Left Hand wins three GABF medals

Left Hand Brewing Company in Longmont won silver medals for its Milk Stout, Smokejumper Smoked Imperial Porter and Black Jack Porter at the 2014 Great American Beer Festival which was held Oct. 2 through Oct 4 at the Colorado Convention Center. (Courtesy photo)

By Emily Armstrong

Left Hand Brewing Company

Left Hand Brewing Company in Longmont won three Silver Medals at the 2014 Great American Beer Festival, the largest commercial beer competition in the world, featuring 5,500 entries from 1,300 breweries. The Great American Beer Festival was held Oct. 2-4 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver.

Left Hand took honors for their Milk Stout, Smokejumper Smoked Imperial Porter and Black Jack Porter. The Longmont brewery received the highest medal count for Colorado and tied with only three other breweries for the most medals won overall.

2014 marks Left Hand’s second year in a row achieving a three-medal win, for a total of nine medals in the past five years. Left Hand’s medal count highlights the brewery’s notable prowess for brewing dark styles. Seven of Left Hand’s nine wins over five years have been for darker beers including 2X Milk Stout, 2X Fade to Black, 2X Smokejumper and Black Jack Porter. Milk Stout is a genre favorite for the sweet stout category, while Fade to Black & Smokejumper highlight the brewery’s strength for hand smoked malt. “We are very proud of the recognition we have received for our dark beer portfolio in recent years. In 21 years of brewing, we have always strived to brew meaningful, timeless beer with notable balance and complexity,” comments Eric Wallace, LHB president and co-founder.

2014 GABF Medals:

•Silver Medal for Smoke Beer: Smokejumper Smoked Imperial Porter

•Silver Medal for Brown Porter: Black Jack Porter

•Silver Medal for Sweet / Cream Stout: Milk Stout

2013 GABF Medals:

•Gold Medal for Ordinary or Special Bitter: Sawtooth Ale

•Gold Medal for Foreign-Style Stout: Fade to Black, Volume 1

•Gold Medal for Sweet Stout / Cream Stout: Milk Stout

Total award count to date is 24 GABF Medals, nine World Beer Cup Awards and six European Beer Star Awards, which includes nine medals in five years, seven of which are dark styles, and the 2014 World Beer Cup Gold Award for Sawtooth Ale.

Go to lefthandbrewing.com for more information