Craft Beer Conference comes to Colorado!

This years Craft Brewer’s Conference was a doozy of a week for Funkwerks. Being CBC’s first year in Colorado we had a lot of expectations along with a lot of unknowns. The experience was better than we could even have had imagined. Industry people from brewers to equipment manufactures from all over the world flocked to Colorado for the conference.

Conferences and All you can eat oysters at the
World Beer Cup Award Ceremony.

Picture your days as a child at summer camp, similar to the experience depicted in the movie Meatballs, for those of you that have seen it, (if you haven't, you should; it's hilarious). You spent all year doing your own thing, and then summer rolls around and you get to meet back up with all your friends at camp. CBC is a very similar experience for craft brewers. You spend the entire week having fun, trying new beer, and going to lectures. Between meetings and beer tastings you walk the exposition hall, talking to manufactures about their latest and greatest.

From left to right:
Gordon Schuck,  Charlie Papazian, and Justin Renninger.  

With the end of the week, comes the World Beer Cup. With an international panel of 219 beer judges from 31 countries it is the Olympics of Beer Competition. There were 4,754 entries from 1,403 breweries in 58 countries. Instead of Bill Murray (from Meatballs) presenting the winners, Charlie Papazian the godfather of home brewing and the craft beer movement stood on stage and presented the World Cup winners. This year there were 4,754 beers entered from 1,403 breweries, from 58 countries into 94 different style categories.  219 judges from 31 different countries judged the entries, needless to say the competition was stiff.

Impatiently waiting for the specific categories while all the while the winners were being announced. The Saison category came and went with no medal for Funkwerks. Needless to say we were extremely disappointed. Out of the four entries, our bets were placed on Saison to win a medal. Then Deceit was called and all the anxiety washed away.

Overall, next to the all you can eat oysters on the half shell and cheese carts at the awards ceremony, the best part of CBC was the camaraderie experienced between all the brewers. The support and inspiration was overwhelming. This is Funkwerks first World Beer Cup win, now it only means we have to work harder to out do ourselves! 

Thank you to all of our supporters,
Justin Renninger (head brewer at Funkwerks)

Our "decorated" Deceit!