Beer flowed, music blared, and friends mingled. All seemed right with the world. After a couple of years of not-so-ordinary iterations, last Saturday’s Lageraplooza made lager fans forget the recent past.

The two-pronged event — a homebrew competition and lager-centric craft beer festival — provides lager lovers an opportunity to enjoy some of the area’s finest.

Bohemian Brewery played host to the May 7 event. To learn more about what you may have missed (or experienced, if you were there), I invite you to read an article I wrote about Lagerpalooza 2022 and listen to a podcast episode with the primary players.

Paul Konopelksi, with co-brewer Dave Elske, nabbed Best of Show honors with a Czech Amber Lager called Simply Elegant. In total, 88 entries were judged.

Winning Ways

Each beer that wins Gold in a sub-category is eligible to vie for Best of Show honors.

Zachary Belles, a member of the Lauter Day Brewers homebrew club, picked up four medals on the day, a gold, a silver, and two bronze. Scott and Dave Anderson won two golds and a bronze.

Attendees at the Lagerpalooza festival sampled the previous year’s Best in Show winner. In this case, we were treated to Chaz Smith’s Nala’s Nectar, a beer that took top honors in 2020.

Smith also won a quartet of medals in 2022. He grabbed gold in the Strong Lagers and India Pale Lagers categories, as well as silver in Dark Lagers and bronze in Standard Amber Lagers.

 Lagerpalooza Best of Show

 Winning Entries

Table 1: Lawnmower Beers (10 entries)

Table 2: Standard Amber Lagers (9 entries)

Table 3: Czech Pale Lagers (7 entries)

Table 4: Dark Lagers (11 entries)

Table 5: Strong Lagers (8 entries)

Table 6: Pale German Bier (7 entries)

Table 7: Pilsner (10 entries)

Table 8: Strong(er) Amber Lagers (11 entries)

Table 9: IPL (6 entries)

Table 10: The Rest (Table of Randos) (9 entries)

Results tables from the 7th Annual Lagerpalooza courtesy of Lagerpalooza organizers.