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Richmond, VA – The Virginia Craft Brewers Guild announced the 2020 Virginia Craft Beer Cup winners on Monday, August 31, 2020, at Bon Secours Training Center in Richmond, Virginia. The event looked different this year, with face masks, social distancing, and hand sanitizer placed all over the venue, but the excitement in the air was unchanged.

This year’s Virginia Craft Beer Cup was managed by Head Judge Charlie Harr. 267 beers in almost 20 categories competed for awards. The judging took place Saturday, July 25,  at Old Ox Brewery in Ashburn, Virginia.

“This was a challenging year due to the pandemic. However, we made several adjustments to operate in a safe environment and follow established guidelines. In the end we had a lot of fun, made new friends and tasted some great Virginia beers,” said Charlie Harr, Head Judge.

The Virginia Craft Beer Cup continues to be the largest state competition of its kind in the United States. The Virginia Craft Beer Cup is committed to giving its members the opportunity to compete, obtain critical feedback from certified judges, and get statewide recognition that will help build their brands. That is why the Guild’s priority this year was to notfalter in its efforts to celebrate craft beer in Virginia, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. “The Virginia Craft Beer Cup is all about sharing what we have learned as craft brewers and small businesses, making memories, and best of all, celebrating the best of what Virginia Brewers have to offer! Besides, you never know who might win,” said Sten Sellier, Beltway Brewing Company. “Having brought a few medals back to our brewery in the past, I can say that bragging rights are always a big plus!”

“The annual VA Craft Beer Cup is such a fun event that brings our breweries together  for some healthy competition and camaraderie,” said Janell Zurschmeide, Dirt Farm Brewing. “It allows us to celebrate each other, especially the winners, and further promote our independent breweries.”

The 2020 Virginia Craft Beer Cup Winners
BEST IN SHOW
First Place Black Hoof Brewing Company, Muzzle Loader Munich Dunkel
Second Place Cedar Run Brewery, Goats in the House Pilsner
Third Place Port City Brewing Company, Optimal Wit

AMBER ALE
First Place The Board Room VA, Ticket to Ride Red Ale
Second Place Random Row Brewing Co., Scouser Red Ale
Third Place 7 Dogs Brew Pub, Scottish 80

AMBER LAGER
First Place Fairwinds Brewing Company, High Barbary
Second Place Tasting Room at Mount Ida Reserve, First Edition
Third Place Mustang Sally Brewing Company, Half Moon Rising

BROWN ALE
First Place Old Ox Brewery, Black Ox Rye Porter
Second Place Ballad Brewing, Fast Mail Mild Ale
Third Place Rocket Frog Brewing Company, Wallops Island

BOCK
First Place Black Hoof Brewing Company, Broadside Maibock
Second Place Barking Rose Brewing Company + Farm, Dopplebock
Third Place Big Ugly Brewing, Accelerator

DARK LAGER
First Place Black Hoof Brewing Company, Muzzleloader Munich Dunkel
Second Place Gloucester Brewing Company, Mobjack Black
Third Place Maker’s Craft Brewery, Thurinigan

FRUIT/VEGETABLE
First Place Benchtop Brewing Company, Mermaid’s Lure
Second Place Elation Brewing Company, Rosé Gosé
Third Place Mustang Sally Brewing Company, Getaway Plan
Honorable Mention Stable Craft Brewing, Blueberry Blonde

IPA
First Place Stone Brewing Co., Stone IPA
Second Place Fairwinds Brewing Company, Howling Gale
Third Place Heliotrope Brewing, Oxfordcommadisiac
Honorable Mention Random Row Brewing Co., Windswell DIPA

SAISON
First Place Old Ox Brewery, Sightseer Saison
Second Place Bingo Beer Co, Patio Vibes
Third Place Ardent Craft Ales, Ardent Saison

PALE ALE
First Place Beltway Brewing Company, Approachable Guise
Second Place Twin Creeks Brewing Company, Keep Ya Distance Cream Ale
Third Place Barking Rose Brewing Company + Farm, Conviction
Honorable Mention Random Row Brewing Co., Mosaic Pale Ale

