August 25th, 2010
PICTON, ON – The Collectors of Canadian Brewery Advertising (CCBA), Canada’s national organization for collectors of brewery memorabilia, have selected Barley Days May Bock as winner of their 2009 Label of the Year award.
The announcement was made earlier this month during the 31st annual CCBA convention in Kitchener, Ontario. The award has been presented annually since 1983, and recognizes achievement in beer label design.
May Bock was launched by Barley Days Brewery as a seasonal beer in the spring of 2009. The striking label incorporates the detail of an oil painting by renowned artist Manly MacDonald (1889-1971). MacDonald grew up on a farm east of Belleville, Ontario, and gained fame for his many paintings of Prince Edward County scenes.
Categories:Beer Awards· National
August 23rd, 2010
TORONTO, ON – This past Saturday evening at beerbistro in Toronto, the winners of the 2010 Golden Tap Awards were announced, representing the best in beer and brewing in Ontario. This annual awards event is overseen and organized by Cass Enright, founder of The Bar Towel, a website and forum dedicated to covering and promoting the Ontario craft brewing scene.
The winners, as selected by online voting by the general beer-drinking public, were as follows:
- Best Microbrewery in Ontario – Beau’s All-Natural Brewing Company, Vankleek Hill
- Best Brewery for Cask-Conditioned Ale in Ontario (presented in partnership with CASK!) – Granite Brewery, Toronto
- Best Bar for Draught Beer Selection in Ontario – C’est What, Toronto
- Best Bar for Bottled Beer Selection in Ontario – Bar Volo, Toronto
- Best Bar for Cask Ale in Ontario (presented in partnership with CASK!) – Bar Volo, Toronto
- Best Brewpub or Tied House in Ontario – Granite Brewery, Toronto
- Best Regularly-Produced Beer in Ontario – Beau’s Lug-Tread Lagered Ale, Vankleek Hill
- Best Seasonal or Specialty Beer in Ontario – Black Oak Ten Bitter Years, Toronto
- Best Cask Ale in Ontario (presented in partnership with CASK!) – Granite Hopping Mad, Toronto
- Best Beer of the Festival (based on votes at the event) – Church Key Black IPA, Campbellford
Four Editor’s Circle awards were also handed out, recognizing significant achievements in the Ontario beer industry. The Editor’s Circle awards were determined by Enright and a panel of Bar Towel members and associates. They went to:
Categories:Beer Awards· Ontario
August 17th, 2010
REGINA, SK – Each spring, the Ale and Lager Enthusiasts of Saskatchewan (ALES) homebrewers club presents the Canadian qualifier for the National Homebrewers Competition at the Bushwakker Brewpub in Regina.
One of the perks of taking the “Best of Show” award at the competition is the chance to have your beer brewed for commercial release at Bushwakker, and this past week, the 2010 winner was tapped for the first time.
The winning beer is a Vanilla Porter created by Josh Hudson, a member of ALES. It will remain on tap at Bushwakker while quantities last.
Categories:Beer Awards· Beer Releases· Brewpub News· Saskatchewan
July 28th, 2010
NORWICH, UK – The winners of the World Beer Awards 2010 as presented by tastingbeers.com have been announced, and several Quebec breweries are amongst the winners. The award winners were chosen from over 500 beers submitted from 27 countries, and selected by an esteemed panel of judges featuring beer journalists and experts from around the world.
Unibroue did especially well, taking several World’s Best and The America’s Best categories, and also placing their Unibroue 17 in the overall Top 5 for the competition. Other Quebec breweries netting awards were Les Trois Mousquetaires, Le Trou du Diable and La Voie Maltée.
