Small Brewery Wins Big In Nation’s Largest Beer Competition

Port Brewing takes three medals, brewery and brewer of the year at Great American Beer Festival

San Marcos, CA – Tiny Port Brewing Company and its head brewer Tomme Arthur made a big impression at the 2007 Great American Beer Festival (GABF) in Denver last weekend when the craft brewer not only nabbed three medals, but also landed the dual honors of small brewery and small brewer of the year.

Port Brewing’s Lost Abbey beers won in the following categories:

Gold Medal, Specialty Beer – Judgment Day
Gold Medal, Wood and Barrel-Aged Sour Beer – Cuvee de Tomme
Silver Medal, Experimental Beer – Veritas 002

The medal-winners, along with two other Lost Abbey entries — Cable Car and Ten Commandments — also led judges to place Port Brewing and Tomme Arthur above hundreds of other entrants and name the two small brewery and brewer of 2007.

“I felt we had some award-winning beers going into the competition, but I still can’t believe that we got brewery of the year,” said Arthur. “Our beers take a phenomenal amount of effort and patience to make. It’s great that our dedication to inspired beer has been recognized by our peers.”

The 2007 Great American Beer Festival Competition winners were selected by an international panel of brewing experts from a field of 2,832 entries submitted by 474 American brewers.

Established less than two years ago, Port Brewing has become famous for its line of rare, deep and flavorful beers that food and drink experts compare more closely to wine than mass-market brews. Issued under the Lost Abbey label, these beers are brewed with ingredients such as raisins, sour cherries, black pepper and grains of paradise, and often aged in oak, wine, brandy and bourbon barrels for as long as 18 months. The brews have been featured in numerous publications including The Wall Street Journal, Food & Wine, Maxim, and Playboy, as well as dozens of newspapers and industry periodicals.

While the GABF awards are a first for Port Brewing, the experience isn’t entirely new to Arthur. While heading brewing operations at a sister brewpub, Pizza Port, Arthur received the GABF’s brewpub brewer of the year award twice. With his most recent win, he is one of a handful of brewers to have won the award three times.

“It doesn’t matter how many times I win,” he said. “Every time is as good as the first.”

About Port Brewing / Lost Abbey
Founded in 2006, Port Brewing Company produces a line of award-winning American ales as well as the groundbreaking Lost Abbey family of Belgian-inspired beers. Craft brewed under the direction of co-founder and three-time Great American Beer Festival brewer of the year, Tomme Arthur, four beers are issued under the Lost Abbey label year-round: Avant Garde, Lost and Found, Red Barn and Judgment Day. Additionally, a number of seasonal and specialty releases including Ten Commandments, Cuvee de Tomme and the Angel’s Share, are offered at various times throughout the year. As many of these are blended and aged for up to 18 months in French Oak, Brandy and Bourbon barrels, Lost Abbey beers are universally recognized for their complexity, unique flavors, and bold, boundary-pushing styles. Port Brewing is located at 155 Mata Way, Suite 104, San Marcos, CA 92069, USA. Telephone (760) 889-9318, web: www.lostabbey.com.