Hopping Gnome Brewing recently received a silver medal in the American Amber category for the Sepia Amber at the 2018 Great American Beer Festival in Denver. This is one of the largest annual craft beer festivals and it is considered a great honor to receive a medal at this event.
When Torrey and I were discussing the first flagship beers that we would want to have on tap in the hypothetical brewery in our minds, we both agreed that a good Amber Ale would be a must. This style is fairly common in the craft beer community and is characterized as more malty than hoppy. Torrey had three different home brew recipes that he liked, so he brewed all three and took bottles to friends, family, and other more non-partial members of the Wichita craft beer community. One sample stood out above the rest as the favorite, so Torrey started perfecting the recipe, creating a consistent beer with strong malt character and subtle notes of coffee, caramel, and nutty flavors. Brewed with Northern Brewer and named Sepia for the color of the camera filter that most of us have forgotten, since we don’t actually take pictures with cameras anymore. We were hoping Instagram would pick it up as a filter option, but you get the idea. There are a lot of Ambers out there with cool names that were already taken, so give us a break. 124 American Ambers were entered in the 2018 Great American Beer Festival from across the nation!
To be honored with the silver medal is very humbling, but not surprising to all the gnome fans out there. The Sepia Amber has been a favorite and will continue to be a staple in the taproom, as well as various local bars and restaurants in Wichita. Our gnome team members our excited to be able to officially say “Try our award winning Amber.”