Last night was our Company Party and what a night it was! Every year IHB has an employee appreciation party where we draw winners for our annual Great American Beer Festival Trip. This year the event was a five course beer dinner hosted by our friend Garrett Oliver, brewmaster for Brookly Brewery and it was attended by over 350 Iron Hill employees.

Our group can get a bit rowdy, as you might imagine and there are usually tons of people having waaaaaay too much fun when we get together. Let’s just say that this party has a history of being an IHB career - ender.  

This year no one was fired!!! Yeah! The whole crew got dressed up and headed to the beautiful Drexelbrook Catering and Banquet Facility for annual awards, a great talk by Garrett and tons of food and beer.

Just a quick shout out to the Drexelbrook staff, that place was awesome! We are a very big group with lots of needs and they pulled off a 5 course beer dinner with no hitches. That is a feat for sure, let me tell you. 

Anyway, here at the Hill we love food and beer pairings for lots of reasons, not the least of which is that we love food and beer! Garrett reminded us why and reminded our whole crew to respect our customers and give them the best, most creative offerings we have available. Great words from a man who we enjoy spending time with, Garrett is THE ‘Food with Beer’ guy and it was a great honor to have him come down and celebrate with us.

As we were being fed, anniversary awards were made. Turns out that both Doug and I are ‘Over the Hill’ as we’ve been here for more than four years! Man, do I love this company. Anyway, we each get cool IHB Over the Hill shirts and I think I even get a deck chair with the logo this year. 10 years get a kegerator. I can’t wait for that ’cause mine’s getting a little old and ratty.

During dinner the GABF drawing took place. Every year we give an hourly employee from each location a free trip to Denver to attend Great American Beer Festival. We’ve won an award at the GABF every year for the last eleven straight and it’s always great to hear our crowd cheer when they call our name. Plus this is the biggest beer festival in the United States and it’s just plain fun. Winners are picked by lotto and the longer you work for IHB the more tickets you get. Congrats Steve, this should be big fun in the Mile High City!

When we finished screaming and yelling for Steve, the People’s Choice awards were announced. North Wales won all three categories in an unprecedented sweep: Brewery of the year, Kitchen of the year, and Service Staff of the year! I am stoked and very proud of the crew here. Keep up the good work gang!  GO NW!

In case you were interested we were chosen ‘Best Microbrewery in Montgomery County’ and ‘Best Club in North Wales’, although I’m not sure there are ANY clubs in North Wales?!?

Here are Doug and Garrett after the North Wales crew swept all three customer categories. Our guests elected NW Brewery of the year, Kitchen of the year, and service staff of the year. Winning all three categories has nevery happened before and we are very proud. Thanks gang. 

 Here are a few more pics of the event for your enjoyment! 

Jesse Gilbert of IHB West Chester got the money seat just to the left of Garrett. I think he enjoyed the evening…what do you think. Sharp dressers both.