KOLSCH
First Place The Vanguard Brewpub & Distillery, House Beer
Second Place Sweetwater Taven, Barking Frog Kolsch

PALE LAGER
First Place Cave Hill Farms Brewery, Loafing Shed Lager
Second Place Port City Brewing Company, Helles Lager
Third Place Dynasty Brewing, Dynasty Lager

PILSNER
First Place Cedar Run Brewery, Goats in the House Pilsner
Second Place Tradition Brewing Company, Tradice
Third Place Bingo Beer Co, Bingo Lager

SPECIALTY – OTHER
First Place Blue Mountain Barrel House, Raspberries on Acid
Second Place Benchtop Brewing Company, Friar Storm
Third Place Extra Billy’s Smokehouse & Brewery, Capital Kolsch

SOUR
First Place Reason Beer, Gryffon’s Red
Second Place Audacious Aleworks, Anniversary Flanders Red Ale

SPECIALTY MIXED
First Place 2 Witches Winery & Brewing Company, Franc-n-Stein
Second Place Fine Creek Brewing Company, Wine Barrel Aged Golden Sour
Third Place Fine Creek Brewing Company, Herbarium Wild Saison

SPECIALTY – ALTERNATIVE
First Place That Damn Mary Brewing Company, Holden in the Rye
Second Place St. George Brewing Company, Honey Mead Lager
Third Place Dirt Farm Brewing, Honey Helles

SPECIALTY WOOD
First Place Caboose Brewing Company, Fireside Ale
Second Place 2 Silos Brewing Company, Barrel Reserve: Imperial Stout
Third Place Blue Mountain Barrel House, Dark Hollow

STOUT
First Place Dynasty Brewing, 838 Stout
Second Place Great Valley Farm Brewery, Stout

STRONG ALE
First Place Garden Grove Brewing Co., Fergus Wee Heavy
Second Place Lake Anne Brew House, 2020
Third Place Lake Anne Brew House, Quadiversary
Honorable Mention Tasting Room at Mount Ida Reserve, Murcielago Madison Stout

WHEAT BEER
First Place Port City Brewing Company, Optimal Wit
Second Place Trapezium Brewing Co., Chasing Ponies
Third Place Spencer Devon Brewing, Pontoon Bridges

Award winners will be featuring their beers in their tasting rooms and through their wholesale and retail partners. The VCBG encourages craft beer enthusiasts to visit these breweries and try these great brews. To learn more about these breweries and plan your taproom trip, visit our Virginia Brewery Map or go to the Virginia Tourism Corporation’s craft beer site to plan your next weekend or vacation.

The Virginia Craft Brewers Guild (Guild) is an association of independent, small and traditional breweries dedicated to growing the craft
beer industry in the Commonwealth. The Guild is the state affiliate of the Brewers Association. For information of the Beer Judge
Certification Program, go to http://www.bjcp.org/. For more information on the Guild, go to www.vacraftbeer.com and
www.vacraftbrewersguild.com.

For Brewing fun fact, trivia, movies and more, Click Here.

Oxford, Ohio (August, 2020) – – This year, the U.S. Open Beer Championship will award medals in 132 categories. More categories than any beer judging in the world. But, we decided to add one more. After drinking a few of the Black Is Beautiful Imperial Stouts, the board of directors of the U.S. Open decided to add a new category, the Black Is Beautiful Imperial Stout category.

The U.S. Open will donate 100% of this category entry fees to a local foundation that supports police brutality reform and legal defenses for those who have been wronged or to a local organizations that support equality and inclusion. The foundation will be determined by the Gold Medal Winner.

