Copperpoint Brewing, Big Bear Brewing Take 'Best Of' in Beer Tasting Championship

The United States Beer Tasting Championship, an organization that seeks to find well-made beers through a multi-tiered blind tasting process, recently completed their Summer episode of its annual tasting competition, now in its 21st year. A total of 655 beers from 162 breweries were examined across 16 different beer categories.

For this session, two South Florida breweries succeeded in securing 'Best of' places in style categories, meaning that judges determined that these beers were the best of their style in the region. Copperpoint Brewing Company (151 Commerce Rd., Boynton Beach) won big with their Witless (Belgian Wit) and Das Pils (Pilsner) beers, while Big Bear Brewing Company (1800 N. University Dr., Coral Springs) made the best IPA in the region with their Hibernating IPA.

"It's good to see Florida breweries getting recognition," Copperpoint's owner and head brewer Matthew Cox said. "There are some really good beers coming out of Florida breweries. As we continue to grow here at Copperpoint we will make some very minor tweaks to some of the beers, but overall I am very happy with what we are producing. The beers that we sent out were all solid beers."

As for the United States Beer Tasting Championship, on the organization's website it explains  that it takes "a unique approach" in its competition, holding it in multiple stages:

"Sequential field trials are conducted wherein judges evaluate beers and select the best to advance to subsequent rounds. This allows beers to be judged in relatively small flights while ensuring that the best beers are still determined through head-to-head competition. All beers were tasted in blinded fashion and judged on a hedonic scale."

A list of Florida winners is below:

• India Pale Ale - Hibernating IPA, Big Bear Brewing Company Coral Springs, FL — Honorable Mention HopDevil, Victory Brewing Company Downington, PA 
• Pale Ale American Pale Ale, Motorworks Brewing Bradenton, FL
• Amber/Red Ale Rollcage Red Ale, Motorworks Brewing Bradenton, FL — Honorable Mention A-10 Red IPA, Copperpoint Brewing Company Boynton Beach, FL 
• Belgian Wit Witness, Copperpoint Brewing Company Boynton Beach, FL
• Pilsner Das Pils, Copperpoint Brewing Company Boynton Beach, FL 
• Session Beer Spider Wars, Cigar City Brewpub Tampa, FL — Honorable Mention Cross Bones, Heavy Seas Beer Baltimore, MD 
• Highly-hopped Lager Hoppier than Helles, Cigar City Brewing Company Tampa, FL
  

Not only did South Florida come on top in three categories, Coral Spring's own Big Bear Brewing Company came out above the beloved HopDevil from Victory.

Looks like it's time to come out of hibernation and have an IPA at the Coral Springs brewpub. Or shout "Can I get a witness?" at Copperpoint Brewing. Yeah, something like that.

Doug Fairall is a craft beer blogger who focuses on Florida beers and has been a homebrewer since 2010. For beer things in your Twitter feed, follow him @DougFairall and find the latest beer pics on Clean Plate's Instagram.