Last Sunday in Chicago, a panel of 179 international beer judges who sampled 3,330 beers from 642 breweries and 44 countries delivered their verdicts about the best beers in the world in 90 different categories. The World Beer Cup is probably the most important craft beer festival and competition all year. Winning one of these medals is no small accomplishment.

8 Washington state breweries brought home 12 medals. Boundary Bay in Bellingham returned from the World Beer Cup in Chicago with three medals. Boundary Bay's Dunkles won Silver, while the seasonal Cabin Fever and the ever popular (and pretty much only available in Bellingham) Imperial IPA won a Bronze. Bellingham's other brewery, Chuckanut Brewery (winner of the 2009 Small Brewery of the Year award) won a Gold for their Dunkel. Black Raven Brewing from Redmond (east of Seattle) took home three medals, including two Gold medals for their Tamerlane Brown Porter and Coco Jones Porter, and a Silver for their Barrel Aged La Petite Mort. Golden Hills Brewing from Reardan took a Bronze for their American style dark lager Ben's Brown, Woodinville Washington's Redhook took a Bronze for their English-style Brown ale, Mudslinger Ale, Rock Bottom from Bellevue won a Silver for their American Style Strong Pale Ale, Hop Bomb IPA, . Snipes Mountain Brewing from Sunnyside took a Silver for their experimental style Harvest Ale, and Walking Man Brewing from Stevenson's Jaywalker Russian Imperial Stout won a Bronze.

There are a number of beers here that I've yet to try; clearly, more research is in order.