News in Brews: Everybodys a Winner with a good Co-Pilot
Suds with buds take gold - left to right at Everybodys Brewing: Head Brewer Dave McGinley and brewers Sam Mertz and Haley Tackett.
By Ken Park
White Salmon, Wash., Nov. 27, 2023 - Everybody's Brewing brews award-winning beer; the White Salmon-based brewery brought home gold and bronze medals from the 10th Annual Washington Beer Awards at the Washington Craft Beer Summit held on Nov. 4.
“We were given up to 10 entrees per brewery, and we submit them around August to the Washington Brewers Guild, and they have a panel of judges that they select to go through and choose all the beers,” Head Brewer Dave McGinley said.
The winning brews for Everybodys were its Co-Pilot Pilsner, earning gold in the category of American Style Pilsners, and Everybodys season Mexican Lager, earning bronze in the category of Australasian/Latin America/ Tropical Style Light Lagers.
But how did these brews get sorted into these unique categories? What makes an American Style Pilser different from a regular (German) Pilsner? What distinguishes a Mexican Lager from a traditional Lager?
“American Style Pilsners usually have an amount of adjunct,” McGinley said.
Adjunct is any source of fermentable material other than barley, and common ingredients are corn and rice.
“So for the Co-Pilot, we added some corn, so its about 98 percent pilsner malt and two percent corn,” McGinley said. “We also make it a little hoppier than the Germans would like, which is also why it falls into the American category.”
The pH balance and hop amounts distinguish a Mexican Lager from a traditional Lager.
“It tends to have a more citrus or lime flavor, and ours also has a ton of adjunct in it, almost 300 pounds of corn, which really rounds it out and only has one type of hop in it,” McGinley said.
Both brews are relatively new to Everybody's long list of beers, released over a year ago.
“The Co-Pilot was released during our rebrand, going public in February of 2023, as part of our new lineup,” McGinley said. “The Mexican Lager is a seasonal beer that we came out with about a year ago as well; it was only on draft, except we canned a couple of cases for this competition.”
Though these newer brews brought home the hardware, McGinley says the best-selling beer is still the Country Boy IPA.
“It's got a cult following everywhere,” McGinley said.
Though the Gorge is home to amazing breweries on both the Washington and Oregon sides, only one other Gorge brewery brought home hardware from the Washington Beer Awards.
Dwinell Country Ales in Goldendale brought home hardware in the Brett Beers and Belgian Sour/Wild Ales categories.
In the Brett Beers category, named for the type of yeast used to brew the beers, Dwinell earned gold for their Fuzzword and bronze for their Summer Blush brews, and in the Belgian Sour/Wild Ales category they earned silver for their Second Sight brew.
Seasonal Brews and Naming News
Everybodys is working on bringing back three of its seasonal favorites for the holidays.
“We have the Imaginary Freinds IPA out now, which is more of an American-style IPA, and then we have our Hazy IPA, Foggy Goggles, which will come out next month,” McGinley said.
Foggy Goggles is an homage to the skiing/snowboarding crowd that finds their way into Everybodys in search of warmth, food, and beer after a long session on Mt. Hood.
The Foggy Goggles is an homage to the skiing/snowboarding crowd that finds their way into Everybodys in search of warmth, food, and beer after a long session on Mt. Hood.
“We are also about to release our Uncle Stepdad, our bourbon barrel-aged Imperial Stout,” McGinley said.
Naming these beers is a fun roundtable experience for the whole crew at Everybodys.
Doug Ellenberger
“It's truly done by committee, man. We sit in our Monday meetings and spitball ideas,” Everybody's owner and original brewer Doug Ellenberger said.
The newest brews on tap are a lemon saison released on Everybody's 15th anniversary in October and a fresh cranberry key lime sour beer.
“There are a lot of great names that you’ve never even seen because they didn't make it to a tap handle or a can. But honestly, anyone can submit a name; we don’t want to stifle creativity, but eventually, we narrow it down to one,” Ellenberger said.
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