Driftwood Brewery’s Fat Tug IPA is B.C.’s best beer.
That’s not according to brewers, experts or cicerones, but thousands of Twitter users. CBC reporter and B.C.’s top bracket maker Justin McElroy just spent the last couple of weeks creating a tournament of brews with popular and respected beers from across the province facing off against each other until just one remained.
In the end it was Fat Tug that topped the polls, beating Four Winds’s Nectarous in a final that was fairly close, with over 4,400 votes for the two ales.
To long-time craft beer fans it probably comes as no surprise that an IPA took the top spot in B.C. (though the top beers represented a few different styles), or that Driftwood Brewery was in the final; the same goes for Delta’s Four Winds Brewing Company.
Both have won the Canadian Brewing Awards Beer of the Year award (Fat Tug in 2011, Nectarous in 2016). Both breweries have a bevy of other beverage awards as well. So yes, this was a heavyweight battle.
Fat Tug from Victoria’s Driftwood Brewing defeated Nectarous from Four Winds Brewing in the final, 54-46%.
Four Winds actually had two other beers finish in the top eight, with Juxtapose (sixth) and La Maison (eighth).
Beers from what’s become Victoria’s brewing district (around Rock Bay) did well. Dark Matter from Hoyne Brewing (which neighbours Driftwood) took third, while Blue Buck (a long-time favourite in pubs around Victoria), finished fourth—it’s brewed at Phillips just a short walk from the other two.
Dat Juice from Twin Sales in Port Moody and Dageraad Blonde from Burnaby rounded out the top eight, meaning no beers brewed in the City of Vancouver cracked the quarter-finals. Beers from outside the most populous regions of B.C. didn’t do so well, with only Tofino’s Kelp Stout making it to the round of 16.
This story was originally published by Vancouver Is Awesome.
