French Breweries Jenlain And Pietra Annouce World Beer Championship Medals
Chicago, IL – Top French breweries Pietra and Jenlain are proud to announce that two of their artisanal beers were recently awarded medals and high ratings from The World Beer Championships (TWBC). The medals are a significant recognition of these lesser-known but exceptional French beers.
Brasserie Pietra was awarded a coveted platinum medal and given one of the highest, 96 point (superlative) ratings for its Colomba, a bottom-fermented, unfiltered beer white beer infused with a delicate mixture of indigenous arbutus, myrtle and juniper which the TWBC panel called “Amazing and unique. An incredible food beer.”
Brasserie Jenlain was awarded a silver medal and 88 point (highly recommended) rating for its Blonde, an aromatic, golden beer with “Complex aromas of spicy, yeasty orange cake, nut butter, and honeyed bread crust with a silky fruity medium-to-full body and a tangy, peach, clementine, and spice layered finish with earth hops keeping the fruit in check.”
We’re thrilled by this recognition, and we hope that it will encourage a new audience to discover these artful beers, brewed by devoted family brewmasters abroad and finally available in select markets across the United States,” says Armelle Sialelli, founder of Brasserie Pietra. “Both these breweries bring experience and passion to their craft, and these awards are a testament to their devotion to producing and sharing great beer.”
Brasserie Pietra is located on the island of Corsica, where they have brewed traditional beers since 1996. Founded by husband and wife team Armelle and Dominique Sialelli, the brewery works from raw materials that include Corsican sweet chestnut flour, local Acqua Blanca spring water and fresh herbs from the maquis (Corsican scrubland). Those herbs are the foundation of their award-winning Colomba, an exquisite beer with a fresh straw color, long-lasting head of white blossoms and fine, transparent bubbles. This beer was also awarded “Best White Beer in England” by GastroPub magazine.
Brasserie Jenlain is a fourth-generation brewery and the second-largest independent brewery in France. Credited with reviving the country’s only indigenous beer style, Biere de Garde, they have set an example for countless other smaller breweries across Northern France. Their Blonde, launched in 2005, is a solid example of their expertise and flair for innovation, and is a fitting sibling to their most famed beer, Jenlain Ambrée.
The World Beer Championships, founded in 1994, is America’s oldest international beer competition and is open to all commercially produced beers from around the world, regardless of US distribution. It is a medal-based competition that awards its medals based on the proprietary blind tasting methodology developed by the Beverage Testing Institute (BTI) and bands of the consumer accepted, 100-point quality rating scale.
The beers are imported in the United States by St. Killian, who has been successfully importing specialty beers from around the world since 1983.
