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The Beer Blog

The Brew Kettle cleans up: Part II

By Rick Published: May 17, 2011

The Brew Kettle in Strongsville entered nine beers at last weekend's International Beer Fest in Cleveland -- and won eight medals and the Best of Show for its White Rajah, an India pale ale. Not bad. The Brew Kettle won the most medals of any brewery at the event. "We almost placed everything we entered," brewer Jack Kephart said modestly. "It was nice." Kephart wanted one beer to win above all others -- the White Rajah. Why? Because the competition was fierce within the India pale ale category and he beat out many other stellar beers for that honor. In addition to a gold within the American IPA category and Best of Show honor for the White Rajah, other The Brew Kettle winners were: Old 21, Dark Helmet and Chief's Rye, gold; and Black Jack, Tunguska, Four C's and Quick Kriek, bronze. The funny thing is that the one beer that didn't win was Red Eye PA, an award-winning beer that hauled in a silver medal at last year's Great American Beer Festival. In other The Brew Kettle news, the brewery now sells its retail beer exclusively in 22-ounce bottles but that will soon change. The brewery is investing in a small bottling system and will start selling 12-ounce bottles likely by the end of the summer, Kephart said. That doesn't mean the 22-ounce bombers are going away. They will remain for some of the higher alcohol beers, he said.