Black Is Beautiful Imperial Stout Recipe
The base recipe  for Black is Beautiful Imperial Stout  was created by Weathered Souls Brewing Company. It was designed to be a moderately high abv. stout to showcase the different shades of black. If you added your own twist or ideas to the beer, please enter them in the comment section when you register your beer. Recipe Link

Call for Entries
More than 7,000 beers, representing more than 130 different styles, were judged during the 2019 U.S. Open event, which is the only brewery competition to include licensed breweries and winners of the American Homebrewers Association competition. Last year, breweries spanning the globe from Russia to Rhode Island sent their beers. Winning entries can be seen on the U.S. Open Beer Championships website, at www.USOpenBeer.com.

Registration, Deadlines and Fees
The last day to register is October 21, 2020
Beers will need to arrive between October 21 through October 30.
Each brewery may enter a maximum of eight beers.
The entry fee will be $75 (with two entries at no charge).
A brewery must submit a minimum of five beers to be considered one of the Top Ten Breweries and Grand National Champion.

Brewers can submit questions at dow_scoggins@hotmail.com and follow the competition on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

U.S. Open Links
2020 U.S. Open Beer Championship Webpage
2020 U.S. Open Categories
2020 U.S. Open Registration
2020 U.S. Open Shipping
2019 U.S. Open Medal Winners

America’s Coolest Home Brewery built by Chris Bowen of Hammersmith Ales
HammerSmith Ales started in 2005 , the idea for the name Hammersmith was originally inspired after the town outside of London, England. HammerSmith is rich in history and has a few landmarks significant to music, a famous bridge and an important stop along the river Thames. Chris’s interest in British culture started many years ago, he has always been a fan of British beer , authors of literature, and British personalities. Early on in my exploration of beer, he quickly discovered breweries like Fuller’s, Shepard Naeme, Young’s, Samuel Smith and Greene King. When he started brewing, he quickly decided that he was going to focus on British style beers like English Bitters, Extra Special Bitter , India Pale Ale, Old Ale and Barleywine.

Video

Savant Systems 1400
This portable brewery on wheels is a HERMS system =Heat Exchanged Recirculating Mash System. Total finished brewing size is 10 gallons. Water is induced from a Reverse Osmosis System and is built back up again depending on the style and region of original brewing water. The system can reproduce approximately 70 different water profiles thoughout the world. Replicating water from the likes of Dublin, London, Pilsen, Dortmunder and Prauge are within our grasp. This system was custom built from scratch, all the plans and designs are a patent pending design of Hammersmith Ales 2006

For Fun Beer Facts, Trivia and more: Click Here

The History of Pilsner Urquell
Pilsner Urquell isn’t just a brand—it’s a revolution in a glass. Born in 1842 in the Bohemian city of Plzeň (Pilsen), now part of the Czech Republic, Pilsner Urquell is recognized as the world’s first pale lager and the pioneer of an entirely new style of beer: the pilsner.

A Bold Response to Brewing Disappointment
In the early 19th century, the citizens of Plzeň were unhappy with the quality of local beer. To fix the problem, they built a new brewery—Měšťanský Pivovar (Citizens’ Brewery)—and hired Bavarian brewmaster Josef Groll. Groll brought with him the knowledge of bottom fermentation, a technique that, combined with the city’s soft water, locally grown Saaz hops, and pale malt, resulted in a crisp, clear, golden lager unlike anything the world had seen before.

On October 5, 1842, the first batch of this new beer was tapped. Its brilliant clarity, bright golden color, and refreshing bitterness stunned the local population. Word spread quickly, and soon Pilsner-style lagers were being brewed across Europe and around the globe.

The Birth of a Global Icon
“Pilsner Urquell,” meaning “Original Source of Pilsner,” was adopted to distinguish the beer from the many imitators that followed. Today, over 70% of all beer consumed worldwide is brewed in the pilsner style, making Pilsner Urquell the foundational beer for modern brewing.

What makes it unique even now? The brewery continues to use traditional methods—triple decoction mashing, open flame copper kettles, and fermentation in oak lagering barrels—preserving the rich malt character and balanced bitterness that define the beer.

