Alaskan brew brings home silver from world’s oldest beer competition

JUNEAU, Alaska (February 2011) - Alaskan Smoked Porter brought home a silver medal from Burton-on-Trent at the 2011 Brewing Industry International Awards (BIIA) – the world’s longest-running beer competition.

The origins of this competition go back to the nineteenth century when a Brewers' Exhibition was held in October 1879. The event remains a brewer’s beer competition where the brewers themselves judge the beers

Alaskan’s 2009 vintage Smoked Porter is coming off of back-to-back gold medals at the World Beer Cup (April), GABF (September) and European Beer Star (November), but it was the 2010 vintage that picked up the new medal at the BIIA in the Specialty Beer Category.  

During the three-day event, representatives from breweries in 30 countries judged nearly 800 beers to award gold, silver and bronze medals in nine style categories and then 32 classes based on strength. The complete list of awards is available at www.brewingawards.com.

Alaskan Co-founder and CEO, Geoff Larson, served on the judges committee for the 2011 competition and says that the time-tested BIIA judging process is unlike any other in the world.

“The judging panels, which are comprised exclusively of professional brewers or brewing professionals, are asked to follow a ‘guiding principle’- ‘to promote those beers on which they (the judges) would be prepared to stake their future success’.” says Larson. “To know our beer was held to those standards by our colleagues in the industry and judged against beer from all over the world, and then to have one of them awarded a medal is an incredible honor.”

Alaskan Smoked Porter is brewed with malt smoked over an alder-wood fire and which lends itself well to cellaring, gaining deeper malt complexity over time. The 2010 vintage Alaskan Smoked Porter released this past November.

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About Alaskan Brewing Co.

Alaskan Brewing Co. has been making award-winning beer in Juneau, Alaska, since 1986. The Alaskan Brew Crew bottles the unique character of the Last Frontier with historic recipes, local ingredients and glacier-fed water. Alaskan Brewing handcrafts Amber, Pale, White, IPA, Stout, Smoked Porter, Winter Ale, Summer Ale and a variety of limited edition beers in the Alaskan Pilot Series. Visit www.alaskanbeer.com.