Brewzzi wins ‘heavy medal’ at GABF

Brewmaster Fran Andrewlevich of Brewzzi in City Place and Boca Raton has done it again, winning a silver medal at the 2009 Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colorado for his German Altbier “Boca Alt”. This ends a bit of a drought on the medal stand for Brewzzi, which has taken home several awards at the GABF, considered to be the most prestigious professional brewing competition in the U.S.

Cigar City Brewing of Tampa was the only other Florida brewery to medal at this year’s GABF, striking gold with it’s oak barrel aged Humidor Series IPA.

To give you an idea of how difficult it can be to win in Denver, dig some of these stats:

-There are 3,308 beers judged in the competition.
-The average number of competition beers in each category: 42
-Just three states; Colorado, California and Oregon took home 44 percent of the medals.

Andrewlevich and his crew didn’t just stick to the Dowtown Denver area, striking out each day to great beer destinations including Boulder, Fort Collins, Idaho Springs, Longmont, and Lyons. Fran tells me the quality of beer this year at the GABF was incredible.

Treasure of a Festival

The 2nd Treasure Coast Beer Festival went off without a hitch this past Saturday in Fort Pierce. Organizers there told me they believe attendance doubled from last year’s 500 to 1000 fest-goers this time around. There was lots of great beer being poured including a couple of soon to be newcomers to the area, Cigar City of Tampa and Sweetwater Brewery out of Georgia who both also won a medal each at this year’s GABF. Other breweries included Stone, Oskar Blues, Bell’s, Sierra Nevada, Inlet Brewery, makers of Monk in the Trunk, Harpoon, Ayninger, Westmalle, Chimay, Rogue, St. Somewhere, Lagunitas, Terrapin, Left Hand and many more.

The ground floor of the Fort Pierce parking garage kept the brewers and patrons shaded and relatively cool during a pretty warm day. I also love the fact the organizers keep the hours short on this event, which went from 1pm-5pm, giving everyone plenty of time to sample beers and get home before dark if they so desired. Some pics should be available to view soon at the festival website, www.treasurecoastbeerfest.com