Royal Oak Craft Beer Medals at Great American Beer Festival

ROYAL OAK, MI — Roak Brewing Co. collected a bronze medal for Live Wire, it’s English IPA beer, at the Great American Beer Festival Competition held last weekend in Denver, Colorado. The competition was the largest in the world for commercial brewers and drew 7,227 entries from 1,752 breweries located across the country.

Roak Brewing Co. founder John Leone said the beer’s performance was a happy surprise. The brewery, which as a 1,500 square-foot tasting room at 330 E. Lincoln Ave. and distributes its beer across Michigan, pulled its first beer on June 1, 2015.

“We did not go into the weekend thinking we were going to win,” Leone told Patch “The competition is very formidable.”

Giving a shout-out to head brewer Brandon MacClaren and lead brewer Adam Stout, Leone said the medal winning beer is “more malt-forward, very balanced with a high IBU (imperial bittering units), but very well balanced.”

Besides Live Wire, Roak Brewing Co. brews five beers year-round, offers four seasonal beers and two or three more speciality beers. About 20 different beers are available in the tap room at any given time, Leone said.

He said that in the brewery’s first year 15 months in business, the Royal Oak community has been wonderfully supportive.

“The tap room is usually filled with community members, and city officials have been supportive,” he said, adding that “local restauranteurs and bars have suppoted us wonderfully.”

In all 10 Michigan breweries, all members of the Michigan Brewers Guild, that collected medals at the festival. In all, 286 medals were awarded in 161 different categories, including subcategories. The beers were judged by 264 beer experts from a dozen countries, and 170 competition volunteers.

The Michigan winners were:

Gold: A world-class beer that accurately exemplifies the specified style, displaying the proper balance of taste, aroma and appearance.

• Dirty Frank Stout -- River’s Edge Brewing, Milford (export stout)
• Raucher – Wolverine State Brewing Co., Ann Arbor (smoke beer)

Silver: An excellent beer that may vary slightly from style parameters while maintaining close adherence to the style and displaying excellent taste, aroma and appearance.

• Expedition Stout – Bell’s Brewing Co., Galesburg (aged beer)
• reDANKulous - Backstage Series – Founders Brewing Company, Grand Rapids (American imperial red)

Bronze: A fine example of the style that may vary slightly from style parameters and/or have minor deviations in taste, aroma or appearance.

• Angelina – Brewery Vivant, Grand Rapids (wood and barrel-aged sour beer)
• Kusterer Original Weissbier – Cedar Springs Brewing Co, Cedar Springs (German-style wheat ale)
• Broadway Light – Detroit Brewing Company, Detroit (American style cream ale)
• Bangin The Mash – Latitude 42 Brewing Co., Portage (classic Irish-style dry stout)
• Good Mooed Milk Stout – Railtown Brewing Co, Dutton (sweet stout or cream stout)
• Live Wire – Roak Brewing, Royal Oak (English IPA)

Now in its 35th year, the Great American Beer Festival is the granddaddy of all U.S. beer festivals, offering the largest collection of U.S. beer ever assembled. Sponsored by the Brewers Association, the festival features more than 3,800 different beers from 780 breweries throughout the country. More than 60,000 attendees and 3,600 volunteers gathered at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver for the 3-day event.

Michigan’s brewing industry continues to grow in the total volume of beer produced and sold, as well as in the number of breweries. Michigan currently ranks No. 5 in the nation in terms of the total number of breweries and the Michigan Brewers Guild has its highest number of members at 210 (and continually growing) — thus supporting its claim as “The Great Beer State.”

Michigan’s breweries are located in every area of the state, operating as community-focused small businesses that collectively employ more than 7,000 individuals and pay more than $144 million in wages. The overall impact of the craft beer industry in Michigan totals more than $608 million.

Founded in 1997, the Michigan Brewers Guild exists to unify the community of brewers, to increase the sale of Michigan craft beer, to contribute culturally and economically throughout the state and to monitor and assure a healthy brewing industry. By working collaboratively with proponents of craft beer we strive to achieve a 20% share of all beer sold in Michigan by producing world-class events, increasing public awareness, educating consumers, and encouraging responsible consumption.

Roak Brewing Co. photo used with permission