Bennett Awards Creates Custom Award for Anheuser-Busch’s ‘Brew Across America’

Bennett Awards created a new, unique custom recognition award for Anheuser-Busch’s ‘Brew Across America’ brewing competition. ‘Brew Across America’ is a congressional brewing competition involving members of congress that have Anheuser-Busch or its Craft Beer Partner breweries in their home districts. Last summer, during the August recess, the nine Members of Congress participating in this competition visited the breweries in their districts to meet with employees, learn about the brewing process firsthand and work with brewmasters to develop a unique home state brew sourced from local ingredients. These brews were then judged by a panel of media and beer experts, and the winner received recognition via a custom perpetual award created by Bennett Awards called the ‘Brew Democracy Cup’.

The participating Members of Congress were:

• Congressman Peter Aguilar (D-CA), Golden Road Brewing, Los Angeles, CA

• Congresswoman Joyce Beatty (D-OH), Columbus Brewery, Columbus, OH

• Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO), Breckenridge Brewery, Littleton, CO

• Congressman Al Lawson (D-FL), Jacksonville Brewery, Jacksonville, FL

• Congressman Barry Loudermilk (R-GA), Cartersville Brewery, Cartersville, GA

• Congressman John Rutherford (R-FL), Jacksonville Brewery, Jacksonville, FL

• Congressman Jason Smith (R-MO), St. Louis Brewery, St. Louis, MO

• Congressman Scott Taylor (R-VA), Williamsburg Brewery, Williamsburg, VA

• Congressman Greg Walden (R-OR), 10 Barrel Brewing Co., Bend, OR

Their beers we judged by the following panel:

• Paul Kane, The Washington Post

• Carl Hulse, The New York Times

• Susan Davis, NPR

• Sam Stein, The Daily Beast

• Bob Cusack, The Hill

• Josh Dawsey, POLITICO

• Warren Rojas, Eater DC

• Jim McGreevy, Beer Institute

• Jane Killebrew, Anheuser-Busch

• Craig Purser, The National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA)

 The winning entry was Congressman Jason Smith (R-MO)’s Gateway IPA.

Bennett Awards worked collaboratively with Anheuser-Busch’s marketing firm Kivvit to create the custom perpetual award design for this competition. The award, called the ‘Brew Democracy Cup’, was a unique, realistic sculpture in the shape of a beer fermenter. The fermenter was cast in pewter, with a satin pewter finish. The Anheuser-Busch and Brew Across America logo was etch sculpted into the front of the fermenter sculpture and highlighted with black antiquing. The sculpture award was then mounted on a custom black wood base with an engraved plate to hold each year’s winner’s name.