ORANGE PARK – Residents don’t have to travel far to taste a handcrafted beer.

Pinglehead Brewing Company on Blanding Boulevard is now home to one of the best beers in the state. The brewery’s Magnolia Springs German Pilsner placed second in the state March 5 in the Euro and International Beer category at The Best Florida Beer Professional Championship.

“Obviously, we’re really honored and I guess we’re kind of overwhelmed, we were surprised I’ll say that, especially for the style, it’s more common to win there’s more people entering IPAs and stouts into competitions,” said Steve Halford, brewmaster and operating partner for Pinglehead Brewing company and Brewer’s Pizza.

The beer is crisp with a dry to medium finish. Slightly grainy, with a clean taste. It notably features noble German hop bitterness.

The competition promotes Florida’s commercial breweries, their brewers and the craft beer they produce, while also providing advertising opportunities for the breweries, and, of course, an award to look forward to at the start of every year.

Best Florida Beer is a nonprofit organization that supports the development and promotion of both home and commercial Florida brewers, their craft beers and the community of brewing enthusiasts.

The award winners were announced at an awards ceremony during the Annual Brewer’s Ball held at Water Works Park in Tampa.

Those looking to try the beer right now, however, are out of luck. The beer is not currently on the regular tap scheduled at Brewer’s Pizza. A new batch is fermenting, Halford said, a process which takes about 40 days.