Ore Dock Brewing Co. brings home gold

MARQUETTE — A Marquette brewery has received some national recognition for two of its beers.

Ore Dock Brewing Company took home the gold in the World Beer Championship for the Reclamation IPA and the Saison. The championship is put on each year by the Beverage Testing Institute out of Chicago and allows for third party input on a brewery’s beer.

Ore Dock has received bronze, silver and gold medals before and the achievement encourages them to strive for continued quality.

“We’re always trying to improve the quality of the beers,” said head brewer Nick VanCourt, “but as far as changing a beer’s profile in any way, it comes to a point where you say, ‘All right, this is the beer.’ Now, we just want to keep it consistent like that, and to win a gold for a beer like Reclamation or Saison just tells us, ‘Hey, this is the formula. Now it’s just about quality and consistency.'”

With varying tastes, beer drinkers will get different flavors and nuances from each brew. The tasters at the Beverage Testing Institute are no different, pulling out flavors like mango chutney from the Reclamation IPA and herb pepper baguette from the Saison.

“I like to let people assign their own descriptions,” VanCourt said. “In fact, here in the taproom I let the beertenders know how we produced a beer and the ingredients that are in it, but I let them assign their own descriptors ’cause I think that it’s actually going to be better for them, to understand the beer better, to sell the beer better, to help people get the beer that they need better, if they’re left to their own descriptions.”

The Ore Dock team is looking ahead to the coming year, planning the next beer to be bottled and maintaining the consistency of their brews.