Michigan Beers Win 6 Medals at Great American Beer Festival Including Gold for Founder’s reDANKulous
The Great American Beer Festival was held in Colorado over the weekend featuring more than 750 breweries from around the country. Michigan sent 16 breweries armed with its best beers to compete for coveted Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals. Six different brewers from the Mitten State won a total of six medals (1 gold, 4 silver, 1 bronze).
It was Founder’s Brewery that took home the state’s only Gold Medal. The brewery’s new reDANKulous beer, which was just released in August, took home top honors in the Imperial Red Ale category. This beer is Founder’s thirteenth in their Backstage Series. The beer is available in 750ml bottles for $9.99.
For those looking to try reDANKulous, you’re in luck as this week you can try some at select Celebration Cinema locations during the “Brewed For” series. This week’s pairing is the movie “The Room” and reDANKulous. The movie takes place on Wednesday September 30th. This is a limited release beer so this could be one of the last remaining opportunities to try this Gold Medal beer.
Arcadia Brewery from Kalamazoo won a Silver Medal for its India Pale Ale in the Classic English-Style Pale Ale. This was a pretty big win for Arcadia, as it expanded to a second location in Kalamazoo. The win is also encouraging since the IPA categories continue to be the most competed in at GABF.
Short’s Brewery won a Silver Medal for its Melt My Brain. This beer was featured in the Experimental Beer category. Short’s is the third largest brewery in the state, trailing only Bell’s and Founders. Short’s also continues to only distribute its beer here in the state of Michigan, known as their “Michigan stimulus package”. Short’s recently celebrated its 11th anniversary. On a recent visit, the brewery had 20 beers on tap and some amazing food. Also check out the Key Lime Pie, a 2014 Gold Medalist.
Right Brain Brewery won a Silver Medal in the Rye Beer category with its Concrete Dinosaur beer. Right Brain was featured in our breweries of the Northwest article. Right Brain won a Gold Medal at the Great American Beer Festival back in 2011 with its Experimental Mangalita Pig Porter.
River’s Edge Brewing of Milford also won a Silver Medal for its Dubbel Entendre. The beer was in the Belgian-Style Dubbel or Quadruple category. This brewery is definitely on our must visit list now.
The lone Bronze Medal came from Rockford Brewing for its Rogue River Brown. This beer was featured in the English-Style Brown Ale category. We visited Rockford Brewery and tried the Rogue River Brown. We also recommended Grandma’s Cookies, a unique oatmeal raisin amber beer.
Back in 2014, Michigan also won six medals, with five state breweries winning awards. Founder’s won a Silver for its Porter and Short’s Brewing won a Gold Medal for its Key Lime Pie. Bastone Brewery won two silver medals.
The Great American Beer Festival is one of the biggest beer competitions in the world. This year marked the 29th year for the festival and records for attendance and entries continued to break records. A grand total of 6647 entries were received, marking an increase of 20% from 2014.
Be sure to support our great Mitten State and check out some of these award winning beers from Michigan breweries.
