BEER

Tap handles at Madison craft beer retailer Wish You Were Beer. (Lucy Berry/lberry@al.com)

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Dan Perry was knee-deep in brewery paperwork when he received a text message informing him the RateBeer Best Awards had named Straight to Ale as Alabama's "Top Brewer" for 2013.

"It was a cool break from the paperwork to see what we're doing is getting appreciated," says Perry, who co-founded the Huntsville brewery with Rick Tarvin in 2009. "I don't know what to expect as far as the impact goes, but it's definitely cool and we're very honored."

Straight to Ale's beers include the flagship Monkeynaut, a complex, luscious 7.25 percent ABV (alcohol by volume) India Pale Ale.

Straight to Ale's Unobtanium. (Courtesy photo)

Ratebeer.com considered over 240,000 beers from over 16,000 brewers for its newest RateBeer Best Awards making it "the largest beer competition in the world ever," according to the craft beer website.

Founded in 2000, ratebeer.com is based in Santa Rosa, Calif.

Birmingham's Good People Brewing Company's Snake Handler Double IPA received the RateBeer Best Awards honor for Alabama's "Top Beer." "I really like the Snake Handler and try to get it when I see it out there," Perry says of the 10 percent ABV Good People brew. "It's a really good, solid beer with a lot of nice hops in it."

Huntsville waterhole The Nook, located at 3305 Bob Wallace Ave. S.W., received the Alabama bar nod in the "World's Best Places For Beer" category.

"Competition Details" listed on ratebeer.com regarding the RateBeer Best Awards process include: "tasting commercial samples - not special batches prepared for festivals"; "most beers were not tasted in large flights, allowing a more reliable and accurate account of the beer;" and "a particular emphasis was placed on tastings made in the last twelve months."

Other RateBeer Best Awards categories include "The Top New Brews In The World" (number one is Arizona Wilderness Brewing Company).

Ratebeer.com began releasing the awards Jan. 29 and will continue through its announcement of "The Top Brewers In The World" on Feb. 7.

In other Straight to Ale news, the brewery recently purchased an automatic 22-ounce bottling system for its 3200 Leeman Ferry Road operations.

Perry says STA's goal is to do a different 22-ounce bottle, or "bomber" in craft-beer lexicon, release every month of the year. "Right now, we've got a little bit of Unobtainium (a bourbon barrel-aged English-style Old Ale) in the tanks, so we'll run that through first, and after that our Hellfire Belgian Quadruple and after that, Illudium, our cognac-barrel aged old ale."



More: straighttoale.com