Wellsville natives Jessica and Brad O’Connor are founders of Model A Brewery in Tega Cay, SC
Powered by the support of its passionate patrons and their favorite beers, Model A Brewing Company entered and won a Gold and Silver medal at of the most prestigious beer competitions in the world this week. Over 9000 beers and thousands of breweries submitted their best beers to this competition.
Model A’s “Springs Farm Strawberry Kolsch” earned it’s second medal in as many years at The US Open Beer Championship with a Gold in American Style Berry Beer. Last year this beer won a Bronze medal. This beer is one of Model A’s seasonal specialty beers and is brewed with 500lbs of fresh locally grown Springs Farm strawberries where the sweet fruit blends perfectly with the crisp Kolsch style beer.
“The chase for this beer really started when I was homebrewing and saw that Springs Farm sold their day old strawberries for half price,” O’Connor added. “I thought creating a brew would be a great option. Strawberries ripened past peak actually work better for our beer. The final version took a number of iterations and truly didn’t become complete until we decided to make this a Kolsch. The Kolsch is rich in body with a light, estery character that finishes dry with light tartness and gentle malt and hop notes. We knew we had something special with this beer as it sold out in only two weeks at our brewery. It was remarkable to see the demand.”
In addition to the Gold, Model A Brewing took a Silver for its Czech Pilsner dubbed Speakeasy. It was named to honor the prohibition theme of the brewery. This classic style is coveted by many light beer drinkers. The Czech typically means that the brewery uses German Saaz Hops. These hops have a distinct aroma and spicyness to them. “This is truly a lawnmower drinking beer”, said O’Connor
Model A Brewing was one of only six breweries to medal in the state of South Carolina.
Follow Model A on Facebook (@ModelABrewing) and Instagram (@model_a_brewing).
