One local brewery brought home some bling from the recent 2008 Brewers Association World Beer Cup.

Pennsylvania Brewing Co. (Penn Brewery) won a silver medal for its Weizen Bock, a slightly darker, 8-plus-percent-alcohol version of its acclaimed Weizen that it launched last year. This year, it's selling the wheat bock in 25.4-ounce bottles (and the Kaiser Pils, too).

Penn was in good company among the 19 entrants in the South German-Style Weizenbock category, as the gold went to Plank Heller from Brauerei Michael Plank in Laaber, Germany, and the bronze to Aventinus from Schneider Weisse in Kelheim, Germany.

The seventh bi-annual competition judged 2,864 beers -- entered in 91 beer style categories -- from 644 breweries in 58 countries and 45 U.S. states. Pennsylvania took three other medals:

Harrisburg's Troegs Brewing Co. took two bronzes -- in the German-Style Pilsener category (72 entries) forits Sunshine Pils and in the Traditional German-Style Bock category (21 entries) for its Troegenator. Allentown & Bethlehem Brew Works took the bronze for its Framboise in the Belgian-Style Sour Ale category (28 entries).

The medals were presented Saturday in San Diego at the close of the annual Craft Brewers Conference.

Penn Brewery manager Andy Rich got the news early Sunday morning and excitedly started sending text messages. "The fact that the gold and the bronze were German breweries -- that just makes it all the better."

For the complete results, visit www.beertown.org.