In what many industry experts consider a world first, a brewery has returned a medal won at a significant beer festival because their winning beer was the not the one they meant to send and did not actually meet the requirements of the class. Jason Yester of the TRiNiTY Brewing Company in Colorado Springs returned the silver medal his brewery won at the recent Festival of Barrel Aged Beers (FoBAB) in Chicago.
It was applauded as an act of honesty but also raised numerous eyebrows about the judging process. Mr Yester emailed the organisers saying the ale the brewery had entered into the Wild/Brett category was actually a different beer and one that did not contain Brettanomyces. Brettanomyces is a wild yeast used by craft brewers to impart a funky taste to selected beers. Brett is traditionally considered a fault in most beer styles.
According to the brewery, “we unfortunately shipped the wrong beer and shipped our Lacto/Sach interpretation from that series which was named ‘Swing Se Pliser.’ The Lacto only version won a silver medal in the Wild/Brett category, and I’m 100% positive there is no Brett in that single batch… I’d even be willing to plate it microbially.”
While admitting the beer submitted was “beautiful”, Mr Yester said “I feel that winning an award for Wild/Brett with an all Lacto beer not only compromises the educational intent behind our Swingline project (and the 20 months of planning to develop the project), but I also feel like I didn’t earn this medal as it was our ‘screw up’ on our part for shipping the wrong beer. That guilt is what has led to authoring this email.
Source: All About Beer (http://allaboutbeer.com/brewer-returns-medal-awarded-recent-festival/)
