ALBERTA BREWERIES RACK UP THE HARDWARE AT CALGARY BEERFEST

BY TYLER DIFLEY

Calgary International Beerfest—Western Canada’s largest beer festival—is a great opportunity for both new and established breweries, large and small, to showcase their inventive brews for thousands of appreciative beer lovers. At this year’s Beerfest, more than 100 breweries from around the world participated and more than 500 types of beer were available.

Each year, Calgary International Beerfest is also the site of some friendly competition between the participating breweries, as the Canadian International Beer Awards are held during the two-day festival. Judging was conducted following Beer Judging Certification Program guidelines and winners were crowned in 30 categories.

A number of the winners were breweries from right here in Alberta:

• Blindman Brewing won gold in the Best Friday Cask category, silver in the American Ales category and bronze in the Belgian/French Ale, Specialty Beers, Rookie of the Year and Best Saturday Cask categories.
• Brewsters Brewing Company won silver in the Best Saturday Cask category and bronze in the Light Lager, Stouts and Wheat/Wit/Rye categories.
• Troubled Monk Brewery won gold and bronze in the American Ales category, as well as silver in the Best of Alberta category.
• The Dandy Brewing Company won gold in the Best Saturday Cask category and silver in the Stouts category.
• Bench Creek Brewing won gold in the IPAs category and bronze in the Porters and Best of Alberta categories.
• Big Rock Brewery won gold in the Specialty Beers and Best of Alberta categories.
• Something Brewing—the craft beer arm of Red Deer’s Drummond Brewing Company—won silver in the Best Friday Cask category and bronze in the Amber/Dark Lager/Bock category.
• Village Brewery won bronze in the Best Friday Cask category.
• Brauerei Fahr won silver in the Wheat/Wit/Rye category.
• Fallentimber Meadery won gold in the Gluten Free category.

In addition to the Canadian International Beer Awards, the Metro People’s Choice Awards were also awarded to festival participants. Beerfest attendees determine the winners for these awards, which are handed out at the Calgary International Beerfest, the Edmonton Craft Beer Festival, Calgary Oktoberfest, Edmonton Oktoberfest and the Banff Craft Beer Festival each year. This year, Village Brewery won gold, The Dandy Brewing Company won silver and Fat Unicorn Brewery won bronze.

Congratulations to all of the winners! For a full list of award winners, click here.

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