A Lasting Legacy
Now brewed by Plzeňský Prazdroj (part of the Asahi Group), Pilsner Urquell remains a symbol of Czech brewing heritage. Whether poured with the creamy head of a “hladinka” or enjoyed fresh from a wooden barrel in Plzeň’s historic cellars, this legendary lager continues to set the standard nearly two centuries after its creation.

 

Pilsner Urquell Brewery
U Prazdroje 64/7
301 00 Plzeň
Czech Republic​
Phone: 420 377 062 888
Website: pilsnerurquell.com

 

 

Fun Beer Facts, Breweries and More: Click Here

The following story is by Gary Gillman from beeretseq.com
Dow Ale was a legend in Quebec brewing until a strange event in the late 1960s spelled the end of the brand as a force. Quebec City, the old capital of the Province of Quebec, was a stronghold of the Dow brand. William Dow had started brewing in the 1800s in the Province. By the 1960s and after various mergers and takeovers, Dow, formerly named National Breweries, had four main brands: Dow Ale, Kingsbeer (a lager), Champlain Porter, and Dow Porter. Dow Ale was the big seller.

In 1966, hospitals in Quebec City started to notice that a spate of men in their 40s-60s, known to be heavy beer drinkers, were suffering from cardiomyopathy. It’s an ailment often manifested by irregularity of heart rhythm. Many died, something like 20-25 persons. Not all these men consumed the Dow brand but most did. Dow in Quebec City – it had a brewery there and in Montreal – made the fateful decision to dump its inventory of Dow Ale, a good faith gesture meant to reassure people. However, the population viewed the action as an admission of culpability. The beer forever became known as “la bière qui tue“, or the beer which kills.

Medical studies conducted by Quebec authorities never established a direct link between Dow’s beer and the deaths. Nevertheless, many experts felt that cobalt sulphate, then used in some brewing to improve head or foam retention, probably caused or exacerbated the medical issue. To be sure, these men were heavy drinkers, they consumed a dozen beers each day or more. Also, the malady seemed to be concentrated in Quebec City, yet Montreal was a large market too for the brand.

But while many breweries in Quebec added cobalt sulphate to their beer at the time, Dow apparently used an unusually large amount, some accounts state ten times the normal quantity. Hence the feeling on the part of many doctors that cobalt was probably responsible, but it was never conclusively proved. Still, Dow stopped using the chemical after the debâcle and the deaths did not recur, at least not in the concentrations that had been noticed.

Needless to say Dow beer fell sharply in sales after the disaster. In 1972 the brand was sold to another brewery, Molson Breweries in Montreal, which continued to brew the beer until the early 1990s. In 1987 Molson merged with Carling O’Keefe, the final successor to National Breweries (itself a combination of 14 breweries formed after WW I of which Dow was a key component).

Online there are numerous examinations of this unique incident in both Canadian and international brewing history. Here is a good place to start, for those interested in more information.

In recent posts, I was discussing the great Quebec and Canadian culinary authority Jehane Benoit, and it turns out she had a connection to Dow.

Benoit had studied food science in Paris in the 1920s under a master nutrition expert, Edouard de Pomiane. I was discussing beer cuisine in various francophone areas in the world, and noted that Quebec cuisine appeared to have only a few recipes using beer.

But Dow Brewery was a client of Mme Benoit in the 1950s, she did promotions for them and this led to a book of recipes called, in English, Cooking With Dow. While the origin of the recipes in the book is diverse and some were probably invented by Mme Benoit, this book must be considered to enlarge the number of Quebec dishes which employ beer in cooking. It is not, therefore, just in the last 20 years or so that books have appeared in Quebec proposing a beer-based gastronomy. The creative and enterprising Mme Benoit was doing it in the 1950s.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

In a later post, I will discuss some interesting recipes proposed by this great food authority.

 

Personal note: In 1986, I visited Montreal and picked up a 12 pack of Dow Ale.  When I moved to Toronto in 1985, I asked if anyone had heard about Dow beer.  An old guy(42 years old) said, “Yea, I do. Dow, the beer that kills.” It was only sold in Quebec in the 80’s and early 90’s.