BY Jason Emerson

Editor

Cazenovia craft beverage makers have a long history of winning awards for their creations, and two local brewing companies have continued that tradition by recently winning medals at the Raise a Glass Foundation International Beer Competition.

Critz Farms Brewing and Cider Co. and Empire Brewing Company each took home one medal from the competition — a silver and bronze, respectively — which took place in Webster, N.Y., and had over 200 entries from 65 breweries.

Critz Farms, which started as a cidery and began brewing beer last November, won silver for its Mosaic Single Hop IPA in the American IPA class. This was the first time Critz Farms had entered one of its beers in a competition.

“Every competition Critz has entered for cider we’ve won a medal, so this first beer competition medal keeps that nice perfect record going — so we’re thrilled about it,” said Keith Lindner, Critz Farms’ brewer.

The Mosiac Single Hop IPA is described on the brewery website as “a hop lover’s delight” that features tropical fruit flavors of mango, papaya, pine and stone fruit. Lindner said he describes it as having “a lot of hop flavor but not overly bitter. People who think they don’t like IPAs have liked it because it’s not in-your-face bitterness.”

Empire Brewing Company, which opened its farmstead brewery on Rippleton Road earlier this year, won bronze for its White Aphro in the Belgian Witbier class.

“We are delighted to see our White Aphro win an award made from our new brewing facility in Cazenovia,” said owner David Katleski. “Getting a new system dialed in is always a challenge and I commend our entire brewing team for producing world class beer quality in a short period of time.”

Empire’s White Aphrodisiac, or White “Aphro,” is described on the brewery website as a Belgian-Style unfiltered Wit Ale that features “the perfect balance of Pilsner and Wheat Malt [and] incorporates Hallertauer Hops, lavender, ginger and lemon peel.”

In addition to two of Cazenovia’s breweries winning medals at the competition, neighboring brewery Good Nature Brewing Company, in Hamilton, also won two medals: a silver medal for its Funk N’ Barrels – Act Two – Refined Symmetry in the wood/barrel aged sour beer class and a bronze medal for its Annie Imperial IPA.

This was the inaugural year of the Raise a Glass Foundation International Beer Competition. The certified judges awarded points to each beer based on style accuracy and quality. All entries that scored enough points to hit the first tier received bronze, those scoring enough to reach the second tier received silver and the highest tier received gold, according to competition information.

The Raise a Glass Foundation was founded to support worthy charities focused on adults and children throughout the world. Many nonprofit organizations aiming to save and improve the lives of adults and children struggle to put on galas and fundraisers. Raise a Glass provides these organizations with award-winning wines, beers and spirits for use in fundraising events, by hosting international wine, beer and spirit competitions. Following a competition, all unopened bottles are donated to a designated charity.

The designated charity for this year’s beer competition was InterVol, a humanitarian group that recovers unused medical supplies and hospital equipment and ships them to countries in urgent need of assistance.