In September 2021, the Canadian Brewing Conference and blind tasting competition (sanctioned by the Beer Judge Certification Program) took place in Quebec City, drawing the interest of breweries from across the country. And, our province made us proud.
B.C. breweries took home a total of 40 Canadian Brewing Award medals. You can check out all award recipients at CanadianBrewingAwards.com, but we wanted to shout out the 10 gold medal winners—and encourage beer lovers to look for these when they’re on their next beerventure!
B.C. breweries performed well in the North American style categories, placing first in four of them. Permanent Resident IPA by Langley’s Five Roads Brewing won gold in the competitive category of North American IPA, with two other B.C. breweries, Powell and Ace, placing third and second, respectively. A classic west coast IPA with citrus and pine notes, Permanent Resident is bitter enough for hops fans, but still approachable. Five Roads was enthusiastic about the award, but not surprised—this is one of their four original beers and they were confident it would be the one to beat in competition.
Deep Cove Lager, a crisp, slightly citrusy beer by Deep Cove Brewing, received gold in the North American Style Premium Lager category, while the gold for North American Style Amber/Red Ale went to Slackwater Brewing’s Idleback Amber, a favourite in the brewery’s home city of Penticton. Moving into darker beer, East Vancouver Brewing won gold in the Oatmeal Stout category for their Unholy One Nitro Stout —a creamy, sinfully delicious tipple.
B.C. showed up for the international categories as well. All three medals for Belgian Style Abbey Ale/Pale Ale went to B.C. breweries—Howe Sound, Dageraad, and Dog Mountain, with the latter taking home the gold for their BEES! Belgian Blonde Ale with Honey.
East Van’s Strange Fellows Brewing received gold in the Belgian Style Wheat Beer category for their ever-popular Jongleur, and Potts Pilsner by Moon Under Water in Victoria was the winner for Kellerbier/Zwickelbier. Finally, the Scotch Ale category was awarded to Brave Liver Scotch Ale from Mt. Begbie Brewing in Revelstoke—not a surprising win, considering Brave Liver has six other beer competition medals to its credit.
The final two golds were awarded for Gluten Free Beer (a newer category, but increasingly popular), won by Whistler Brewing’s Forager Pale Ale, and Session Ale, which was awarded to long time Victoria favourite Tiger Shark Pale Ale by Phillips Brewing.
