Big things are happening at Rivermen Brewing Co.

Gaston County’s oldest brewery recently took home five medals from the Carolinas Championship of Beers competition, held as part of the Hickory Hops brewer’s festival, held April 21 in downtown Hickory.

Rivermen Brewing submitted 10 beers, five of which won medals.

Rivermen’s Foundation Black IPA took home gold while the Crye Me A River Rye IPA, Drewcifer Belgian Tripel, Wave Maiden Belgian Amber brews all earned Silver. Brennan’s Irish Ale was worthy of a bronze medal.

“The medals we won we’re pretty happy with,” said M. David Gonzales, Rivermen’s director of brewing operations.

This was the first time a Gaston County brewery took part in the competition, and the first time Rivermen took part in a brewer’s competition.

Judging took place on April 7 and was done blindly by a panel of professional judges. Most of the awards were announced on April 20, the night before the festival, at a brewer’s party for the participating breweries.

“I was happy. I was surrounded by a lot of colleagues that I’d known for a very, very, very long time. There are cheers in the room and stuff, people congratulate you and pat you on the back. It’s definitely a cool feeling when you get that from peers,” said Gonzalez.

Getting into the competition can be a challenge in and of itself. Breweries must be invited to participate, and there’s a waiting list to get in.

“I kind of lucked out where the organizer is a personal friend, a colleague kind of said you guys skip ahead on the waiting list to get in,” said Gonzalez.

About the beers

The gold medal winner, Foundation Black IPA, is a newer style of beer, coming up within the last five to 10 years.

“It takes, in my opinion, the best of both worlds. It takes the hoppiness of an IPA but the sort of roasty, chocolatey dark characters out of a darker beer, like a porter or a stout. We’re really, really happy with that medal,” said Gonzalez.

According to Gonzalez, the Foundation came to be when Rivermen owner Pat Brennan first started home brewing.

“When he started home brewing, he was brewing this type of beer and he realized that when he tasted it a couple times and gave it out to his friends and people to try, this was the foundation for him to start a brewery. It’s a hard style to do, but it’s a lot of fun. It’s one of my personal favorite styles,” said Gonzalez.

Drewcifer is a Belgian Tripel, and the first high-gravity IPA Rivermen has produced. Drewcifer gets its name from the (affectionate) nickname given to Master In-House Carpenter Drew Shay.

Almost everything in the brewery was handmade by Shay, from the reclaimed wood tabletops to the case the medals are housed in (complete with glass reclaimed from the building’s windows).

The brewery produced its own Belgian candy sugar to make Drewcifer. They then pulled the yeast off, which was used to make the Belgian amber Wave Maiden.

Wave Maiden gets its title from Norse mythology. Aegir, the god of the ocean, was also a brewer for the gods of Asgard. His nine daughters were referred to as wave maidens and helped him brew his ale.

Crye Me A River Rye IPA was created by former Rivermen Lead Brewer Alex Shoenthal. Gonzalez and Shoenthal knew each other for years prior to working at Rivermen.

Read More at source: Gastongazette