Brewery of the Year

Hello all!

       I am writing this article because it struck me that we haven’t yet given an official update from the brewery since last month’s exciting highlights. On February 19th, the Texas Craft Brewers Guild held their annual meeting and debuted the first ever Texas Craft Brewers Cup, a state wide beer competition. I happened to be out of town that day, so I was super bummed that I couldn’t be in attendance. But I had our Business Team Manager, Jodi, and our Beer Team Cellar Worker, Rachel, attending in my stead. As the day turned into night, I honestly forgot that the competition was happening and assumed the event had wrapped up.

       Then I got the first text. “Recalcitrant Dockhand just won Gold!!!” I immediately felt that surge of emotion I felt in 2015 when we took home the same honors for the same beer at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver. About 30 minutes went by, and I was still smiling from our win.

       The second text hit different. “OMG, Moebius just won Gold too!!!” I started yelling and told everyone within earshot. Overjoyed, I got into my car and began driving back to Austin for the night. Half way back into town I got a phone call and found out that Black Star had taken home “Brewery Of The Year” for 0-799bbl of production. I immediately rerouted to Austin Beerworks for some much needed celebratory beers. I could barely contain my excitement. Not just for me, not just for the Beer Team, but Black Star as a whole.

       It’s not often you get the bragging rights of “Brewery of the Year” but we damn sure do in 2022. This win is a distillation of every past brewer and co-worker at Black Star, every Member-Owner that has been involved in our growth as a company, and every person in the community who has supported what we do for 11 years. Community-Owned Beer means Community-Owned Wins. Come bite the medals at your earliest convenience (maybe not literally?).

Cheers!