Blue Lake, Calif. (August 29, 2022) — Tribally owned Mad River Brewery is celebrating a series of wins this week as the United States Beer Tasting Championship (USBTC) has announced the national and regional winners in the Summer 2022 competition.
For the California region, the brewery took first in a whopping four categories— a clear distinguishment, ranking the brewery among the best of the best in the state. Mad River Brewery was noted for the following brews in their respective categories: Steelhead Extra Pale Ale, (Golden Ale/Kolsch) Historic State Park IPA, (Pale Ale) Jamaica Red Ale, (Amber/Red Ale) and Slammin’ Salmon, (Imperial IPA/Red Ale).
This isn’t the first time the brewery has won awards with the USBTC. Less than a year ago, in the Winter 2021-2022 competition, Mad River Brewery received recognition in four categories as well, including different vintages of their John Barleycorn Barleywine, as well as their Redwood Stout and Uniontown Porter.
This win marks the first regional award for the brewery’s most recent release, Historic State Park IPA. The brewery, teaming up with the California State Parks, named the beer in honor of a first-of-its-kind partnership between the Yurok Tribe and California State Parks in a co-management effort of the Stone Lagoon Visitor Center, part of Humboldt Lagoons State Park. The endeavor has redefined the relationship between tribes and state parks. The promotion of the product has been a vehicle for awareness and change in the channels it reaches.
The beer, one of three recently made available in San Francisco Giants’ Oracle Park, is sharing a story with a wide audience, and highlighting the State Park, one of the singularly most stunning and biologically diverse places on the redwood coast. “The success of this beer directly benefits the State Park, calling attention to an important endeavor and investing into the park.” said Linda Cooley, Mad River Brewery CEO. “Not only the quality and craft, but the story behind our individual products is a reason for their desirability. When sharing our portfolio with both the Giants and the Barracuda, certain products stood out for their environmental and social impact.” (The brewery, in June, announced a second professional sports partnership in 2022, with the San Jose Barracuda, the affiliate team of the San Jose Sharks.)
The microbrew, a deep golden hued IPA that boasts bold citrus aromas, tropical fruit flavors and subtly bitter, malty finish, is now available in 12oz cans, 19.2oz cans, 5.6-gallon cylinders and 15.5-gallon kegs.
Other ales in the lineup have won various notable awards— flagship Steelhead Pale Ale has won 2 Gold & 2 Silver Medals at the Great American Beer Festival, and 2 Bronze awards at the World Beer Cup. Jamaica Red Ale is a Silver Medal Winner at the Great American Beer Festival and Slammin’ Salmon Double Imperial Pale Ale was a regional winner in the USBTC in summer of 2021.
About Mad River Brewery
Mad River Brewery, a women-led Independent Craft Brewery located in Humboldt County, California has been brewing best-quality beers for more than three decades. MRB employs a time-honored, cut-no-corners approach to hand-crafting the finest quality ales, receiving four Gold Medals, four Silver Medals and one Bronze Medal from the Great American Beer Festival, which offers the most prestigious awards in the industry. Paving the way for a new Native American category in craft beer, the Tribal Brewery, owned by the Yurok Tribe, has introduced new products that promote the decades-long fight for environmental restoration and justice. Mad River Brewery is committed to producing the best-quality beverages on the planet and continues to employ the most holistic brewing methods to craft products that are in a league of their own.