Point Brewery Wins 3 Gold Medals at Beer Championships
For the City-Times
Stevens Point Brewery stepped onto the winners’ podium at the 2013 United States Open Beer Championships, winning three gold medals and one silver, good enough to put one of Wisconsin’s oldest breweries in third place among hundreds of breweries from around the world.
Point Nude Beach Summer Wheat Ale, Point’s summer seasonal, earned gold as the best beer in American Wheat category. Whole Hog Wee Heavy Scotch Ale topped the Scottish Ale category while Whole Hog Raspberry Saison won gold in the French/Belgian Saison Ale category. Point 2012 Black Ale won the silver medal in the Schwarzbier (“black beer” in German) category.
Sponsored by Beer Connoisseur magazine and BeerInfo.com, a craft brewing website, the 2013 U.S. Open Beer Championship held July 4 in Atlanta judged more 2,500 beers competing in 68 categories. Judges for the U.S. Open Beer Championship, the only brewery competition that includes professional breweries and award-winning home-brewers, hailed from the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. The winner’s list features breweries from the U.S., U.K., Canada, Germany, Belgium, Mexico, Colombia, Sweden and Finland.
“Awards for our handcrafted specialty beers in professionally judged competitions are always welcome, but the fact that the U.S. Open is a global contest makes these medals extra special for us,” said Joe Martino, Stevens Point Brewery Managing Partner. “It’s exciting to know that our brewery is ranked as one of the best in the world.”
Point’s Award-Winning Beers
Point beers have garnered numerous awards and medals in recent years, including 18 last year alone. Along with its new gold medal, Point Nude Beach Summer Wheat boasts silver medals from the 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012 World Beer Championships, sponsored by the Chicago-based Beverage Testing Institute. The unfiltered wheat ale also won a gold medal in 2009 at the annual North American Beer Awards, sponsored by the North American Brewers Association. Meanwhile Point 2012 Black Ale, a robust dark ale, won silver medals last year in the biennial World Beer Cup (for German-style Schwarzbiers), the North American Beer Awards and the World Beer Championships. It also earned a bronze medal in the 2012 Brussels Beer Challenge and a silver medal in the 2011 U.S. Open Beer Championship.
Whole Hog Raspberry Saison, one of the Whole Hog Limited Edition “big beers” brewed for discerning craft-beer aficionados, won the French/Belgian Saison Ale category’s silver medal in the 2012 U.S. Open Beer Championship. Whole Hog Wee Heavy Scotch Ale won its gold medal just weeks after it was introduced in the marketplace in May. The rich, dark ale offers the sweet, full-bodied maltiness and higher alcohol content typical of “wee heavy” ales, the Scottish counterpart to England’s barley wine ales.
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 and Point 2012 Black Ale, the brewery’s year-round specialty beers include Point Beyond the Pale IPA, a West Coast-style IPA brewed with Galaxy hops; 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.
Along with Nude Beach Summer Wheat, Point’s seasonal brands include Point Oktoberfest, a Marzen-style lager for the fall; Point St. Benedict’s Winter Ale, a dark, abbey-style ale available from November through February; and Three Kings Ale, a Kölsch-style beer for the spring. Other Whole Hog Limited Edition “big beers” besides Wee Heavy Scotch Ale and Raspberry Saison are Whole Hog Six-Hop India Pale Ale, Whole Hog
Russian Imperial Stout, Whole Hog Barley Wine Ale and the fall seasonal Whole Hog Pumpkin Ale.
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; schedules are listed on the website.