Image courtesy of Port City Brewing
Port City's Optimal Wit Beer Takes Home Silver
Port City's Optimal Wit earns a Silver award at national competition over the weekend at National Beer Festival in Denver.
Port City Brewing took home a silver medal over the weekend for its Optimal Wit® beer at the 2018 Great American Beer Festival held in Denver. Organized by the Brewers Association, the festival is the largest competition in American craft beer.
The Alexandria brewer won in the Belgian-style Witbier category, which saw 82 entries. Port City has earned many accolades for the quality of its beers since opening seven years ago, receiving 10 medals at the Great American Beer Festival. In 2015, the festival named Port City the Small Brewing Company of the Year.
This year, the festival saw 8,496 total entries, the highest number ever, from more than 2,400 breweries across 102 style categories. Previously, Optimal Wit earned gold in 2013 and bronze in 2015.
“We’re thrilled with the win,” said founder Bill Butcher in a news release. “Bringing home a medal from GABF is the highest honor in American craft beer. Each year, the competition gets stiffer, so it’s extremely gratifying to see our team’s hard work being recognized at this level.”
Optimal Wit is a classic Belgian-style witbier brewed with orange peel, coriander and Grains of Paradise, as well as Virginia-grown raw wheat. Each year, the brewery purchases more than 100 tons of the locally produced grain from a family-run farm in Virginia’s Northern Neck region. The high-quality wheat is a key component in Port City’s best-selling witbier, as well as RivershedTM, a new hoppy pale ale debuting in the spring.
“Brewing with local wheat helps to give our beer a sense of place,” Butcher said. “We’re proud to be making beers right here in the Metro DC area that can stand with the best in America.”
