Georgia Beer Company strikes gold again | Around the Brew Bend

The US Open Beer Championships is one of the most prestigious craft beer championships in America — if not THE most prestigious.

And this week, we found out that one of our Tallahassee-area breweries struck gold. Again!

Georgia Beer Company, which is roughly 75 miles from Tallahassee in Valdosta, Georgia, is now officially a two-time gold medal winner in the American Stout category for its DeStress Express Coffee Milk Stout, which just earned gold in the U.S. Open Beer Championships for the second time in 3 years. DeStress Express — which is brewed with Thomasville coffee from Grassroots Coffee Co. — also won U.S. Open gold in 2021 and silver in 2022.

Like, whoa! Talk about achieving a high level of consistency!

This is a local beer that constantly stays in our refrigerators because it is one of those dark beers you can not only drink year-round, but one of those beers you want to drink year-round!

So before we go any further, we'd just like to give a huge congrats to our friends at Georgia Beer Company, especially owners and founders Chris Jones and J Ryce Martin. This is a big deal in the craft beer world because this event garners hundreds of entries per category from breweries across the country. All of the beers that enter are elite, and having a field of judges blind taste-testing and wading through a large field to decide on a gold medal winner really speaks volumes for how great this particular local brew is.

From garage to gold

And the enormity of this honor is not lost on Chris and J-Ryce.

"First and foremost, the credit goes to our production staff who brewed this beer - they are our champions," J Royce said of DeStress Express, which is a beer he and Chris developed in their garage over a decade ago as home brewers.

"Not only was this a garage-original, it was our first successful beer we made that tasted true to style so to speak. In my opinion, this award tells the tale of the future for our brewery. Stouts are not a common beer that is consumed in the Southeast (because it's so hot and typically people drink stouts in cooler weather), yet we've made the best one in the country. And at the end of the day, the goal of our brewery to keep growing every year and keep making award winning beers."

Chris couldn't agree more — and even shed some more light about how this beer has evolved over time into the award-winner it is now.

"DeStress Express was one of the beers we formulated in the garage when we were first planning the brewery. For many local folks, it was the first Ga Beer Co. beer they tried, back when we were giving it away for free at small local events to get our name out there," Chris recalled. "Everyone always said they liked it, but a small part of me always thought maybe they’re just being nice and don’t want to hurt our feelings. To medal three years in a row, two of them gold, in one of the Top 3 beer competitions in the nation, is proof positive that those folks weren’t just being nice!"

A hybrid with locally roasted beans

And neither are we every time we gush about it. We will never forget the first time we tried it — it was before Georgia Beer company opened in 2019, and it was mind-blowing how good that beer was even then for a brewery that hadn't even opened yet and we're brewing on a large-scale system for the first time. We aren't going to sit there and say we knew right then this beer would win gold one day, but we DID know it was one of the best milk stouts - coffee or otherwise - we had ever tasted from one of our local breweries.

"DeStress Express is a world class beer," Chris said. "To be honest the idea came from a magazine for homebrewers called Zymurgy. An article mentioned the existence of Coffee Stouts and Milk Stouts as separate styles, and how nobody was really mixing the two. That sparked an idea to brew a hybrid beer, with locally roasted whole coffee beans and a touch of sweetness from the addition of lactose sugar.

"Our first Head Brewer Mike took that original recipe and scaled it up to be production-friendly, and that’s the product we make today. For me it’s a sense of pride in the product and the process, that makes me beam. However, despite its meager beginnings, all the credit on this beer (and all our beer for that matter) truly belongs to our amazing production staff that pour their hearts into each batch, ensuring every beer that leaves 109 S. Briggs Street is the highest quality and in doing so, we offer what we think is some of the best beer in the country."

Across the state line

So at this point you're probably like, "Man, I gotta try this beer!" And you're probably also wondering where around Tallahassee you can get it since Georgia Beer Company is now distributing in this area thanks to a recent partnership deal with Tri-Eagle Sales.

Well, bad news — as of this moment, it's still only being distributed in Georgia and is not one of the beers they are distributing into Florida. But here's a #ProTip: You can go just across the state line into Thomasville and hit just about any package store around town to find it.

But don't worry, it is coming soon to Florida!

"Right now it's only distributed in Georgia, but we are planning on distributing it into Florida in the near future," J Ryce said. "We also have a pilot nitro version of this beer that will make a reappearance in early 2024 in the taproom."

So there you have it —the boys up at GBC continue to gain notoriety for not only themselves, but our local beer scene with these huge wins year after year. And we are SO honored to have them as part of the Tallahassee Beer Society.

Anniversary party

We'll end by saying that we announced the details of our 6th Anniversary Party last week on social media — it is slated for 5 p.m. on Sept. 30, back at The Hub at Feather Oaks. If you remember last year's 5-year birthday party, we featured at least one keg from all of the breweries that we cover — including GBC, of course. And since they will be a part of our anniversary party again, you better believe we are going to make a special request for this beer at the party.

Get your tickets now before it sells out and help us raise a glass to GBC and our award-winning craft beer scene!

Danny Aller is the co-founder, along with Matthew Crumbaker, of the TLH Beer Society. Reach the Beer Society on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, or email: tlhbeersociety@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Georgia Beer Company strikes gold at championships