Beer

5 Rabbit, Haymarket Among Great American Beer Festival Winners

Several much-admired Chicago and midwestern breweries placed highly in the Great American Beer Festival last weekend in Denver.

Haymarket Pub & Brewery won a gold in the American Belgian-Style Ale category for Angry Birds, while 5 Rabbit, launched by beer consultant and author and graphic designer Randy Mosher, took a gold in the Fruit Wheat Beer category for 5 Lizard, a Latin spin on a Belgian witbier which uses lime and passionfruit in place of the traditional sour orange and coriander.

Another regional favorite, New Glarus from New Glarus, Wisconsin, won two golds, one in the Fruit Beer category for Raspberry Tart and one in the American-style Black IPA for Blacktop IPA. Bell’s in Kalamazoo, Michigan took home a gold for Expedition Stout in the Aged Beer category. Other local breweries which took silvers and bronzes included Three Floyds and Goose Island, which took a bronze for Sofie in the French or Belgian-style saison category.

Woodridge-based Pabst, which is about to move to California, took Large Brewing Company of the year. [The Local Beet]

5 Rabbit, Haymarket Among Great American Beer Festival Winners