Lightning strikes eight times as ‘UK ale’ is voted best beer in California!
By: JimOldfield
July 5th, 2012
A Californian brewery has created the best craft beer in the entire state… after brewing it with a mix of ingredients sourced from the UK!
San Diego’s Lightning Brewery topped 476 entries from 60 breweries across the state, to take Best of Show at the California State Fair Commercial Brewing Competition, with its Old Tempestuous Ale.
The award is the state fair’s highest accolade for commercial craft beer and it takes the judges a full TWO WEEKS to get through all the entries and arrive at a winner!
Lightning’s delighted owner, Dr Jim Crute, told how he created the award-winner by sourcing its key ingredients in the UK.
He said: “We find that Old Tempestuous Ale is enjoyed most for its rich and complex maltiness.
“Like many of our craft beers, we do all we can to recreate classic beer styles in a modern brewery. “For Old Tempest Ale, we made sure to source a specialized UK ale-type yeast, Golding hops imported from the East Kent region of the UK, and imported malt from the Simpsons Malt of England, the last free-standing floor maltster in the UK.”
As well as taking the top honour, Lightning showed its brewing class by taking no fewer than EIGHT more medals at the fair!
It took gold with its Lightning Amber Ale, Thunderweize, Old Tempestuous Ale and Electrostatic Ale; added a silver medal for Fair Weather Pale Ale; and tacked on bronzes for Elemental Pilsner, Sauerstom Ale and Black Lightning Porter.
Lightning boss Dr Crute got into brewing after a 20-year career as a biochemist, when his work in commercial drug discovery led him to get interested in the chemical processes of craft beer brewing.
He has a relentless focus on quality and personally oversees all his ales, adding: “Not many brewery owners oversee every aspect of brewing like I do”.
His resultant success has seen Lightning double its sales year on year over the first half of 2012, and it now sells in over 100 San Diego restaurants alone!
· Hand-Pumped is interested in featuring more oversees ale news on our pages from time to time, as the micro-brewing revolution begins to grip the entire globe, with English ale styles at its forefront. Tell us what you think of this, and which countries you would like to see featured, by clicking HERE
Hand-Pumped link:
www.lightningbrewery.com
