pretty much becomes a high end “drown night.”

That is not to say that “pay as you go” beer festivals are tantamount to temperance, but it is a more relaxed environment at the Oregon or Colorado Brewer’s festivals where you pay for each full or half mug of a particular beer, and can sit down and socialize while sipping your suds. In addition there is usually great live music and food creating more of a real festival feel. There may only be 40 different breweries represented with 80 brands, but that should satiate responsible beer lover. Like the British say about their early pub closing time, “If you can’t get enough to drink by 11:00pm than you’re not really trying.”

Chaotic crowds are referred to as “zoos” so it is only natural that every city in America has a Brew at the Zoo festival. Since the beer is usually donated or sold at low cost the organizers of these events can generate copious amounts of cash.
This is the biggest reason why I am so proud of the festival that our company puts on every August in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Southern Brewer’s Festival brings together all of the best aspects I have mentioned while raising over $100,000, not for the brewers, but rather for a very cool children’s charity called Kid’s On The Block.

The 16th annual Southern Brewer’s Festival on Saturday August 29th features 32 breweries pouring 90 different beers. It is a family friendly affair that features fabulous food and incredible entertainment with Big Head Todd and the Monsters headlining the list of bands. (They sell out Red Rocks here in Denver every year at $40 a ticket.) Admission is only $20 which gets you your souvenir mug as well as your first beer free, additional beer tokens are only $3.
Be there, or be thirsty.

www.beerfestivals.org
www.southernbrewersfestival.com
www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com
www.oregonbrewfest.com

Our Beers of Summer: The Irony and the Ecstasy

The kids are out of school, the lawn mower is out of the garage, and the brewery is pumping out Hefeweizen and Kolsch… must be summer.

As the mercury reaches for the triple digits, we reach for the thirst quenching coolness of Summer Wheat and SommerBrau. Both are light and refreshingly effervescent with mysteriously deceptive hints of fruit bestowed by their imported German regional yeast strains. These fantastic fermented malt beverages define the concept of “lawnmower beer.”

The irony is that usually when you think of light and refreshing it’s lagers like the Golden Export or Southern Flyer that come to mind. Yet both of our beers of summer are made with special top fermenting yeast at warmer temperatures, not unlike the common craft brewing work horse yeast strains that start with “A” and rhyme with nail, principally producing IPA, and Stout and whose strong esters are not suited to subtlety.

We don’t filter out the yeast in the straw colored Summer Wheat. In fact, the hefe in Hefeweizen actually means yeast, while weizen is German for wheat, so it is literally “yeast-wheat.” We use over 50% malted wheat in the Hefeweizen or Summer Wheat , and 20% in the Kolsch or SommerBrau. The wheat has a distinctive flavor but is also high in protein which creates rich creamy foam. It is a head that holds the billowing bouquet of banana and cloves in the Hefeweizen, generated by the Bavarian yeast from Weihenstephan. When the Summer Wheat is fermenting the brewery smells like a banana truck rolled over on a Nicaraguan highway.

Our golden hued SommerBrau, is not quite so specific in it its delicately fruity aroma from a yeast that was smuggled out of a small brewery in Cologne, the home of the Kolsch style. When it is fermenting the brewery has the aromatic appeal of a cereal factory predominately responsible for fabricating “Fruit Loops.”

We serve the our Kolsch in the traditional straight sided glass called a “Stange,” which is German for rod or pole, albeit ours is on steroids being nearly 3 times the size of the Stange used in Cologne. Hefeweizen is also served in its own uniquely tall and narrow vessel that widens at the top to hold its incredible head.

These beers are the perfect compliments to our Caribbean themed spicy, salsa, and fruit filled fare of the summer menu, available from June 22nd to August 1st. And though they would never do it in Germany because the beer speaks for itself, this is America, so we will happily apply a lemon or orange to the side of the glass as an accoutrement. But we brewers tend to feel that anyone who orders fruit on the side of a beer would be the type of foppish dandy to use the word accoutrement.

Prost!

Bad Things Happen to Good Breweries

Last weekend Nashville, Tennessee was soaked by a record breaking 13 inches of rain. That’s as much water falling from the skies in two days as my city of Denver gets in a year, including all the two foot snow falls and crazy summer thunderstorms.

Tragically, there were 29 deaths in the region, with 10 in Nashville alone, and over 1.5 billion dollars in damage. The Cumberland River crested at 12 feet above flood levels and inundated downtown along with our Big River Grille and Brewery. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those who lost loved ones, as well as to the over 2,000 people whose homes were destroyed.

While the restaurant area itself did not sustain major damage, the basement flooded completely, which is where we grind the malt for brewing and then age and serve the finished delicious elixir out of the tanks that you see laying disheveled in the destroyed cooler.

