When some of the team from Wren House Brewing gathered to watch the virtual Great American Beer Festival awards ceremony last October, they weren’t on the edge of their seats for the last category—Juicy/Hazy IPA—to be announced. That was the most-entered style at the competition, with 377 beers vying for just three medals.
The Wren House team was beginning to accept that they hadn’t medaled in any category at GABF when the Brewers Association announced the final medal of the night: “The gold medal for Juicy/Hazy IPA goes to Spellbinder, from Wren House Brewing Company, Phoenix, Arizona.”
“Drew punched me, like, 10 times when it happened. Preston cried a little. We hugged,” says Luke Wortendyke, Wren House’s director of brewing operations, referring to cofounder Drew Pool and head brewer Preston Thoeny.