Local Brewery, Back East, Takes Gold as One of America' Best Beers

Back East Brewery’s Porter recently earned a gold medal in the 2017 Great American Beer Festival (GABF) competition. Presented by the Brewers Association, GABF is the largest commercial beer competition in the world and recognizes the most outstanding beers produced in the United States. The top three winners in the competition’s 98 beer-style categories were recently honored at the Great American Beer Festival awards ceremony in Denver, Colorado. The 2017 GABF competition winners were selected by an international panel of 276 expert judges from 7,923 entries, plus 118 Pro-Am entries, received from 2,217 U.S. breweries.

“Each year the Great American Beer Festival showcases the best that American brewers have to offer,” said Chris Swersey, competition manager, Great American Beer Festival. “With a record 8,000 + entries, this year’s competition was the most competitive to date. Congratulations to all the winners who truly demonstrated why the U.S. is the world’s best and most diverse brewing nation.”

Back East, which celebrated its fifth anniversary in August, has been recognized both nationally and locally in 2017. In August, Draft Magazine recognized three of their IPA’s in their issue on “The 50 best IPAs in America.” And in September, they were named by Connecticut Magazine as the state’s best brewery. “It’s been an amazing year for us and we are so grateful to all the craft beer enthusiasts in Connecticut who continue to celebrate and enjoy what we brew,” says Back East’s Tony Karlowicz, who co-founded Back East with his cousin, Ed Fabrycki.