Ritual Brewing Co. Takes Home Two Gold Medals!!

Ritual Brewing Co. Wins Gold Medals at the Great American Beer Festival®

GABF Gold medal is among the most coveted in the brewing world

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Redlands, CA • September 29, 2015 — Ritual Brewing Co. claimed two gold medals at the 2015 Great American Beer Festival (GABF) competition. Presented by the Brewers Association, GABF is the largest national beer competition that recognizes the most outstanding beers produced in the United States. The top three winners in the competition’s 92 beer categories were announced September 26 at the Great American Beer Festival awards ceremony held at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colorado.

Ritual Co-Founders Owen Williams and Steve Dunkerken Celebrate at the Great American Beer Festival

“This is a huge honor for our beer to receive this level of recognition and we are grateful for all of the support we have received from our community in our rather short history,” said Steve Dunkerken, Co-Founder of Ritual Brewing Co.  Winners were chosen from 6,647 competition entries from 1,552 breweries hailing from 50 states plus Washington, D.C.   “As a microbrewery we are limited to only five entries so to win two gold medals out of so many great beers from across the county is awesome,” added Dunkerken.  Only three other microbreweries won two gold medals.

Ritual was recognized with Gold Medals in the Barleywine beer-style category for its Fat Hog Barleywine and in the Aged Beer category for its Big Deluxe Imperial Oat Stout. “Ritual’s Fat Hog Barleywine also recently received Best-of-Show honors at the California State Fair Commercial Beer Competition in Sacramento.  “This is the Year of the Hog!” said Owen Williams, Ritual’s Co-Founder.  “The State Fair award was unique as few commercial beer competitions take the gold medal beers through additional rounds of judging and award a Best of Show award to a single beer,” added Williams.  “There were over 1,000 beers from all over California in the State Fair Competition and we were honored to be in the Best of Show round with beers from some of the largest and most respected California breweries,” said Dunkerken.

Ritual’s Fat Hog weighs in at 11.6% ABV with a dense, fruity bouquet, an intense flavor palate and a deep, reddish-brown color.  Big Deluxe is even bigger at 12.2% ABV and is described as a deeply rich, complex Imperial Oat Stout that is a massive wall of flavor and so dark it actually absorbs light – at least the team at Ritual thinks it does.  “Both of these beers age beautifully but can certainly be enjoyed right when we release them,” said Dunkerken.

Ritual plans to release this year’s Big Deluxe at its third anniversary celebration on November 21st.  “Both of these beers are very limited but we’ll have it at the brewery and will get as much as we can out to our best retailers,” said Williams.

Ritual is a microbrewery located in Redlands, CA that opened in November 2012 and has won a number of awards for its beer in its short history. The brewery is opened six days a week featuring 24 taps, beer tasting flights, brewery gear, bottled beer and growlers to-go, and tours on the weekends.

The 2015 GABF competition winners were selected by an international panel of 242 expert judges from the record number of 6,647 entries, plus 91 Pro-Am entries, received from 1,552 U.S. breweries.

“American brewers continue to create innovative, flavorful high quality beers. That was on full display at this year’s Great American Beer Festival,” said Chris Swersey, competition manager, Great American Beer Festival. “The Great American Beer Festival continues to showcase the best this country’s brewers have to offer, with the competition growing and becoming ever more competitive. Congratulations to all participants and especially this year’s winners.”

For more GABF competition information, including the 2015 winners list and photos, visit GreatAmericanBeerFestival.com. For more information about Ritual Brewing Co. visit RitualBrewing.com

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