It's been a really big week for BC beer. All hail BC beer.
(1) VCBW’s main event drew in an estimated 8,500 people over two days, the vast majority of which appeared, at least superficially, not to be the stereotypical "craft beer drinker" – pot-bellied, balding, bearded, et al. – which we should all take as obvious proof that craft beer is indeed consuming the massesas the masses consume the beer.
The festival was such a rousing success that the abundantly sexy beer babes/studs this weekend couldn’t have given two hoots, or more likely had no bloody idea, about the news that (2) yes, the BC Liquor Distribution Branch has jacked up the prices of craft beerin government liquor stores. This is a bummer and not even remotely unexpected.
So what are we going to do about it? Drink more beer, of course, and if you’re going to drink, you better drink the best.
And the best is, of course, is Four Winds Brewing, who (3) slayed the Canadian Brewing Awards this past Saturday, winning Canada’s Brewery of the Year award. The Ladner microbrewery is only the second BC brewery to win this award since the competition began in 2009 (Central City Brewing + Distilling has won twice, in 2012 and 2010).
"We’re completely stunned and totally honoured to have won Brewery of the year,” Four Winds co-founder Adam Mills wrote in an email. “More than ever we feel inspired to create better beer."
Let’s hope they do that! For now, the beer’s pretty darn good, as made very clear by the five other awards they picked up on Saturday: Bronze for the IPA in the American Style India Pale Ale category; Silverfor their Juxtapose Brett IPA in the American Style Brett Beer category; Silver for their Nectarous Dry-Hopped Sour in the American Style Sour Ale category; Gold for their Sovereign Super Saison in the Belgian Style Strong Speciality Ale category; and another Gold for their Operis Brett Saison, in the French and Belgian Style Saison category.
As a whole, BC beer cleaned up at the awards, beating out Ontario and Quebec breweries more than any other year. This is due, in part, to the explosion of new breweries here, and thus more competitors from this side of the country, but the advancements in taste and quality of the beer produced here shouldn’t be ignored. BC beer = very good beer, sometimes.
Some of the rest of this very good beer is brewed in and around Vancouver, and won these awards:
American Style Pale Ale
Russell Brewing: Punch Bowl (Gold)
American Style Black Ale
Steamworks Brewery: Black IPA (Silver)
Barley Wine
Central City: Thor’s Hammer (Gold)
English Style Bitter
Russell Brewing: Blood Alley Bitter (Bronze)
English Style IPA
Howe Sound Brewing: Devil’s Elbow IPA (Silver)
Experimental Beer
Dead Frog Brewing: Nutty Uncle Peanut Butter Stout (Gold)
Howe Sound Brewing: Megadestroyer Imperial Licorice Stout (Bronze)
French and Belgian Style Saison
Dageraad: Randonneur Saison (Bronze)
Parallel 49 Brewing: Schwarzwald (Bronze)
Imperial IPA
Parallel 49 Brewing: Hopnotist (Silver)
Kolsch
Steamworks: Kolsch (Silver)
North American Style Amber/Red Ale
Steamworks Brewery: Heroica Red Ale (Gold)
Main Street Brewing: Redback Ale (Silver)
Stout
Old Yale Brewing: Sasquatch Stout (Silver)
Session Ale
Yellow Dog Brewing: Sit and Stay Belgian ISA (Silver)
Wheat Beer North American Style
R&B Brewing: Sun God
Wood and Barrel Aged Strong Beer
Parallel 49 Brewing: Russian Imperial Stout (Bronze)
Wheat Beer German Style
Strange Fellows Brewing: Strange Fellows Hefeweizen (Gold)
Vancouver Island Brewery: Beachcomber Summer Ale (Silver)
There are way, way more winners from around BC that space constraints and the sheer mindlessness of copying/pasting prevented me from including here. Check out the Canadian Brewing Awards for the full list of winners.
Oh, and Alley Kat Brewery in Edmonton won Beer of the Year with their Scona Gold Kolsch. I haven’t had it yet, but I’m going to do so…right…now.
