Oregon’s Deschutes Brewery captured six medals in the 2010 European Beer Star competition, including gold medals for Obsidian Stout and Twilight Ale. Beers were judged last month in Germany and the awards handed out today in Nürnberg.
Straslunder Brauerei from Straslund was the 2010 European Beer Star brewery of 2010, winning three gold medals.
Deschutes won silver with Bachelor ESB, Black Butte Porter and Jubel 2010, bronze with Mirror Pond Pale Ale.
The competition, held by the Association Private Brauereien, attracted a record 955 entries. “There have never been so many participating breweries and so many breweries that made it into the winner lists,” said Dr. Werner Glossner, managing director of the Association Private Brauereien Bayern. “This shows how prestigious the award has become worldwide.”
A press released stated, “This trend is effectively demonstrated by breweries from the highly innovative ‘beer country’ Italy, which was more successful than ever with two gold medals, three silver medals and one bronze medal.”
First-time winners include breweries from like Japan, Peru, Sweden, Romania, Singapore and Myanmar.
Organizers thought the result unique enough to point out that in the typically German category “German-Style Märzen” (and about half the entries were from Germany), the Spoetzl Brewery from Shiner, Texas, received the gold medal and the Coedo Brewery from Japan the silver medal.
American breweries captured 26 medals. Gold medal winners beyond Deschutes and Shiner (which also won silver with Shiner 101) included Caldera Pale Ale, Oskar Blues Dale’s Pale Ale, Ballast Point Sculpin IPA, Left Hand Black Jack Porter, Alaskan Smoked Porter, Firestone Walker’s Mission Street Honey Blond, and Moylan’s Hopsickle IPA.
Not surprisingly, Americans swept the Ultra Strong Category, but surprisingly they did not take home all three in India Pale Ale (Three Towns Independent Brewers from Sweden took bronze).