MONTREAL, QC – In addition to the 2012 edition of the Canadian Brewing Awards, Montreal also played host last week to the MBiere Greg Noonan Awards, an annual beer award ceremony held during the MBiere Conference that takes place in conjunction with the Mondial de la Bière festival.
Named in honour of Greg Noonan, the pioneering Vermont-based craft brewer who passed away in 2009, these awards are unique due to the lack of beer style categories. The beers are presented to the judging panel completely blind, with not even the style being identified, and the judges are left to decide on the style themselves, and then score it based on their own opinion of what the beer should be. According to organizers, this approach means that “each beer will be judged according to its most charming and seductive characteristics.”
Once all beers are judged, a single Platinum award is given to the beer with the highest score, and Gold is given to the next ten beers on the scoring list.
The winners of the 2012 edition of the MBiere Greg Noonan Awards, as posted last week on the Bières et Plaisirs website, are as follows:
Platinum (tie):
Schneider Weisse – Mein Eisbock Barrique (Germany)
Brasserie Dieu du Ciel! – Équinoxe du Printemps (Québec)
Gold:
Schneider Weisse – Aventinus (Germany)
Brasserie McAuslan – St-Ambroise Millésimée (Québec)
Brasserie McAuslan – St-Ambroise Stout Impériale Russe (Québec)
Hopfenstark – Greg (Québec)
New Holland Brewing – Beerhive (USA)
Boquébiere – Hildegard Rouge des Cantons (Québec)
Rogue Ales – Hazelnut Brown Nectar (USA)
Muskoka Brewery – Muskoka Mad Tom IPA (Ontario)
Brasseurs du Monde – Saison Tradition (Québec)
Cervejaria Bodebrown – Impérial Stout (Brazil)