Lakefront Brewery's Growing Power Ale wins award

For the fourth straight year, Lakefront Brewery has garnered a Good Food Award. This year’s winning product, Growing Power Farmhouse Pale Ale, is a Belgian-style beer made with organic barley and organic hops. Its recipe was developed in collaboration with Growing Power Inc., a Milwaukee-based non-profit that provides sustainable vegetables and protein for inner city residents and advocates for sustainable farming and food production. Growing Power receives a portion of the proceeds from sales of its namesake brew.

Speaking on behalf of all brewery category award winners, Lakefront President Russ Klisch discussed his 15-year relationship with Growing Power CEO Will Allen and the importance of delivering locally-sourced, sustainably-produced products that consumers enjoy.

“These days, brewers need to do more than just make great beer. I believe every brewer has a duty to be socially responsible and promote sustainability,” said Lakefront Brewery President Russ Klisch. “The Good Food Awards recognizes brewers — and other food producers — that combine good products and good practice. I’m honored to win this award.”

Lakefront’s Growing Power Farmhouse Pale Ale is a Belgian-American hybrid that features organic Cascade, Centennial and Calypso hops, as well as clove esters and spicy phenols. Citrus and clove greet the palate first, with organic caramel and Munich malt rounding out the flavors, adding balanced sweetness and a medium mouthfeel.

Lakefront Brewery was one of 14 breweries recognized at the event, held Friday at Herbst Pavilion in San Francisco. Now in its sixth year, the Good Food Awards honors food and drink producers and the farmers whose products are judged to be authentic, responsibly produced and good tasting. Nearly 2,000 foods and drinks were entered across 13 categories for the Good Food Awards in 2016. A blind tasting panel of 203 judges chose winners in September 2015. Following a rigorous vetting process to ensure that sustainability and social responsibility criteria were met, 263 finalists were announced in November.

In the 1970s, Will Allen played pro-basketball in Belgium for three years. When he learned that Russ Klisch and Lakefront Brewery wanted to partner on a beer that promoted sustainability and also had a Belgian component, it just added to the excitement. Will Allen commented that “the partnership between Growing Power and Lakefront Brewery is an example of how two organizations can work together to foster sustainability and develop good products not only for the local community but throughout the world.”