DENVER – Carver Brewing Co.’s Lightner Creek Lager won the bronze medal in the light lager category at the Great American Beer Festival on Saturday in Denver.
About 90 beers were entered in the category this year. Lightner Creek Lager previously won silver in the category in 2016.
“It’s always nice to get recognition and validation that you’re doing something right,” said Patrick Jose, Carver Brewing’s head brewer.
The beer is a German-style light lager brewed with all-German ingredients for authenticity purposes, he said.
“That really comes through clearly because judges appreciate that, I think,” he said. “It’s a really delicate beer – it’s really light-bodied and lower in alcohol, running around 4.5%. It’s got a good flavor of traditional noble hops and a good ... baked bread kind of flavor.”
Because it’s a light beer, it’s nearly impossible to hide any kind of defect in the brewing, especially compared with more flavor-intensive styles, such as stouts, Jose said.
The Lightner Creek Lager – which Jose describes as the answer to the question: “Do you guys sell Coors Light or Bud Light?” – is the brewery’s best seller and is produced in greater quantities than any of its other beers.
ngonzales@durangoherald.com
