Lobsterfest Award Winners

While we did not attend the Third Annual Microbrewery Festival and Contest, held as part of Lobsterfest '07 on Saturday, June 9, in Albany's Washington Park, we would be ignoring our journalistic oath were we not to report the results of said festival - as reported in the Albany Times Union - to you, dear reader. Ten local and regional breweries participated (sadly Chatham Brewing was not among them). The weather was warm and sunny, and there was a healthy turnout of over 800 people. That seems to be a good sign. That means the microbrew festival grossed somewhere in the neighbourhood of $16,000 to $20,000, which can't be a bad thing. Beers were divided into three overly simplistic categories - Light, Dark and Specialty.

Breweries

• Adirondack Pub & Brewery
• Brewery Ommegang
• Brown's Brewing Company
• Butternuts Beer and Ale
• C.H.Evans/Albany Pump Station
• Great Adirondack
• Keegan Ales
• Lake Placid Pub & Brewery
• Mendocino Brewing Company
• Saranac/F.X. Matt

Winners

Lights

1. Pump Station Pale Ale - Pump Station
   

1. Ausable Wulff Red Ale - Great Adirondack

Darks

1. Black Eye Ale - Old Saratoga
2. Saranac Black Forest - Saranac
3. Snapperhead IPA - Butternuts Brewing

Specialty

1. Evans Wit - Pump Station
2. Lake Placid IPA (aka Frostbite) - Lake Placid
3. Special Bitter - Brown's Brewing Company

Best of Show

Evans Wit - Pump Station

People's Choice

Big Bear Imperial Brown - Great Adirondack

Certainly a nice showing from the Pump Station, which took home two first place trophies as well as best in show. Awards were decided by a panel of judges certified by the Beer Judge Certification Program, an independent, nonprofit organization of judges. This really seems to be a nice little event, and one that provides great exposure for the participating breweries. Maybe we will check it out one of these years.