This past weekend was an important one for the Canadian craft beer industry. From May 24-26 Halifax, Nova Scotia hosted the 16th annual Canadian Brewing Awards and Conference. The event was a chance for breweries from across the country to submit their beers in 55 different categories. The showcase is a Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) sanctioned competition. It is Canada’s national competition for manufactured beer and medals are recognized as a symbol of brewing excellence.

With 164 medals up for grabs, Ontario breweries did their province proud. Ontario won the most overall (53) and the most gold medals (20). British Columbia was not far behind winning 51 total medals, including 19 gold. Quebec placed third in both the overall medal count with 20 and gold medals with nine.

Medal Chart

Big Awards

Brewery of the Year went to British Columbia’s Dageraad Brewing who won gold medals in Belgian-Style Tripel, Belgian Style Abbey Ale/Pale Ale and Belgian-Style Brett Beer. The award for Best of Show went to Quebec’s Brasserie Mille-Îles for their Brown Ale.

Where to go for certain styles

What may have been most interesting for Ontario is that they won all of their medals in just 36 categories, meaning they did not earn a top three in 19. Some trends definitely jumped out from the winners. While Ontario did not place in those 19 categories, they did sweep the Sweet Stout/Cream Stout category with Whitby’s Brock Street Brewing taking the gold for their Chocolate Milk Stout.

Two other provinces managed to sweep categories. If you want the best Baltic Porter in Canada, you’ll want to visit British Columbia who swept that category. Meanwhile, if you are looking for the best gluten-free beers, Quebec’s performance would suggest they have that market cornered.

Markham’s Rouge River Brewing Company and Niagara-on-the-Lake’s The Exchange Brewery were the only double gold winners from Ontario. Rouge River took top spot in American-style Black Ale and American-style Sour Ale. The Exchange was tops in Belgian-Style Sour Ale – Lambic / Gueuze and Flavoured Stout/Porter.

In addition to the awards, the conference brought experts from different corners of the industry to talk about some of the issues facing brewers and breweries. One of the notable topics was cannabis and craft beer, as the industry prepare to deal with the introduction of infused beverages in 2019.

With all of the great showings from across the country, there is little doubt that the Canadian craft beer scene is in great shape heading forward. And in the end, that is great news for all us beer drinkers. For a complete list of winners see the Canadian Brewing Awards website at: https://www.canadianbrewingawards.com/2018-winners/

Cheers!

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