Goat Island wins silver at beer fest

Published 5:30 am Saturday, September 29, 2018

Goat Island brewmaster Paul White had no idea what the odds of success were when he pulled a keg of the brewery’s Duck River Dunkel straight from the rack, toted it out to his car (dropping it in the process), and sent it out to Colorado to stand against beers from across the nation in the country’s biggest taste-off.

“I’ve know guys who’ve submitted beers to this thing for years and years, and never won anything, so I really didn’t know what to expect, said White, fresh off Goat Island’s silver medal finish at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver.

“I really entered this thing for the experience of doing it; not with the idea that we’d actually win anything. I didn’t even do a small batch for this competition — I literally took kegs right off of our 30-barrel system here, and sent it in,” he explained. “The beer that won the silver medal is the exact same beer that we’re gonna be serving at this year’s Oktoberfest.”

For White, as well as for the still-growing Goat Island Brewery, coming in second amid a field of 53 class competitors (as well as a larger field of more than 4,000 individual beer entrants from across the U.S.) isn’t surprising because anyone ever doubted the quality of the beer that Cullman’s sole microbrewery turns out.

Rather, it’s surprising because winning competitions hasn’t really been a priority for a brewery that’s only been in business since 2016. White, a former Microbiology student at Auburn, has only been putting his knowledge of yeasts, bacteria, and sterile control processes to use as a brewmaster for a little more than two years, and much of his focus is on getting out a quality batch.

“It gets to be a really laborious job, because there’s so much to do in terms of analysis before a batch goes out,” he explained. Everything’s always changing in the science of fermentation, and I spend a lot of time trying to stay current. It just blows my mind that we won the silver.”

To get a taste of the local beer that beat out nearly all comers, ask for a pour of Duck River Dunkel when Goat Island’s tap truck visits Oktoberfest this year. Oktoberfest runs from Oct. 3 through Oct 7.