Stevens Point Wins 3 Gold Medals @ U.S. Open Beer Championships

STEVENS POINT, WIS. (July 8, 2013/mbb/) –Stevens Point Brewery stepped onto the

winners’ podium at the 2013 United States Open Beer Championships, winning three

gold medals and one silver, good enough to put one of Wisconsin’s oldest breweries in third

place among hundreds of breweries from around the world.

Point Nude Beach Summer Wheat Ale, Point’s summer seasonal, earned gold as the best

beer in American Wheat category. Whole Hog Wee Heavy Scotch Ale topped the

Scottish Ale category while Whole Hog Raspberry Saison won gold in the

French/Belgian Saison Ale category. Point 2012 Black Ale won the silver medal in the

Schwarzbier (“black beer” in German) category.

Sponsored by Beer Connoisseur magazine and BeerInfo.com, a craft brewing website,

the 2013 U.S. Open Beer Championship held July 4 in Atlanta judged more 2,500 beers

competing in 68 categories. Judges for the U.S. Open Beer Championship, the only

brewery competition that includes professional breweries and award-winning homebrewers,

hailed from the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. The winner’s list

features breweries from the U.S., U.K., Canada, Germany, Belgium, Mexico, Colombia,

Sweden and Finland.

“Awards for our handcrafted specialty beers in professionally judged competitions are

always welcome, but the fact that the U.S. Open is a global contest makes these medals

extra special for us,” said Joe Martino, Stevens Point Brewery Managing Partner. “It’s exciting

to know that our brewery is ranked as one of the best in the world.”

Point’s Award-Winning Beers

Point beers have garnered numerous awards and medals in recent years, including 18 last

year alone.

Along with its new gold medal, Point Nude Beach Summer Wheat boasts silver medals

from the 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012 World Beer Championships, sponsored by the

Chicago-based Beverage Testing Institute. The unfiltered wheat ale also won a gold

medal in 2009 at the annual North American Beer Awards, sponsored by the North

American Brewers Association. Meanwhile Point 2012 Black Ale, a robust dark ale, won

silver medals last year in the biennial World Beer Cup (for German-style Schwarzbiers),

the North American Beer Awards and the World Beer Championships. It also earned a

bronze medal in the 2012 Brussels Beer Challenge and a silver medal in the 2011 U.S.

Open Beer Championship.

Whole Hog Raspberry Saison, one of the Whole Hog Limited Edition “big beers” brewed

for discerning craft-beer aficionados, won the French/Belgian Saison Ale category’s

silver medal in the 2012 U.S. Open Beer Championship.

Whole Hog Wee Heavy Scotch Ale won its gold medal just weeks after it was introduced

in the marketplace in May. The rich, dark ale offers the sweet, full-bodied maltiness and

higher alcohol content typical of “wee heavy” ales, the Scottish counterpart to England’s

barley wine ales.
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