Piney River Brewing Company’s Float Trip beer claimed gold again at the U.S. Open Beer Championship 2025 competition, announced July 16 from the competition’s headquarters in Oxford, Ohio.
This is the second year in a row Float Trip has won gold.
The 2025 competition included over 8,000 beers in 170 different beer style categories. The contest is open to professional brewers and award-winning beers from home brewers across the United States. U.S. Open judges hail from England, Canada, and the U.S., and judging is completed annually in Oxford.
Float Trip Lager, a wheat-based blonde lager, won in the “American-style Wheat Beer” category, a second consecutive gold and the fifth medal overall for the beer at the U.S. Open Beer Championship.
Float Trip is produced year-round at Piney River Brewing and can be found at retail locations around Missouri and Arkansas where the brewery has distribution partners. In 2024, Float Trip transitioned from an ale to a lager, representing a change to the way the beer ferments using a lager yeast instead of an ale yeast. Brian Durham, co-owner and cofounder of Piney River Brewing Company said the change has “smoothed out the finish” of the beer.
“Our brewing team has learned to brew lagers over the past few years, and last year we began trying small batches of some year-round beers using lager yeast instead of ale yeast,” Durham said. “We felt like in Float Trip the lager yeast made an already easy to drink beer even easier to drink.”
Lager yeast ferments at colder temperatures in the bottom of the fermentation vessel. Lagers take longer to ferment due to the fermentation temperature. Lagers will spend a month or more fermenting and lagering in the fermentation vessel before they can be packaged. Ale yeast works in the top of the fermentation vessel creating beer that is ready to package in 10 to 14 days.
“Lagers are not brewed as frequently by smaller breweries because they tie up a lot of tank space,” Durham said. “We have to plan our brewing schedules carefully to make sure we have space for Float Trip and the other lagers we produce.”
Brandon Lee and Bryan Spence work with Durham to execute the beer recipes and packaging operations at the brewery. Durham noted that the daily work by Lee and Spence is crucial to making beers that bring honors in competition.
“Piney River would not be recognized at this level if our brewers were not doing the right things every day to brew and package great beers,” Durham said.
Joleen Durham, cofounder and co-owner, has planned a “We Win, You Win” event for this weekend celebrating the Float Trip win at the BARn – the brewery’s taproom in Bucyrus.
“We will offer a discount on draft pours of Float Trip and six-packs to go all weekend long,” Durham said. The old timey-string band, One More Dollar, will perform live at the BARn on Saturday at 5 p.m., too. There is no charge to enjoy the music, and the BARn is family and pet friendly.
Piney River began entering the U.S. Open Beer Championship in 2015, and with the 2025 win, Piney River has garnered 25 medals from the competition in 10 years.
“I can’t say enough how Joleen and I are very pleased to bring recognition to our farm brewery and to Texas county and our community,” Durham said. “Piney River is not a well-known brewery, but we are making world class beers on our farm in rural America. It’s something that we’re proud to do.”
Piney River Brewing is located on the Durhams’ 160-acre farm in South Central Missouri, operating out of a restored barn built in the 1940s and a larger production “barn.” The Durhams founded the brewery in 2010 with a 10-gallon brewing system. In 2024, Piney River Brewing produced 1,800 barrels of beer. The brewery has distribution in Missouri and Arkansas.
A complete list of U.S. Open Beer Championship winners can be found at www.usopenbeer.com. Additional information about Piney River Brewing can be found at www.pineyriverbrewing.com.