Rounding out our little introduction series of the world beers to be found and drink, drank, drunk at this weekend's International Invitational Beer Festival, SmartBeijing talked to one of American most recognized craft beer success stories: Victory Beer. Since their founding by two grade school friends back in 1996, Victory Beer has racked up award after award at a slew of awards at regional and national beer tasting competitions, and was twice recognized by the New York Times as serving the best pilsner in the world for their Prima Pils. From their small-town beginnings in suburban Philadelphia, Victory Beer is now available across 34 states and 9 countries worldwide. SmBj talked to brewery founder Bill Covaleski for a few in-roads on how they brew and to find out what they're bringing to Beijing. ***

We'll enter our 19th year of operations this coming February, but my business partner and I have known each other since 1973, when we met on a school bus about 20 miles from where our original brewery operates. Yes, homebrewing ignited our passion for the business in 1985 and just a few years later we were ditching our careers as art director (me) and financial analyst (Ron) to take up brewing apprenticeships with a German trained Dutch brewmaster here in The States. We completed our education with training at the Technical University at Weihenstephan (Ron) and Doemens Institute (me). Last year, we, and our team, brewed 78 unique recipes, as we serve from 24 taps at our 300 seat restaurant, offering us ample opportunity to trial many beers on this enthusiastic audience.

Having trained in Germany, we respect the traditions and ingredients of European brewing, but recognize that we Americans (and most people) have palates that require excitement beyond what the dominant Euro brews offer. Additionally, we have access to whole flower hops here in the US that we apply to make very expressive beers. We brewing amped up tradition. Our Prima Pils was twice cited by the New York Times as the best pilsner in the world. Our Golden Monkey, a Belgian style tripel, just won Gold at the 2014 Great American Beer Festival.

    Bill Covaleski: Our HopDevil Ale, which we'll be serving exactly expresses our ideals in full, glorious flavor. As an India Pale Ale, the recipe originated in England. Valuing the virtues of flavorful American hop varieties, we selected those for our recipe. Then, to give an otherwise bitter ale style a long, smooth, satisfying finish, we applied the richness of German malts.  

Sorry to say, growing our business at 20+% per year all this time, we have not had much time to experience the richness that is expanding in brewing globally. I look forward to this trip as a chance to catch up with my brewing peers in Asia and return home inspired.

Our two breweries (Downingtown and Parkesburg) are located in a wonderful area where the suburbia of Philadelphia gives way to Amish farms. There is a lot of respect for the bounty of natural food products that exist just outside our door and Philadelphia drives food innovation as a culinary center. Therefore, our brews are infinitely flavorful. We have a palette of 45 yeast strains in our lab to employ to coax out the most interesting flavors from our ingredients and recipes. We brew with the most natural form of the hops, their whole flowers. This attention to detail is what our regional audience expects from their food options. We are happy to deliver such quality. *** Victory founders Bill Covaleski and Ron Barchet Look for Victory Beer this weekend at the Beijing International Invitational Beer Festival. Click on that link to get your tickets. For more on Victory Beer, check out their main page here and their Facebook right here.