DESTIHL Medals at Great American Beer Fest / Opening Production Brewery
DENVER (October 13, 2012): DESTIHL Restaurant & Brew Works, of Normal and Champaign, Illinois, won a bronze medal at the 2012 Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colorado for its Strawberry Blonde Ale in the ‘Fruit Beer’ category.
The GABF competition awarded 254 medals to some of the best commercial breweries in the
United States. Presented by the Brewers Association, GABF is the largest commercial beer
competition in the world and a symbol of brewing excellence. Award-winning brewers received
prestigious gold, silver and bronze medals in 84 beer categories covering 134 different beer styles (encompassing subcategories), establishing the best examples of each style in the U.S. Winners were chosen from 4,338 competition entries from 666 breweries, hailing from 48 states,
Washington, D.C. and Guam. With its largest field of entries to date, this year’s GABF competition also saw its biggest panel of judges ever, with 185 beer experts from 11 countries participating.
Over 49,000 people attended the festival this year.“We’ve been overwhelmed by the enthusiastic response to our beers from other brewers and beer lovers alike from all over the country and beyond. Even before the first session of GABF commenced, DRAFT Magazine listed DESTIHL as one of the top five breweries to try at GABF, and the Denver Post likewise placed us in the top ten breweries to try out of the 578 breweries on the festival floor. So, winning a medal this year was just over the top,” said Matt Potts, Founder, CEO and Brewmaster of DESTIHL.
Strawberry Blonde Ale, made with generous quantities of strawberries, has always been a local
favorite beer of DESTIHL’s guests and of attendees at other beer festivals. It has pleasant
strawberry fruit flavor and aroma, a golden-strawberry blonde color, crisp palate, light body, low
hop characters & bitterness and light malt & fruit sweetness. It also won a bronze medal at the
World Beer Championships in 2012 put on by the Beverage Testing Institute. This beer is usually released in May of each year, although DESTIHL will likely brew it again soon, given the medal win.
Coming off of this success, DESTIHL is also excited to announce the commencement of its
production brewery project. The 20,000 square-foot DESTIHL Brewery will be located at 1616
General Electric Road in Bloomington, Illinois, close to its existing brewpub at 318 S. Towanda
Avenue in Normal, Illinois, which opened in November 2007. DESTIHL is awaiting the arrival of its new brewing equipment, which will allow it to supply the growing demand of many distributors and retailers from around the country clamoring for its beers. DESTIHL started distributing its beers to Wisconsin in July from its brewpub, but this brewery expansion is necessary to meet much higher production needs. DESTIHL plans to self-distribute its beers locally and throughout Central Illinois once the production brewery is operational. Matt Potts sits on the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild board, which was instrumental in securing self-distribution rights for craft breweries last year. DESTIHL will initially sell its beers in kegs and then eventually cans and bottles as the project is phased-in over the next several months. Production is expected to commence in about three months.