Stevens Point’s Fall Seasonals Win 2 Medals at GABF 2012

STEVENS POINT, WI (October 15, 2012) – Point Oktoberfest and Whole Hog Pumpkin Ale, the Stevens Point Brewery’s fall seasonal craft beers, are the toast of the season after winning gold medals at the 2012 Great American Beer Festival in Denver on October 13.

Point Oktoberfest, a Marzen-style lager, won the gold medal in the American-style Amber Lager category (45 entries), while Whole Hog Pumpkin Ale, a unique and extra bold spiced ale, was judged the best in the Field Beer or Pumpkin Beer category (63 entries).

“A gold medal from the Great American Beer Festival represents true brewing excellence, and to win gold medals for both our fall seasonal beers is doubly exciting for our brewery,” said Stevens Point Brewmaster Gabe Hopkins.

Point beers have now been honored with 18 beer-competition medals and awards this year alone, according to Joe Martino, Stevens Point Brewery Operating Partner, who noted Point Oktoberfest also won the bronze medal in the Marzen/Oktoberfest category in the 2012 U.S. Open Beer Championships. “These awards are a testament to the quality of our hand-crafted beers,” he said.

American-Style Amber Lager and Field Beer or Pumpkin Beer were two of 84 categories judged at the 2012 Great American Beer Festival (GABF), America’s largest and most prestigious beer competition. This year’s GABF featured 4,338 beers from 666 U.S. breweries judged by an international panel of 188 experts who conducted an extensive blind tasting of the beers by category.

“Both Point Oktoberfest and Whole Hog Pumpkin Ale are very successful in the marketplace each fall, so the GABF gold medals are not a complete surprise,” Martino said. “In 2012, the Stevens Point Brewery significantly increased production of Point Oktoberfest to meet demand. As for Whole Hog Pumpkin Ale, the brewery doubled this year’s production. We are grateful to our loyal consumers who continue to support our craft beers. ”

Whole Hog Pumpkin Ale

Whole Hog Pumpkin Ale is the seasonal specialty beer for Stevens Point Brewery’s Whole Hog Limited Release Specialty Brews series, which are “big beers” brewed for craft-beer aficionados. Brewed with real pumpkin, spices, Perle hops and Munich, caramel and roasted malts, Whole Hog Pumpkin Ale is a very bold, spicy beer with a big body.

“We add real pumpkin at the beginning of the brewing process,” Hopkins explained. “The spices – cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and a ginger – are added at three points: to the mash at the beginning of the process, to the wort just before the boil and to the finished beer after fermentation is complete. The Perle hops balance the sweetness of the malt and pumpkin.”

Point Oktoberfest

Sold in six-packs and 12-packs of long-neck NR bottles as well as kegs, Point Oktoberfest is an authentic Marzen beer, the style of Bavarian lager made famous by Munich’s annual Oktoberfest celebration. Point Oktoberfest is brewed with Vienna, 2-row Munich and Crystal malts and Hallertau, Tettnang and Spalt hops imported from Bavaria, Hopkins said.  “Point Oktoberfest is a full-bodied, malty and slightly sweet beer perfect for the arrival of crisp, cool autumn weather,” he said.

Stevens Point Brewery’s 2012 Accolades

In addition to the two 2012 GABF gold medals and Point Oktoberfest’s bronze at the U.S. Open Beer Championships, some of the other awards the Stevens Point Brewery collected during 2012 include the following:

• Point Amber Classic won the gold as the best American-Style Amber Lager in July in the 2012 North American Beer Awards, a prestigious beer competition presented by the North American Brewers Association;
• Point 2012 Black Ale won silver medals in the 2012 World Beer Cup (German-Style Schwarzbier category) and the North American Beer Awards (Schwarzbier category;)
• Point Special Lager won the silver medal in the American Premium Lager category at the 2012 United States Open Beer Championships in July in Atlanta.
• Point Cascade Pale Ale won a silver medal at the 2012 World Beer Championships.
• Point Three Kings Kolsch won a bronze medal in the 2012 World Beer Cup German-Style Kölsch category.

The Stevens Point Brewery

Stevens Point Brewery, founded in 1857, uses only the highest-grade barley malts, specialty malts, grains and the choicest hops to brew their handcrafted beers, including flagship Point Special Lager, which won the gold medal in the American Premium Lager category at the 2003 Great American Beer Festival.

In addition to Point Special Lager, the brewery’s year-round specialty beers include Point 2012 Black Ale, a robust dark ale; Point Belgian White, a Belgian-style wheat ale; Point Burly Brown American Brown Ale; Point Cascade Pale Ale, a hoppy American-style pale ale; Point Drop Dead Blonde Ale, a golden ale; and Point Amber Classic, an American-style amber lager. The brewery’s year-round craft beers also include the Whole Hog Limited Edition Brewmaster’s Series of “big beers,” including year-round Whole Hog Six-Hop India Pale Ale, seasonal Whole Hog Raspberry Saison, Whole Hog Russian Imperial Stout, Whole Hog Barley Wine Ale and the Whole Hog Pumpkin Ale.

In addition to Point Oktoberfest, and Whole Hog Pumpkin Ale, seasonal brands include Point St. Benedict’s Winter Ale, a dark, abbey-style ale available from November through February; Three Kings Ale, a Kölsch-style beer for the spring; and Point Nude Beach Summer Wheat, an award-winning unfiltered wheat ale for the warm days of summer.

Gourmet soft drinks from the Stevens Point Brewery include Point Premium Root Beer, Point Premium Diet Root Beer, Point Premium Orange Cream, Point Premium Vanilla Cream and Point Premium Black Cherry Cream Soda. Point Premium Root Beer, made with pure cane sugar, natural vanilla and Wisconsin honey, was awarded a gold medal by the Beverage Testing Institute.

For more information about the Stevens Point Brewery, visit www.pointbeer.com or call 1-800-369-4911. Tours of the brewery are available, with schedules listed on the web site.

###