Alaskan Brewing Wins More International Awards
JUNEAU, Alaska – Alaskan Smoked Porter (1998) took Gold in the Aged Beer category and Alaskan Barley Wine took Bronze in the Barley Wine-style Ale category at the 2010 World Beer Cup® (WBC), a biannual global beer competition that evaluates beers from around the world. These two Alaskan beers stood out amongst stiff competition on Saturday where 3,330 beers from 642 breweries in 44 different countries vied for international recognition. This year’s WBC set the record as the largest commercial beer competition ever, earning its moniker as “the Olympics” of beer.
“Brewers from around the globe participate in the World Beer Cup ® to win recognition for their creativity and brewing ability,” said Charlie Papazian, president of the Brewers Association, the U.S.-based trade association that has put on the competition every two years since 1996. “For a brewer, a World Beer Cup® gold award allows them to say that their winning beer represents the best of that beer style in the world.”
“We are so proud to join breweries from as far away as Iceland and Singapore in one competition,” said Alaskan Brewing co-founder and President, Geoff Larson, “and to have two of our beers earn top honors in their style.”
“It was the full spectrum,” noted Alaskan Brewer Eric Ponce who was on hand to accept the awards with several other members of the Brew Crew, “to bring home awards for one of our classic styles as well as one of our newest releases.” Alaskan has been aging or “cellaring” their vintages of Alaskan Smoked Porter for nearly twenty years. It was the 1998 vintage that won gold at the 2010 WBC, the same vintage that won silver in the smoked beer category the year it was first released. Balanced against that history, Alaskan released the bronze medal-winning Alaskan Barley Wine in December 2009.”
Alaskan wasn’t the only brewery from the Last Frontier to bring home a medal. The Sleeping Lady Brewery from Anchorage, Alaska won a Silver medal for its “Frozen Kriek” in the Other Belgian-style ale category.
According to the Brewer’s Association, judges from 26 countries conducted blind tasting evaluations of the beers to determine the awards. Composed of both professional brewers and industry experts, more than 60 percent of the 179 judges came from countries outside the United States.
A detailed analysis of the entries and awards can be found at www.WorldBeerCup.org