Here’s a complete list of all of the award-winning Quebec beers:
World’s Best Dark Ale – Strong Dark: Unibroue 17
World’s Best Pale Ale – Blonde / Golden: Unibroue La Fin Du Monde
World’s Best Stout & Porter – Porter – Baltic: Les Trois Mousquetaires Porter Baltique
World’s Best Wheat Beer – Fruit: Unibroue Quelque Chose
The America’s Best Dark Ale – Strong Dark: Unibroue 17
The America’s Best Pale Ale – Altbier: Les Trois Mousquetaires Sticke Alt
The America’s Best Pale Ale – Blonde / Golden: Unibroue La Fin Du Monde
The America’s Best Pale Ale – Strong / Extra Special: Le Trou du Diable Buteuse Brassin Special
The America’s Best Stout & Porter – Porter – Baltic: Les Trois Mousquetaires Porter Baltique
The America’s Best Stout & Porter – Stout – Strong: La Voie Maltée Criminelle
The America’s Best Wheat Beer – Fruit: Unibroue Quelque Chose
The America’s Best Wheat Beer – Spiced: Unibroue Blanche De Chambly
The America’s Best Wheat Beer – Strong: Unibroue Don De Dieu
Categories:Beer Awards· Quebec
July 14th, 2010
ATLANTA, GA – The winners of the 2010 United States Open Beer Championship – the only brewery competition to include professional breweries and award-winning home brewers – were announced earlier this month, and despite the name of the competition, a number of Canadian breweries entered and won medals in several of the 50 style categories.
Categories with Canadian medal winners included the following:
Scottish Ale
GOLD – Old Chub – Oskar Blues Brewing
SILVER – Satan’s Pony – South Street Brewery
BRONZE – Neustadt Scottish Ale – Neustadt Brewing
Irish Red Ale
GOLD – Red Mountain Ale – Silverton Brewing
SILVER – Cameron’s Auburn Ale – Cameron’s Brewing
BRONZE – Samuel Adams Red Ale – Boston Beer Company
American Lager / Pilsener
GOLD – Cameron’s Lager – Cameron’s Brewing
SILVER – Grain Belt Premium – August Schell Brewing
BRONZE – Belikin – Belize Brewing
American Cream Ale
GOLD – Deer Brand – August Schell Brewing
SILVER – Cameron’s Cream Ale – Cameron’s Brewing
BRONZE – Summer Solstice Cerveza Crema – Anderson Valley Brewing Company
Fruit / Vegetable Beer
GOLD – Samuel Smith’s Organic Raspberry – Samuel Smith Brewing
SILVER – Sweetwater Blue – Sweetwater Brewing
BRONZE – St-Ambroise Apricot Wheat Ale - McAuslan Brewing
Specialty / Anything Goes
GOLD – Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous – Stone Brewing
SILVER – Aged Porter – Neustadt Brewing
BRONZE – Mbege Ale – Sprecher Brewing
Categories:Beer Awards· National
June 24th, 2010
TORONTO, ON – Voting has opened for the 2010 Golden Tap Awards, a publicly-voted awards event recognizing the best craft beer achievements in Ontario, with categories including:
- Favourite craft brewery and brewery for cask-conditioned ales in Ontario
- Favourite craft regularly-produced beer, cask-conditioned ale and seasonal or speciality beer in Ontario
- Favourite craft beer bar, both for draught, bottled and cask-conditioned ale selection in Ontario
- Favourite brewpub or tied house in Ontario
Voting will remain open until August 10th, and the winners will be announced at the Golden Tap Awards party on Saturday, August 21st at beerbistro in Toronto. The event will also feature an Ontario craft beer festival, and there will be a real-time Golden Tap Awards vote for the best beer available at the festival.
New this year will be a special Golden Tap Awards craft beer dinner on Friday, August 20th. This will be a seven-course dinner with exclusively Ontario craft brewers, including Beau’s, Black Oak, Denison’s, Grand River, Granite, Great Lakes and Mill Street. Each brewery will have one of their beers paired with a course created by Chef Brian Morin.
Votes can be placed now at www.goldentap.com, and more details about the dinner and awards festival will be announced there soon.