We are still waiting for power to be restored which we will need to pump out the drains and all the beer that will sadly go into them. Then we will begin the arduous process of cleaning up the mess, replacing damaged equipment and refilling those tanks.

Perhaps we should rebuild in an Ark, because this will be the second time this has happened to Big River Nashville this year. Back in January a water main break flooded the basement, but luckily then it was only a few feet and the water was so cold that we did not have to destroy the liquid that we all love inside the tanks.

This is a major disaster for the brewery, but I am incredibly relieved and grateful that Brad Mortensen is our brewer in Music City. His immense skill in concocting the creations of our craft come from his keen intellect and even keeled demeanor, which is what you want in a crisis situation. Suffice to say, I would be freaking out, but he stayed calm as a cucumber while the Cumberland destroyed his cellar.

I am also thankful for the outpouring of offers from others brewers, and even suppliers, to help in whatever way they can to get Big River pouring great beer again, “…come hell and high water!”

Winner....Winner...MaiBock Dinner!!

Last week in Chicago two of our flagship beers brought home medals from the World Beer Cup. This is and prestigious event where 642 breweries from 44 countries and 47 U.S. states vie for awards with 3,330 beers entered in 90 beer style categories.

Gordon Biersch Marzen won a Silver Medal which was an extra sweet victory for our slightly sweet malty mainstay and biggest seller, as it had never won a medal in the WBC or GABF competitions. Making it even sweeter than babies playing with kittens in cotton candy for me was that this particular batch was made by Luke Erdody, our brilliant new brewer in Miami, where let’s just say we have had some unique challenges over the years.

Conversely, Pete Velez in our Myrtle Beach brewery has been a rock star since we opened there two years ago, and his Gordon Biersch Golden Export captured another Bronze Medal to go with his GABF medal won with the same light or Helles lager last fall, and this time up against the finest German and Austrian breweries, whose beers define the genre.

We know our lagers are every bit as great or greater than any beer made back on “The Continent,” but it is always nice to have that objectively acknowledged by the “Experts.”

My Rite of Spring

Ah Spring, a time of renewal and rebirth when, as Tennyson wrote, “… a young man’s fancy turns to thoughts of love.” And nothing facilitates reciprocation of those thoughts by a young woman like a little Maibock.

As the crocuses thrust through the recently frozen terra firma, all 33 of our breweries from Hawaii to Maryland mash a massive amount of malt to fill their tanks with this elegant elixir of love. Unlike its darker and stronger close cousin Winter Bock, with its roasted almost mocha character, the Maibock has a more delicate fulvous or tawny tangerine hue, and is eminently more quaffable. It is less of an “Extreme” beer, it is just extremely delicious.

Mai is the German word for the lusty month of May, as in “Thank you very much, may I please have another magnificent Maibock.” This luscious lager style originated way back in the 14th century in the Northern German city of Einbeck, which with the dialect sounded like “ein pock” and evolved into simply Bock.

We will go through over a thousand barrels or two thousand kegs of Maibock. That is nearly a quarter million special sleek and sexy glasses. We can’t wait for Mai, so we tap it in early April, which is German for April.

See you on the patio.

Beer…it’s what’s for dessert.

Yes, this was as delicious as it looks, and the Golden Export was the perfect pour to wash it down, although frankly the Hefeweizen worked just as well.

I’ve preached about beer with dessert, or even as dessert, until the color of my face could get me a staring role in a James Cameron film. But usually I’m proselytizing that whatever chocolate creation is best consumed with Schwarzbier or Stout rather than coffee and port.

So I had a bit of a dilemma in pairing the beer for the delectable dessert that our immensely talented Chef Russell Hiner and Sous Chef Steve Reeb concocted last night for our Chef/Brewer’s Dinner. It was a Strawberry Shortcake Terrine topped with sweet banana cream. Kind of sounds like a lyric from a psychedelic sixties song, and it was indeed Yummy…Yummy…Yummy.

It was far better than the strawberry shortcake I remember making at the Dairy Queen back in high school, oh yeah I made Hot Fudge Brownie Delights long before I brewed beer, and yes I did set aside all the whip cream canisters for when I would empty the trash and clean the parking lot at the end of the night.

But I digress; this Strawberry Shortcake was delicately subtle and sublime. The cake was light as a wispy cirrus cloud and the smooth banana cream soothed the sharpness of the berry. A beer with much hop or roasted malt bitterness would have obnoxiously overwhelmed such a dream on a plate. The Golden Export foot the bill best as it too is light and subtle, the carbonation lifted the cream off your tongue, while the slight maltiness supported its sweetness. Then again, the banana and clove esters of the Hefeweizen combined for a complex compliment of flavors also.

I guess if deciding which wonderful beer to pair with such a dessert is the biggest problem I face in a day, I am living a pretty charmed life.

