Every year the BC Beer Awards bring together the best craft breweries in BC for one exciting night. This year it was all about the sours…and some award too.
The awards, held at the Croatian Cultural Centre, were once again a packed house. It’s easy to forget how much the craft beer industry grows year after year until you see all the brewers together in one room. This year, the focus was on who could make the best sour, with many breweries offering up special one-off cask sours for those in attendance.
Nice to see my personal favourite, Dageraad, walk away with three awards, including 1st place for their excellent Dageraad Blonde. But the really interesting thing here is how evenly spread out the awards are. No one brewery dominated this year’s event; Parallel 49 walked away with the most (five awards), but with many breweries earning three or four awards each, that really isn’t much of a defining gap.
I think the spread of awards among all the breweries shows the caliber of beer being produced in BC right now. Pretty much anywhere you go, you’re going to find an award winning beer or two, and that’s exciting news for the industry.
But, you’re really here to find out who the best of the best was, so without further ado, the complete list of winners. Strap in, this is a long list!
North American Light Beer
1st: Tofino Brewing Company- Tofino Blonde Ale
2nd: High Mountain Brewing- Lifty Lager
3rd: Granville Island Brewing- Island Lager
Light European Bier
1st: Parallel 49 Brewing- Craft Lager
2nd: Central City Brewing- Mayor Kolsch
3rd: Russell Brewing- Eastern Promises
UK Pale Ale
1st: Big Ridge Brewing- Big Ridge Clover Ale
2nd: Forbidden Brewing Co.- Forbidden Pale Ale
3rd: Bomber Brewing- Bomber ESB
Amber/Dark Lagers
1st: Steel & Oak- Dark Lager
2nd: Persephone Brewing- Oktoberfest
3rd: Tree Brewing- Captivator Dopplebock
UK Red/Brown Ale
1st: Whistler Brewing Co.- Whistler Brewing Black Tusk
2nd: Lighthouse Brewing- Race Rocks
3rd: Parallel 49 Brewing- Old Boy
North American Pale Ale
1st: Howe Sound Brewing- Sky Pilot Northwest Pale
2nd: Persephone Brewing- Pale Ale
3rd: Russell Brewing- Hop Therapy ISA
North American Amber/Brown Ale
1st: Big Rock Urban Brewery- Hollow Tree
2nd: Russell Brewing- Cream Ale
3rd: Brassneck Brewery- Brassneck Ale
German/Belgian Wheat
1st: Barkerville Brewing- White Gold
2nd: Big Rock Urban Brewery- Dunkelweizen
3rd: Granville Island Brewing- Hey day Hefeweizen
Fruit Beer
1st: Stanley Park Brewing- SunSetter
2nd: Tree Brewing- Mellow Moon Pineapple Hefeweizen
3rd: Strange Fellows- Framboise Noir
Spice/Herb/Veg Beer
1st: Tofino Brewing- Spruce tree Ale
2nd: Stanley Park Brewing- Icebreaker
3rd: Tofino Brewing- Kelp Stout
Specialty
1st: Brassneck Brewery- No Brainer Pre Prohibition Lager
2nd: Bridge Brewing- Wee Tipsy Peated Scotch Ale
3rd: Steamworks Brewing- Steamworks Gose
Stout/Porter
1st: Doan’s Craft Brewing- American Rye Stout
2nd: Barkerville Brewing- 52 Foot Stout
3rd: Mission Springs Brewing- Fat Guy Oatmeal Stout
Wood/Barrel Aged
1st: Bridge Brewing- Imperial White IPA
2nd: Four Winds Brewing- Pequeno Cabo Tequila Barrel Aged Berliner Weisse
3rd: Parallel 49- Barrel Aged Vow of Silence
North American IPA
1st: Central City- Red Racer IPA
2nd: Red Truck- Red Truck IPA
3rd: Hearthstone Brewing- Hearthstone IPA
Specialty IPA
1st: Bridge Brewing- Back Rye IPA
2nd: Moon Under Water- Hip As Funk
3rd: Bomber Brewing- Blood From A Stone Red Rye IPA
Belgian/French Farmhouse
1st: Persephone Brewing- Multigrain Saison
2nd: Dageraad Brewing- Randonneur Saison
3rd: Raven Brewing- Farmers Ale
Strong Ale
1st: Swans Brewpub- Legacy Ale
2nd: R&B Brewing- Auld Nick Winter Ale
3rd: Swans Brewpub- Swans Scotch Ale
Belgian Abbey Ale
1st: Dageraad Brewing- Dageraad Blonde
2nd: Tree Brewing- Trappist Artist Belgian
3rd: Old Abbey Ales- Belgian Quad
Imperial IPA
1st: Brassnecy Brewery- One Trick Pony
2nd: Parallel 49- 187 On An Undercover Hop
3rd: Parallel 49- Hopnitist
Sours/Wild Ale
1st: Four Winds Brewing- Juxtapose Wild IPA
2nd: Strange Fellows Brewing- Roxanne
3rd: Dageraad Brewing- De Witte
Best in Show
Brassneck Brewery- One Trick Pony
People’s Choice
Four Winds Brewing- Nectarous Bourbon Sour
Brewer’s Sour Challenge
Main Street Brewing- Cantus Fermus Sour