Tim Taylor Wins Karl Strauss Pro-Am Competition w/Bleke Citroen Belgian Pale

Karl Strauss Brewing recently hosted its third annual Pro-Am competition, where homebrewers submit their best beers for the chance to brew the winning recipe on a commercial scale. The winning beer will also be entered into the Great American Beer Festival Pro-Am Competition this October, where it will compete against hundreds of other professional/amateur collaborations. This year’s first place beer was “Bleke Citroen”, a Belgian-style Pale Ale, brewed by Vista resident, Tim Taylor.

The company received 41 entries from homebrewers across southern California. “The creativity and range of styles that we saw was really impressive,” says Matt Johnson, Head Brewer, Karl Strauss Brewing Company. “The overall quality of the beers was outstanding—it was hard to narrow it down to only three winners!” The company had six employees, including the Quality Control Manager, and two Certified Cicerones, judge the contest, as well as three guest judges. “We thought it would be fun to let a few guest judges participate and offer a fresh perspective. It was cool, because in the end, we all unanimously agreed on the first place winner.”

Tim Taylor’s “Bleke Citroen” Belgian-style Pale Ale took top honors for its complexity and drinkability. “He packed a ton of spice and citrus flavor into a 5.3% abv beer and that’s not easy to do,” says Johnson. “We are really looking forward to brewing this beer with Tim at one of our brewery restaurants in August.” The company also awarded second and third place honors for “Pickle Tickle”, a creative and addicting Pickle Saison, and “Coco Starkbier”, a tropical Coconut Dark Lager. Each of the winning homebrewers was generous enough to share their recipes with the public and those can be found at the company’s website.

For more information about Karl Strauss’ Pro-Am competition and recipes for the top three winning beers, visit www.karlstrauss.com. Share it. Cheers.

Winners:

1st – Tim Taylor: “Bleke Citroen” – Belgian-Style Pale Ale

2nd – Gonzalo J. Quintero: “Pickle Tickle” – Saison/Experimental

3rd – Colin Weir – “Coco Starkbier” –Dark European Lager/Fruit Beer
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