LOCAL DISTRIBUTOR LOUIS GLUNZ BEER, INC. TOUTS
NEW WORLD BEER CHAMPION: HIRTER MORCHL DARK LAGER
Chicago, December 4, 2008 – “Fantastic” is how tasters in America’s oldest international beer competition, the 2008 World Beer Championships, recently rated Hirter Morchl. The dark lager from the Hirt Brewery in Austria, was the only one of 94 different lagers tested to be awarded a Platinum Medal in the competition, whose results were announced earlier this week, besting such well-known German breweries as Hofbrauhaus Munchen and St. Pauli Brewery whose dunkels received second and third place honors, respectively, in the dark lager category.
“We are thrilled that this small brewery is receiving the recognition it deserves for staying true to its old Bohemian recipe to produce a superior quality beer,” said Jerry Glunz, General Manager of Lincolnwood, Ill.-based Louis Glunz Beer, Inc. “We’re proud to be the exclusive distributor for Hirt and hope this top award encourages more Chicagoland beer-lovers to discover Hirter Morchl for themselves.” Representatives of the brewery thanked Glunz Beer for its commitment, and called the honor “really incredible.”
Hirter Morchl was described by the judges as: “Dark reddish copper color with a frothy tan head. Aromas of chocolate pudding, delicate baking spices and roasted nuts follow through on a soft, satiny entry to a drying medium body with accents of toffee, roasted root vegetable, and cream. Finishes mildly with a cocoa-dusted nut and grain fade. Fantastic.” Glunz suggests enjoying the dark lager with either dark rich meats, such as steaks or barbecue ribs, or sweet chocolate desserts.
Founded in 1270, the Hirt Brewery is among the oldest in Austria and originated as a tavern that refreshed knights and merchants who passed along the ancient Vienna-Venice route. Hirt’s longevity is attributed to its use of Alpine Spring Water, the highest grade ingredients, and the same old Bohemian recipe that includes malting barley partly grown on special fields around the brewery. Its Hirter Morchl is also not pasteurized as most dark beers, but rather, preserved through double filtration.
In time for gift-giving, the Hirt Brewery offers a Sampler Gift Box that includes two crystal toasting glasses and two bottles each of its Hirter Morchl and Hirter Private Pils, which pairs well with lighter meats such as fish and chicken. The Hirter Sampler Gift Box is available at select Binny’s Beverage Depots, Sam’s Wine & Spirits and Armanetti’s Liquor stores in Chicagoland, for a suggested retail price of $16.95, or may be ordered by your favorite local retailer.
The World Beer Championships, founded in 1994, are a consumer-focused competition devoted to finding and understanding great beers and are open to all commercially produced beers from around the world, regardless of U.S. distribution. It is a medal-based competition that awards its medals based on the proprietary blind tasting methodology developed by the Chicago-based Beverage Testing Institute (BTI) and bands of the consumer accepted, 100-point quality rating scale. For details on BTI’s methodology, visit http://www.tastings.com/bti/how_we_taste.html.