HELENA – Lewis & Clark Brewing Company won two awards in the 2018 World Beer Cup, a global beer competition. Awards were given in 101 beer-style categories during the World Beer Cup award ceremony on Thursday in Nashville, Tenn.
Lewis & Clark Brewing Company was awarded a Gold award in the American Style Wheat Beer with Yeast beer style category for its Miner’s Gold Hefeweizen. It’s the best selling beer in the brewery’s Tap Room.
Max Pigman, the owner of Lewis & Clark Brewing said “This is the third time the Miner’s Gold has been recognized on the National/World level. It also won Silver at the 2012 World Beer Cup, Silver at the 2017 Great American Beer Festival and now it feels very gratifying to see Miner’s Gold brings home the gold at this year’s World Beer Cup.”
The brewery was also awarded a Silver award in the Classic English Style Pale Ale category for their Prickly Pear Pale Ale, which uses real cactus fruit in every batch.
Pigman added “I was also very excited to see our fastest growing beer Prickly Pear Pale Ale receive World recognition with it’s Silver award. It’s also worth noting that some breweries take the time to create special batches and hand-bottle these beers for competitions. We choose to grab a 6-pack of cans off the shelf and send them in, so what you buy in the store is what the judges tasted at the competition.”
World Beer Cup winners were selected by an international panel of 295 beer judges from 33 countries.
Widely regarded as the “Olympics of Beer,” the World Beer Cup saw an impressive field of 8,234 entries from 2,515 breweries in 66 countries—the largest competition to date.
Owner Max Pigman said “We are very lucky to have a dedicated brewing staff lead by industry veteran Sean Tobin, that continues to produce award winning beers day-in and day-out.”
Other Montana breweries also won awards. The Philipsburg Brewing Co. won Gold with their 5 Phantoms Pumpkin Spice Barleywine in the Pumpkin Beer category.
Higherground Brewing Co., from Hamilton, took Silver with their Hop Tamer Session IPA, in the Session India Pale Ale category.
Presented by the Brewers Association, the World Beer Cup has been held biennially since 1996, to celebrate the art and science of brewing by recognizing outstanding achievement. For additional information, visit the World Beer Cup website.
