Sun King Brewery, one of the leaders of the independent craft beer movement in Indiana, is thrilled to have earned the title of Grand National Champion for the second time at the U.S. Open Beer Competition. The title goes to the brewery earning the most winning entries, and Sun King earned five gold, two silver and three bronze medals.
Breweries sent more than 9,000 brews representing over 150 styles of beer to be judged in a blind competition where the judges only know the categories being judged, not the beers or their breweries.
“It is an incredible honor to win a single medal at the U.S. Open Beer Championship, and to be awarded Grand Champion for the second time is just amazing,” said Dave Colt, co-founder and head brewer at Sun King. “This is a collaborative effort from each department. Whether it be choosing the ingredients, cellaring or quality control, our team works together and plans every aspect of each of our beers.”
Sun King has won more than 50 national and international awards for its unique craft beers since it began brewing more than 13 years ago, winning Grand National Champion at the U.S. Open Beer Competition in 2019, and ranks in the top five of the combined Great American Beer Festival and World Beer Cup medal recipients worldwide. The brewery received the following U.S. Open Beer awards this year:
Gold Medals
- Churrolicious (Barrel-Aged Dark Beer category) is a barrel-aged pastry stout brewed in collaboration with Indianapolis’ 18th Street Brewery. The beer is made with actual churros from local bakeries and was created in celebration of the of the inaugural Indiana Statewide Stout Day.
- Cherry Busey (Belgian-Style Fruit Beer category), Sun King’s most award-winning beer, is a Flanders-style Belgian Red Ale produced using a complex cocktail of wild yeasts and aged in a bevy of barrels. A multitude of Montmorency cherries were lovingly liberated to give the beer its tart cherry tang. Cherry Busey has received the Bronze Medal at the 2015 Great American Beer Festival® in the Belgian-Style Fruit Beer Category, the Silver Medal at the 2016 Great American Beer Festival® in the Belgian-Style Fruit Beer Category, and the Bronze Medal at the 2017 Great American Beer Festival® in the Belgian-Style Fruit Beer Category.
- Golden Girls (Barrel-Aged Fruit Sour category) is a wild-fermented Belgian-style Tripel Ale aged sour beer.
- Sunlight Cream Ale (Golden or Blonde Ale category), Sun King’s second-most award-winning beer, adds to its previous awards, including a silver at the 2022 World Beer Cup, a Gold medal at the 2015 Great American Beer Festival and a silver medal at the 2010 World Beer Cup. Sunlight Cream Ale celebrates the American brewing tradition by balancing smooth malt complexity with a crisp, clean finish. Sun King has also brewed variations of Sunlight including a popular and award-winning orange-vanilla, a watermelon and a tropical ale with flavors of pineapple and coconut.
- Triptonic (Belgian Tripel category) is a Belgian-Style Tripel in which creamy banana character is balanced with smooth caramel sweetness.
Silver Medals
- Horchata Shadow Proof (Nut Beer category) is an Imperial Stout with massive malt character, notes of dark chocolate, molasses and roasty malt, vanilla and oak from barrel-aging, and cinnamon for a horchata-like sweetness.
- Polynesian Passion (Spirits Barrel-Aged Beer, Non-Whiskey category) is a tropical drink-inspired and barrel-aged Belgian-Style Tripel with pineapple, orange and toasted coconut character.
Bronze Medals
- Orange Vanilla Sunlight Cream Ale, (American-Style Fruit Beer – Orange category) combines smooth malt character with the flavors of vanilla and orange, all with a crisp, clean finish.
- Midnight Choir (Barrel-Aged Fruit Sour category) is a dark sour ale with tart flavors of raspberry and cherry, balanced with a full body and finish.
- Soul Shakedown Party (Spirits Barrel-Aged Beer, Non-Whiskey category) adds another award to the silver that it won in the 2022 World Beer Cup and the bronze medal it won in the Classic Styles category at the 2014 Festival of Barrel-Aged Beer. Soul Shakedown Party uses rum-barrel aging to round out the huge toffee and port character of its Wee Muckle Scotch Ale with flavors of molasses and orange peel.
Visit sunkingbrewing.com for more information. Sun King Brewery is also on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.