Breweries worldwide entered more than 8,200 beers for judging in the esteemed World Beer Cup held Thursday in Nashville. Out of those, four from North Texas garnered awards, three of them a first place honors.
Armadillo Ale Works in Denton, Revolver Brewing in Granbury, Wild Acre Brewing Co. in Fort Worth and Twin Peaks Brewery in Irving each brought home one medal.
Armadillo Ale Works, which only recently opened its own brewing facility, won a gold medal for its Honey Please in the "honey beer" category. The beer also placed third at the 2017 Great American Beer Festival in Denver.
Wild Acre Brewing Co. received a gold medal in the "wood- and barrel-aged strong stout" category for its Thunder Hug imperial stout, while Twin Peaks earned a silver medal for Double Barrel Knotty in a similar category, "wood- and barrel-aged beer." Revolver Brewing took home gold for Anodyne, a wheat wine ale, in the "other strong beer" category.
"It's always the best feeling in the world to win an award because it validates all the hard work that went into making it happen, as well as our decision to brew that particular beer on a commercial scale," said Yianni Arestis, co-founder of Armadillo Ale Works. "We are incredibly lucky that [Bobby Mullins] is our head brewer and we can't wait to see him finally have a chance to be even more adventurous and creative now that we'll have our taproom-only beers."
Organized by trade group Brewers Association, the World Beer Cup takes place every two years during the Craft Brewers Conference. Established in 1996, the competition evaluates beers in more than 90 different style categories.
In 2018, Texas took home 10 medals total, up from seven in 2016. The big winner was Austin's Pinthouse Pizza Pub, which landed three medals.
Here's the list of Texas' World Beer Cup honors:
- Gold: Green Battles by Pinthouse Pizza Pub - Burnet (Austin) in "American-style strong pale ale" category
- Gold: Weedwacker by Saint Arnold Brewing Co. (Houston) in "German-style wheat ale" category
- Gold: Honey Please by Armadillo Ale Works (Denton) in "honey beer" category
- Gold: Anodyne by Revolver Brewing (Granbury) in "other strong beer" category
- Gold: Thunder Hug by Wild Acre Brewing Co. (Fort Worth) in "wood- and barrel-aged strong stout" category
- Gold: National Park Hefeweizen by Big Bend Brewing Co. (Alpine) in "South German-style hefeweizen" category
- Silver: This Year's Crop Wet Hop by Pinthouse Pizza Pub - Burnet (Austin) in "fresh or wet hop" category
- Silver: Double Barrel Knotty by Twin Peaks Brewery (Irving) n "wood- or barrel-aged beer" category
- Bronze: Bailing Room by Pinthouse Pizza Pub - S. Lamar (Austin) in "American-style India pale ale" category
- Bronze: Lux Mundi by Save the World Brewing Co. (Marble Falls) in "other Belgian-style ale" category
See a full list of winners (a.k.a. beers you should try) here.