Categories:Beer Awards· Beer Events· Ontario
June 16th, 2010
EDMONTON, AB – The inaugural Canadian Brewer of the Year Award was recently awarded to Ray Duperron of Edmonton in recognition of his numerous medal wins at homebrewing competitions across the country in the past year.
The new award was created by the Edmonton Homebrewers Guild as a way to recognize Canadian homebrewers who create exceptional beer. Medal winners at registered homebrew competitions are given 3 points for each gold medal win, 2 points for each silver, and 1 point for each bronze, with the Top 50 point scorers listed on the Canadian Brewer of the Year website, and the highest scorer awarded the Alexandra Cup.
Duperron soundly defeated all competition, achieving 72 points in the past year, with Mark Whitehead of Lethbridge, AB coming in second with 48 points. And Duperron’s success also helped the Edmonton Homebrewers Guild attain the top spot in the homebrew club competition with a total of 188 points, beating second place finishers Ale and Lager Enthusiasts of Saskatchewan with 139 points.
Categories:Beer Awards· Homebrewing· National
June 10th, 2010
IDAHO FALLS, ID – The North American Brewing Association (NABA) handed out their annual awards at the 16th annual Mountain Brewers’ Beer Fest last Saturday, June 5th, and three Canadian breweries were in the medal standings.
The NABA Beer Awards are the second largest commercial beer awards in North America, and feature over 1000 beers from over 200 breweries judged in over 70 different style categories.
Here are the Canadian breweries and beers that won in this year’s competition:
Howe Sound Brewing Company (Squamish, BC)
Silver – Imperial Stout – Pothole Filler Imperial Stout
Bronze – Honey Beer – Garibaldi Honey Pale Ale
Gold – Bavarian Style Hefeweizen – King Heffy Hefeweizen
Gold – Weizen Beers – King Heffy Hefeweizen
Silver – (Extra Special) Strong Bitter ESB – Baldwin & Cooper Best Bitter
Silver – English-Style India Pale Ale – Devil’s Elbow IPA
R & B Brewing Company (Vancouver, BC)
Silver - American Wheat Beers – Sungod Wheat Ale
Tree Brewing Company (Kelowna, BC)
Silver – Doppel Bock – Captivator Doppelbock
Categories:Beer Awards
May 18th, 2010
VANCOUVER, BC – The first ever BC Beer Awards were handed out last Friday, May 14th during a tasting event at Vancouver’s Heritage Hall, held as part of Vancouver Craft Beer Week.
Judging for the awards, which were sponsored by Brewery Creek Liquor Store, took place back in March with an expert tasting panel including Don Tse (BJCP Certified beer judge & freelance beer writer), Abram Goldman-Armstrong (BJCP National Rank Judge & beer writer), Megan Flynn (publisher of Beer Northwest magazine) and James Nevison (drinks columnist for The Province newspaper).
The full list of winners appears behind the cut below…
[Read more →]
Categories:Beer Awards· British Columbia
May 10th, 2010
TORONTO, ON – Last week at Queen’s Park, The Honourable Steve Peters, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, led MPPs, Queen’s Park staff and selected guests in media in a third annual tasting of craft beers from across Ontario.
48 beers from 15 members of the Ontario Craft Brewers were available for sampling, and tasters cast ballots to choose their favourites in six categories, with a seventh category – the “Speaker’s Selection” – chosen by the Speaker himself. The winning beers will be available in the dining room and at catered events & receptions at Queen’s Park for the 2010-11 year.
The winners for this year were:
Golden Lagers & Pilsners – Beau’s Lug Tread Lagered Ale
Refreshing Ales – Cameron’s Cream Ale
Amber Lagers, Ales & Honey Beers - Flying Monkeys Hoptical Illusion Almost Pale Ale
Malty Dark Lager or Ale – Muskoka Dark Ale
Bold Flavoured Ale, Stout or Porter – Grand River Plowman’s Ale
Wheat Beer & Specialty – Mill Street Lemon Tea Beer
Speaker’s Selection - Railway City Dead Elephant Ale
Categories:Beer Awards· Ontario