Thanks Cooky, for such a demandingly delectable dilemma.

Vegas is a Silly Place

I should hate Las Vegas, I don't like gambling or strip clubs and it's a struggle to find great craft beer. Luckily we make it there, so I still have as much fun visiting as I did 30 years ago at 13, spending all my mom's money playing video games at the Circus Circus.


At 43, I have come to terms with the reality that I will never be a rock star or astronaut. Still, a trip to Vegas affords the chance "...to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before..." or at least pretend you did.


Which was why "The Hangover" was such a success, because even if you don't wake up to a tiger in your bathroom it doesn't seem out of the realm of possibilities when you're there. And the moral of the tale? Never bring a camera, and smash them as soon as you see a flash.

Actually, I never do anything too crazy in Vegas, it's enough for me to stay up all night engaged in enhanced enlightened conversation, and watching the ridiculous parade proceed.

I have made the Sin City sojourn over a dozen times, but unlike the gambling moths looking to strike it rich, but I prefer to hang out with the Riches. Rich Lovelady is our "Hoss" of a brewer at GBLV and probably the most genuine gentleman I know. And Rich Johnson, who used to have my job as Director of Brewing, and is my evil doppelganger who operates Sin City Brewing and their string of bars and retail outlets.

Along with DV the GM of LV they are two of my favorite to have a beer with. Lovelady is like the angel on my shoulder, a hard working honest and respectable family man who leads his life as I aspire to: coaching his kids little league and reading more books in a week than I do in a year. While Johnson is also a good family supplant the wings for a pitchfork, our evenings together usually don't end until shortly before sunrise when we solve all the worlds problems and my eyes lose there ability to focus. Funny how much more clear things are then.

I look up to RJ, after all he is 6 foot 4. I love it when brewers rail on him about no longer being in the exclusive club of active brewers (as we produce his beer) but he instead makes his living selling Sin City Brewing thong panties with the catch line "I Have Sinned." He smiles that Chesire Cat grin as they realize there is something cooler than brewing, and Rich has found it.

Raise your glass and some cash.

Our Brewer's Select tapping parties are happening this week, as all over the country we celebrate pouring a myriad of concoctions as unique as they are delicious. And while that sounds self aggrandizing we will also be donating thousands of dollars to a plethora of wonderfully worthy causes.


Who would have thought that the regulars at my brewery in Broomfield would enjoy drinking my Imperial Pilsner? I did...that's who. It is a monster of a beer, especially by our standards, which are relatively mild compared to what is going on in the Craft Brewing cosmos. With fifty percent more malt and hops than our regular award winning Czech Pils it is an incredibly complex and satiating blend of flavors. And with an alcohol content of 8% one guest while, waiting for his growler to be filled, called it "home beer."


The Tapping Party was a huge success not only because we brought our new big baby into the world, but more so because we raised nearly $900 for the local chapter of the Autism Society. This means everything to me because my actual big baby boy, who is now 15 and about my size, has autism, and it was Autism Awareness Week. Thus, while everyone attending had a great time socializing, they also helped aid those who have such a difficult time with that very activity of human interaction.


Meanwhile, similar scenarios played out at our brewery restaurants from Honolulu to Washington, DC where we are poured some great new beer for great causes. I don't know that it will change the world, but it sure made it a nicer place to be in for one night.

Save the Brewer...Save the World.

Craft Brewers have a bad habit of slamming the big "formerly" American breweries. I avoid doing that because I have good friends that work for the South Africans that own Coors, and those beers certainly have their place, like at a baseball game on a sweltering July afternoon. Still, the best place to be at Coors Field is not behind home plate but rather in "the cellar" of the stadium's Blue Moon Brewery drinking the incredible liquid creations that Tom and John have won so many medals for that if you melted them down you could build another brewery with them.

I do however have a favorite big brewery slamming joke, the classic: "Drinking Coors is like making love in canoe....fucking close to water." Light beer is after all, a watered down version of their regular beers, which in turn are watered down versions of classic European lager styles that we make.

Fact of the matter is that all beer is mostly water and that brings me, finally, to the point of this post. Not only does drinking beer directly at the brewery guarantee you the highest quality beverage, as Augie Busch himself said in a Budweiser commercial, "The best beer is in the Bright Tank..." nothing good happens to beer after it leaves the love and care of the brewers (kind of like sending your daughter off to college.) But because water is so heavy, and even with recycling, packaging is so environmentally unfriendly, if you truly love the planet you should drink beer at it's source.

