Winners in the competition’s 95 different beer-style categories were announced May 5, 2012 at the World Beer Cup awards ceremony held at the Town and Country Resort in San Diego, California.
Telegraph was awarded a gold medal in the Experimental Beer category for its Petit Obscura, a “small beer” that clocks in at just 3.8% alcohol by volume, and is aged with wild Brettanomyces yeast, giving the beer a pleasant sour fruitiness and earthy aroma. The brewery was awarded a bronze medal in the Other Belgian-Style Ale category for its Rhinoceros Ryewine Ale, a 10% alcohol-by-volume barleywine-style ale brewed with rye in addition to barley, which provides both a full-bodied mouthfeel and a slightly spicy flavor.
“Excited is an understatement,” said Scott Baer, Telegraph’s head brewer. “It’s daunting to put our beers up against the best in the world; but then to walk away with both a gold medal and a bronze medal is validation that we’re doing a lot of things right.” Telegraph Founder Brian Thompson added, “We’re a small company, so everything we do is truly a team effort. We’re all extremely proud of this achievement, because our hard work has really paid off with these wins.”
Telegraph Brewing Co., a craft brewery located on downtown Santa Barbara’s Salsipuedes Street, specializes in brewing unique American and Belgian-inspired beers using 100% domestic ingredients and as many local ingredients as possible. The brewery strives to reflect in its beers the unique culinary and agricultural traditions of Santa Barbara and California’s Central Coast. Telegraph sold its first beer in 2006.
World Beer Cup winners were selected by an international panel of 209 beer judges from 27 countries. The competition—referred to as the “Olympics of Beer Competition”—saw an impressive field of nearly 4,000 entries from 799 breweries in 54 countries. The 2012 competition drew the largest, most international field of entrants in the history of the World Beer Cup.
For more World Beer Cup competition information, including the 2012 winners list and photos, visit www.WorldBeerCup.org.