Another area resident has been named a winner of Samuel Adams LongShot homebrewing competition. Joe Formanek of Bolingbrook won for his Russian Imperial Stout, which will be “brewed up” and offered next year as part of the 2012 LongShot six-pack.
Joe is a member of the Urban Knaves of Grain, a hombrew club based in the western suburbs.He tried out homebrewing while pursuing a B.S. in Microbiology at the University of Minnesota, according to the Midwest Homebrewer of the Year site. In 1993, he founded the Boneyard Union of Zymurgical Zealots (BUZZ) in Champaign while studying at the University of Illinois.
Formanek became a research scientist at a food ingredient company, moving to the Chicago area in 1997, where he joined UKG. Among many other honors, he was named Midwest Homebrewer of the Year for 1999, 2001 to 2004, and in 2007, and has also medaled at the national American Homebrewers Association competitions. Joe’s LongShot win comes upon the heels of two wins by Lombard resident Rodney Kibzey, who won in 2007 with a Weizenbock, and in 2010 for his Blackened Hops Cascadian IPA.
Joe’s Russian Imperial Stout will be brewed by Samuel Adams and sold along with the other LongShot winners: a Munich Dunkel by Corey Martin of Round Rock, TX. The Sam Adams Employee winner was Fred Hessler, with “Derf’s Secret (Sticke) Alt,” a strong version of a Dusseldorf Altbier, a hybrid style German ale. The LongShot six-packs should hit stores in March or April of 2012.
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