BC Beer Award Analysis

cturton

The BC beer awards happened last night. This is BJCP event meaning Beers are judged on, among other things, their ability to remain close to BJCP style guides. This means that if a Brewery brews a beer that is insanely good but doesn’t fit well into any style guide well it could easily go home with nothing. That aside lets get going!

Richards Buell Sutton Rookie of the Year Award:

I’ve only visited Doan’s once before the more venerated beers like the Rye Stout appeared, they were all delicious and I’m happy to see them take this!

Best of Show:  for One Trick Pony.

Brassneck doesn’t often make bad beer, nor do they ever have few beers. I’ve had a lot of their beers, so many I can’t remember if I’ve had this one, but also enough to be confident that they are deserving of winning.

Sours/Wild Ale:

3. Dageraad De Witte

2. Strange Fellows Roxanne

  1. Four Winds Juxtapose IPA

Hard to argue here, I’m sure someone could point out some really awesome sours not on this list but we could do that with most categories.

Imperial IPA

3. Parallel 49 Hopnotist

2. Parallel 49 187 on a undercover Hop

1.Brassneck One Trick Pony

Although i’m happy Brassneck won I’m really not impressed with the other beers in this category, on the whole i think its reflective of the stagnating state of IPA in BC.

Belgian Abbey Ale

3. Belgian Quad

2.T Trappist Artist Belgian Dubbel

  1. Dageraade Blonde

Dageraad is a deserving winner.

Strong Ale

3. Swans Scotch Ale

2. Auld Nick Winter Ale

  1. Legacy Ale

Not a style I follow but nice to see R & B on the upswing.

Belgian/French Farmhouse:

3.  Farmers Ale

2. Randonneur Saison

1. Multigrain Saison

Again not a style I follow terribly hard, but again happy to see Dageraad with more awards for their effort. I also tried Raven’s Farmers Ale following their win and really enjoyed it.

Speciality IPA

3.  Blood From A Stone Red Rye IPA

2.  Hip As Funk IPA

  1. Black Rye IPA

Upset not to see Yellow Dogs ISBA in that mix but once again we could play that game all day!

North American IPA

  1. Red Racer IPA

2.  Red Truck IPA

3.  Hearthstone IPA

Really surprised by this category. I think it goes to show that our IPA production is in dire straights. Sure Red Racer is a fine IPA but has no one produced an IPA better than it this past year? that leads me to believe quality is in fact getting worse! As for the Red Truck, i’ve found it to be a quite dumbed down IPA… but who knows at this point.

Wood/Barrel Aged:

3.  Barrel Aged Vow of Silence

2.  Pequeno Cabo Tequilla Barrel Aged Berliner Weisse

  1. Imperial White IPA

Sad to see no stouts on the list but can’t really complain about the beers on this list can you?

Stout/Porter:

3.  Fat Guy Oatmeal Stout

2. 52 Foot Stout

1. American Rye Stout

I guess i’m visiting Doan’s again soon!

Specialty:

3.  Steamworks Gose

2.  Wee Tipsy Peated Scotch Ale

  1. No Brainer Pre Prohibition Lager

A corn lager for the win? Amazing and definitely worth drinking!

Spice/Herb/Veg:

3. Kelp Stout

2.  Icebreaker

1. Spruce Tree Ale

Wow, no pumpkin. Tofino is a deserving winner in my mind here but I’m really surprised to see Turning Point here, i thought icebreaker was a mess.

Fruit:

3.  Framboise Noir

2.  Mellow Moon Pineapple Hefeweizen

  1. SunSetter

I’m going to be clear here Mellowmoon is bad, and SunSetter is bad.

German/Belgian Wheat:

3.  Hey Day Hefeweizen

2.  Dunkelwiezen

  1. White Gold

This has got to be the weakest category.

North American Amber/Brown Ale:

3. Brassneck Ale

2.  Cream Ale

  1. Hollow Tree

Another weak category in my opinion.

