DRAFT Magazine

Devil’s Backbone had quite a weekend at the 2009 Great American Beer Festival. The Roseland, Virginia brewery is so new it doesn’t even have an About Us page on its Web site, but it still managed to win a gold medal for its Gold Leaf Lager as well as thrree silvers. On Monday afternoon, DRAFTMag.com spoke with head brewer Jason Oliver to get his thoughts on what the wins mean for Devil’s Backbone.

What’s it feel like to win?
It’s great. It feels really good to walk up across that stage. I don’t know what felt better: when the first of our medals was called out or when the second was. To get the four was really good. It’s an exciting time. To walk across that stage is a pretty unreal feeling.

What were you expecting before the competition? Did you feel there was one beer had the best shot at a medal?
I thought I had a definite chance at the Vienna [Lager, silver in Vienna Style Lager] and, well, the Keller Beer [silver in Kellerbier/Zwickelbier] and the [Danzig] Baltic Porter [silver in the Baltic-Style Porter]. The Gold Leaf Lager I was a little less, I don’t know, confident just because it’s such a delicate category. I didn’t know how the beer shipped or aged and that sort of thing. It seemed like it held up, but I didn’t really expect the Gold Leaf to do as well as it did. I was more confident on the Vienna than anything else.

How do you build off of the wins?
We’re a new brewery; we’re less than a year old, so I think this is going to help us greatly get the word out about us, to get some street cred. We don’t have a long track record because we opened a week before Thanksgiving last year. I think this is going to be huge for us. This is going to tell people that we’ve arrived, we’re here. We’re not just a new brewery. We haven’t had that much time to build up a reputation.

Have you noticed anything change?
I guess I haven’t had time to let it sink in. Call me in a couple weeks. [Laughs]