image sourced from Grand Teton Brewing Company's website This week an email announcement came across our desk associated with one Idaho’s more famous breweries, Grand Teton.

Grand Teton Brewing Company, known throughout the West for their exceptional craft brews, is proud to announce Bitch Creek ESB (Extra Special Brown) received it’s 10th Gold Medal win.  The United States Beer Tasting Championships (USTBC) announced Bitch Creek ESB their National Grand Champion in the Brown Ale Category.

The United States Beer Tasting Championships honored Bitch Creek ESB as their National Grand Champion in the Brown Ale Category during their 2011/2012 winter competition. This is the 10th time Bitch Creek ESB has stood atop the podium in 8 years.  The USTBC also recognized Grand Teton Brewing Company by announcing Bitch Creek ESB and their Coming Home 2011 Holiday Ale as the Best of the Pacific Northwest.  The field consisted of a total of 435 beers from 134 breweries.  The USTBC winter competition examined beers across 13 different categories.

image courtesy of Grand Teton Brewing Company

The USBTC takes a unique approach in that its competition is held in multiple stages.  Sequential field trials are conducted wherein judges evaluate beers and select the best to advance to subsequent rounds.  This allows beers to be judged in relatively small flights while ensuring that the best beers are still determined through head-to-head competition. All beers were tasted in blinded fashion and judged on a hedonic scale.  Unlike most national competitions, breweries are not charged monetary fees for participating in the competition allowing everyone to participate.

In 2011, Bitch Creek ESB won gold medals in the US Open Beer Championships, the Los Angeles International Commercial Beer Competition and the North American Brewers Awards.  Previous gold medal wins include the North American Brewers Awards (2007, 2008, 2009), the Great American Beer Festival (2004 & 2005) and the United States Beer Tasting Championships (2008).  In addition, many more silver and bronze medals have been awarded over the years.  Bitch Creek ESB has proven itself a solid competitor, consistently winning at the highest level of competition.

We can only say cheers to that and congratulations to Grand Teton Brewing Company, for yet another piece of hardware to throw on the wall.

About Bitch Creek ESB (Extra Special Brown)

Bitch Creek ESB (Extra Special Brown) was first brewed in 2003, and perfectly balances big malt sweetness and robust hop flavor to make a full-bodied mahogany ale.  Southern Idaho 2-row malted barley and four German specialty malts provide massive body and flavor. Two hops developed in Idaho, Galena and Chinook, balance the maltiness with clean bitterness and citrus flavors. Late additions of Centennial hops add piney, resinous flavors and aroma.

Cheers

About Grand Teton Brewing Company

Grand Teton Brewing Company was founded in 1988 as the first modern “micro” brewery in the state of Wyoming. Today, Grand Teton Brewing Company is in the Brewer’s Association’s “Top 100 Craft Breweries in North America.”  Their premium microbrews include the 10x gold-medal-winning Bitch Creek ESB, the 2009 Great American Beer Festival Gold Medal Winner (American Pale Ale) Sweetgrass APA and the favorites of the Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks; Old Faithful Ale (pale golden), Howling Wolf Weisse Bier (hefeweizen) and Teton Ale (amber.)  From their production facility in Victor, Idaho, Grand Teton Brewing Company beers are hand-crafted from only the finest ingredients, including locally-grown grains and pure Teton mountain spring water.  Grand Teton Brewing Company is a green company utilizing environmentally conscious and sustainable practices whenever possible.  Grand Teton Brewing Company is also the inventor of the modern glass growler, which is estimated to save over one billion bottles and cans from entering the ecosystem every year.  Discriminating beer drinkers can find their favorite Grand Teton Brewing Company brews on tap and in bottles throughout California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.