North American Pale Ale:

3.  Hop Therapy ISA

2.  Pale Ale

  1. Sky Pilot Northwest Pale Ale

Sky pilot has to be one of the most underated beers in BC right now, grab some.

UK Red/Brown Ale:

3.  Old Boy

2.  Race Rocks

  1. Whistler Black Tusk

Please breweries start making better UK beers, please! In fact try Ridge Brewing’s Brown.

Amber/Dark Lagers:

3.  Captivator Doppelbock

2. Oktoberfest

1. Dark Lager

Steel and Oak is deserving.

UK Pale Ale:

3.  Bomber ESB

2.  Forbidden Pale Ale

1. Big Ridge Clover Ale

Love Bomber ESB, would have expected to have seen something from Off The Rail here too but…

Light European Bier:

3.  Eastern Promises

2.  Mayor Kolsch

1. Craft Lager

I suppose you have to have this category but honestly who cares?

North American Light Beer:

3. Island Lager

2.  Lifty Lager

  1. Tofino Blonde Ale

Molson produced GIB won, thats a good discussion!

Dan Small HomeBrew Award: Sho Ogawa and Shin Shan Chan for their Kettle Sour Prune Plum Old Bruin.

Well done Sho, a BREWardInlet and Tri-City Brew Club-er!

11 thoughts on “BC Beer Award Analysis”

  1. mikescraftbeer October 27, 2015 / 8:25 pm

    Part of the issue with all of these awards is the BJCP. Some of the best beers we have don’t fit into an exact style and can not win. I also hate seeing generic styles with things like brett beers or barleywines thrown in. It should be best beer not best to style.

    Where were the Barleywines this year? What about Imperial Stouts? Basically half of the beer I actually get excited about don’t Even have categories. Double IPA is a category in BC that has always been on and off again. Noone makes a standard year round option other than Central City and Longwood do they? Probably wrong there but we don’t the the amazing abundance like down south.

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    • cturton October 27, 2015 / 9:24 pm

      Exactly BJCP is a big issue here which i tried to note but simply did not have the energy to delve into here. In reality the real awards to get excited about are the CAMRA awards… But i think you know that as a winner.

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      • mikescraftbeer October 27, 2015 / 9:27 pm

        I was blown away by that award. There are some great beer writers out there in BC.

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  2. mikescraftbeer October 27, 2015 / 8:27 pm

    I have enjoyed attending these events for years but put very little into the actual winners. Kinda like the Oscars. The party looks great but I usually didn’t enjoy the winning films as much as the ones that didn’t even get nominated.

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    • cturton October 27, 2015 / 9:23 pm

      I think we can gain some nuggets from analyzing winners though, not much but sometimes. The IPA category is huge for me. I think it clearly reflects stagnation, whereas as other categories simply show weakness. Others show vibrancy, i could be way off but i think there is an element of correlation… not causation.

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      • mikescraftbeer October 27, 2015 / 9:25 pm

        Don’t forget blind tasting can be weird. Sometimes the most unexpected beers win. Also depending when a style is tried ie beginning of judging vs end the palate can be far to stressed to get the full effect of the beer. Also Red Racer IPA might just be best to style which can be wildly different than best beer.

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      • cturton October 27, 2015 / 9:33 pm

        Batches change to and fro too. I think red racer is a great IPA I’m more surprised that no one has improved on it in the last 6-7 years? I know other IPAs have in past, but i would expect red racer to be more consistent which makes me think while RED racer has gotten marginally better, other IPA’s have fallen off.

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      • mikescraftbeer October 27, 2015 / 9:36 pm

        Or have brewers swayed away from BJCP style guidelines to be more interesting and experimental?

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      • cturton October 27, 2015 / 9:39 pm

        A good point.

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  3. cturton October 28, 2015 / 4:39 am

    Hey mike, that would be a great chat on Pacific Beer Chat!

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