The math is pretty straight forward: it takes about 25 pounds of malt and hops to make one keg, or seven cases , of beer that weighs 160 pounds. A pallet of malt translates to ten pallets of kegs or 15 pallets of cases that will be shipped out all over the country requiring that many times the amount of fossil fuels. Moreover, kegs then need to be returned for cleaning and refilling. Bottles and cans are even worse as they require natural resources, on top of energy for shipping, to generate them and the labels, six packs, and cartons that contain them. Just like refilling a bottle of water makes more sense than spending a fortune and filling landfills, and our breweries use the water out of the pipes but with filtration better than Brita.

And its not just energy and natural resources you save by drinking better beer at the brewery, you might just save the health if not the life of your brewer. When I was a strong spry twenty-something cellar rat, I never thought twice about humping one of those 160 pound kegs up a flight of stairs, or stacking them three high on top of each other in tight coolers. But by the time I turned 40, as with most of my craft brewing colleagues, my back was shot and I eventually had to have my right ankle fused with 8 titanium screws and cadaverous bone marrow (which would be a great zombie movie device.)

If a craft brewer is responsible for 1,000 bbls of production in a year, that means he has moved approximately 50,000 pounds of malt, and 100,000+ pounds spend grain at the end of the brewing process. If the beer is simply going into a serving tank, other than humping hoses for cleaning and taking kegs to festivals the worst of the damage is done. But if the same sad sap is in a production plant, he is having to haul probably an extra 400,000 pounds of kegs and cases.

So drink at the brewery, and foil this Chiropractor's Conspiracy!

Beer, it's what's for dinner.

What beer goes best with food? The simple answer is, "yes." Though there is a ton of talk lately about pairing different exotic dishes with specific styles of quality beer, which is something we have been doing for 20 years, what you prefer is what's best.

The enthusiasm to elevate beer to the erudite plateau of wine is best illustrated by the unfortunately monikered phenomenon of the "Gastropub," a dining concept that sounds more like an intestinal disease. Are we going too far? I worry we risk losing touch with the simple reality that beer is food, and therefore provides the perfect compliment.



Pizza and beer, need I say more? They are both born of grain and nothing washes down the dough like the bright bubbles of beer, cleansing your pallet and leaving you ready for more. Whether the basic Margarita, or a gourmet goat cheese with pate and truffle oil pie, there is nothing better than beer to sip at its side.

Just about any beer compliments pizza, but other pairings can be more complicated. The basic rule of thumb is light with light, for example Golden Export or Southern Flyer with salads and chicken. Bigger beers go better with heartier fair, such as Marzen or Vienna with Meat Loaf or Gorgonzola Bone-In Ribeye. And it always seems to come as a surprise how well the dark roasted coffee finish of a Schwarzbier compliments a Double Chocolate Fudge Cake.

But if you prefer a Hefeweizen with your Mushroom Swiss Burger, or a Iron Horse Stout with your Grilled Chicken Cashew Salad, then good on you. The only rules you have to follow are your own.

If you feel adventurous check out http://www.craftbrewing.com/ for a gastronomical guide to the delights of beer and food.

Prost!

And the Winner Is: Our List of Medals

World Beer Cup
1998 Silver Medal: Iron Horse Stout: Sweet Stout
2002 Gold Medal: Iron Horse Stout: Sweet Stout
2002 Bronze Medal: Vienna Lager: Vienna Style
2004 Silver Medal: Iron Horse Stout: Sweet Stout
2004 Silver Medal: Vienna Lager: Vienna Style Lager
2004 Bronze Medal: Espresso Stout: Coffee Flavored Beer
2006 Gold Medal: Schwarzbier: German Style Schwarzbier
2010 Silver Medal: Golden Export: German –Style Marzen
2010 Bronze Medal: Marzen: Munchner-Style Helles

Great American Beer Festival
1998 Gold Medal: Sweet Magnolia Brown Ale: American-Style Brown
2000 Bronze Medal Iron Horse Stout: Sweet Stout
2003 Gold Medal: Rocket Red Ale: American-Style Amber/Red
2004 Gold Medal: Czech Pilsner: Bohemian Style Pilsner
2006 Gold Medal: Weizenbock: German Style Wheat Ale
2006 Bronze Medal: Golden Export:Münchner-Style- Helles
2007 Gold Medal: Czech Pilsner: Bohemiean Style Pilsner
2007 Gold Medal: Schwarzbier: German Schwarzbier
2007 Silver Medal: Sout Side Pilsner: International Style Pilsner
2007 Bronze Medal: Hefeweizen; German Style Wheat Ale
2007 Bronze Medal: SommerFest: German Style Kolsch
2007 Bronze Medal: Altbier: German Style Brown Ale/Dusseldorf Style
2009 Silver Medal: Czech Pilsner: Bohemian Style Pilsner
2009 Silver Medal: Dunkel: European Style Dunkel
2009 Bronze: Altbier: German Style Brown Ale/ Dussledorf Style
2009 Bronze: Golden Export/ Munchner Style Helles