For a brewery that is scheduled to move to a new, much-larger space in a few months, Marysville’s 5 Rights Brewing sure picked a great time to get some recognition from the Washington Beer Commission at the annual Washington Brewer’s Festival.
Sure, the two gold medals it received were nice, but the final announcement was one for the books: Small Brewery of the Year.
R.J. and Kristi Whitlow, owners of 5 Rights, were blown away by the award, and knew right away what it meant for the brewery.
“Competitions can help you sell beer and for us taking a big step like opening a new space you couldn’t ask for better publicity,” R.J. said. “It also gives us some credibility to get our beer on at some taprooms and bottleshops we may not have been able to get into before.”
The brewery started receiving a bump in calls and emails, and traffic to its website and social media channels soon after the announcement. R.J., who didn’t attend this year’s festival, said he had an inkling something was up when some of the state’s larger breweries started following 5 Rights on Instagram.
Along with the small brewery of the year award, 5 Rights took home gold medals for Nellie’s Nectar in the German Wheat and Rye Beer category and for Yaki-Vegas Saison in the Belgo-American and International Ale category. Nellie’s Nectar is currently on tap at Brat From Deutschland and Emory’s on Silver Lake, and both beers are on tap at Kirkland’s Flatstick Pub and will be on tap at 5 Rights’ second anniversary celebration July 2 at Sound to Summit Brewing.
R.J. hopes that he’ll have enough beer to pour at next year’s Washington Brewer’s Festival. Small Brewery of the Year is for breweries that produced up to 240 barrels of beer in 2016.
A brewery of the year award can mean increased exposure and traffic — just ask Cole Rinehardt. The In the Shadow head brewer said he scheduled his vacation last summer around a visit to Moses Lake’s Ten Pin Brewing, which was named small brewery of the year in 2016.
Other winners
After taking two silvers a year ago, Marysville’s Whitewall Brewing brought home a pair of golds this year. Whitewall’s Traction Control cream ale won best American Light Ale and its Outlaw Heat 2, an imperial brown made with chocolate, hazelnut and vanilla and aged in Bad Dog Distillery whiskey barrels, won the Chocolate or Cocoa Beer category.
“We’re more proud of that Traction Control gold medal than any other medal we’ve won,” said Whitewall co-owner and brewer Sean Wallner. “You can’t hide anything in that beer.”
Diamond Knot Craft Brewing won a gold medal for its Binnacle Summer Ale in the Belgian Ale category and a bronze for its Blonde Ale in the American Light Ale category.
“Diamond Knot has always prided itself on crafting true-to-style beer, with a newer focus on pushing our beers to expand on what those styles are,” said Diamond Knot’s Barry Blevins said of the Binnacle.
Other bronze medal winners included: Monroe’s Dreadnought Brewing for its Chocolate Jesus (oatmeal stout) and Fellowship Pale, which it brewed with homebrewer Ken Thompkins (Washington Pro-Am); Everett’s Scuttlebutt Brewing for its 20th Anniversary Stout (British-style imperial stout); and Snohomish’s Haywire Brewing for its Red Rye IPA (rye beer).
Besides medals, another benchmark breweries use to measure success at the Washington Brewer’s Festival is which brewery collected the most tokens. Arlington’s Skookum Brewing received the most tokens each of the three days of the festival and overall. Everett’s Crucible Brewing received the fourth most tokens on Saturday.
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