More Blue Ribbons for Pabst

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Oct 15, 2007 7:05PM

This year's edition of the Great American Beer Festival is in the books, and Illinois breweries racked up an impressive 16 medals. Both Pabst (their corporate headquarters are in suburban Woodridge, so they qualified as an Illinois beer company) and Goose Island took home four medals each. Pabst earned respective gold and silver medals for Lone Star and Old Style (American-style cream ale or lager), and repeated the feat for Old Milwaukee Light and PBR Light in the American-style light lager category. We aren't light beer drinkers, so we'll have to take the judges at their word. Pabst and chief brewer Bob Newman also took home the award for large brewing company and brewer of the year.

Among Goose Island's medals is a second consecutive gold for "312" Urban Wheat Ale. Other local breweries that took home awards were Flossmoor Station (gold, "Killer Kowalski" Baltic-style porter); Piece (silver for Dark 'N Curvy Wheat, bronzes for Top Heavy hefeweizen and Full Frontal Pale Ale); Two Brothers (bronze for Domaine DuPage); Three Floyds (silver for their Gorch Foch Munich-style Helles lager) and Emmett's Tavern & Brewing Company (bronze for their McCarthy Red).

Congratulations are in order to all the winners, although we're still floored that Old Milwaukee Light can be considered an Illinois beer.

Image via joelogon on Flickr.