Big Winners At The 2017 Festival Of Wood And Barrel-Aged Beer

One of the nation’s most unique and important beer gatherings, The Festival Of Wood And Barrel-Aged Beer just wrapped over the weekend in Chicago. And we’ve got some of 2017’s big winners and highlights for you…

Affectionately nicknamed FoBAB, this festival (and its prestigious competition) is the planet’s largest celebration of wood and barrel aged beer.

It’s also, quite possibly, the most extensive showcase of beers that have been aged in a wooden barrel (or in contact with wood), under one roof.

If you’re a brewery committed to barrel-aging you needed to be there, because a win at The Festival of Wood and Barrel Aged Beer is the kind of game-changer that can rocket breweries into the national arena and jumpstart careers.

This year’s two-day, three-session festival took place in an expansive 24,000 square foot space at the University of Chicago Forum, featured 150 breweries from all over the country, and 350 high-octane barrel-aged wonders.

Sponsored by the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild, the competition was judged by a panel of industry experts prior to the public sessions and Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals were awarded in 12 categories.

And here are 2017’s Best of Show & Runner Up and this year’s Gold Medal winners…

2017 Best of Show & Runner Up

More Brewing Company (Villa Park IL) – BA Karma

Listermann/Triple Digit Brewing (Cincinnati, OH) – Chickow! Barrel Brandy

2017 Festival of Wood and Barrel-Aged Beer Gold Medal Winners

Strong Porter Stout

Coppertail Brewing (Tampa, FL) – Barrel Aged SuperVoid

Specialty Strong/Porter Stout

More Brewing Company (Villa Park IL) – BA Karma

Barleywine/Wheatwine

Fremont Brewing (Chicago, IL) – Brew 2000

Other Pale Ale

Warped Wing Brewing Company (Dayton, OH) – Chardonnay Barn Gang

Other Dark Beer

Zaftig Brewing Company (Columbus, OH) – Zaftig Wee Heavy

Fruit Beer

Shoreline Brewery (Michigan City, IN) – Imperial Raspberry

Specialty/Experimental

Listermann/Triple Digit Brewing (Cincinnati, OH) – Chickow! Barrel Brandy

Wild Beer/Brett

Wolf’s Ridge Brewing (Columbus, OH) – Terre du Sauvage Green

Wild Beer (Acidic) Sours

Upstream Brewing Company (Omaha, NE) – Things!

Wild Beer (Acidic) Sours With Fruit

Upstream Brewing Company (Omaha, NE) – Things! & Stuff

Cider/Perry/Mead

Angry Orchard (Walden, NY) – Understood in Motion 02

And for a complete listing of all this year’s medal winners go HERE