Final Results
Gold Medal – Surly Furious
Silver Medal – Bells Two Hearted
Bronze Medal – Founders Centennial IPA
Board of Director Results
1st Place – Surly Furious
2nd Place – Stone IPA
3rd Place – Founders Centennial IPA
Analysis
Surly Furious is a hard beer to get your hands on since it is only distributed in Minnesota at this time. If you ever get a chance to try this beer do so immediately. I dare anyone to find a better IPA, this beer is that good and more floral than I remembered. Since this was the last category, I was getting a little sloppy on the notes and was more interested in just comparing to get my ballot filled out. It was apparent that Stone and Surly were the top 2, but Stone just couldn’t hang. Still great though. The Board of Directors had a wide range of opinions on Founders and Bells. I was surprised that the mouth was so shallow on the Two Hearted. Nothing to say about Lakefront other than that it is just not good. It actually rates really high on Beer Advocate too. Wisconsinites can be homers at times I guess.
My Ballot
1. Surly
2. Stone
3. Founders
4. Bells
5. Lakefront IPA
The Takeaway
I am proud to say the best beer won and this is the only category where the Board of Directors agreed with the general consensus. Beyond that I don’t have a logical explanation for how the rest of the vote ended up. Two Hearted and Centennial are good representations, but pretty weak bodied, which might explain why they medaled. Somehow Stone got last place. Only good explanation is that the bitterness was too assertive. No idea how anyone could rate Lakefront ahead of Stone.
For full results, check out: Great Taste of Cottage Grove 2012 Results