The results of the 2016 Canadian Brewing Awards were announced Saturday night in Vancouver (see the full results here). As usual, B.C. breweries won an disproportionate number of medals, with Ontario falling second. However, perusing the list I was pleasantly surprised at the prairie brewery results.

[Note: Post edited shortly after publishing to include Black Bridge and Brewsters, who were inadvertently left off the original list.]

The total number of medals was up slightly from last year (13), but I was pleased to see which breweries won medals. There was in increase in the number of breweries who won – up to ten – and I appreciated how it was a combination of established breweries and newcomers.

To prove my point, regular winner Great Western Brewing tied with newcomer Blindman Brewing for the best results in the competition. Both won two silvers. Two breweries, Half Pints and Grizzly Paw won a gold. So, not bad.

Here is the list of prairie winners (plus NWT, for the record):

• Blindman Brewing picked up silvers for both its flagship River Session Ale in session ales, and in American-style sours for Kettle Sour #1.

• Great Western also picked up two silvers, for Original 16 in cream ale, and Prairie Wheat in North American Wheat Ale.

• The other multiple award winner was Wildrose, with two bronze medals. Velvet Fog scored in North American wheat and Cowbell scooped up a medal in American-style sour.

• Gold went to Half Pints Brewing in kolsch for its St. Jame’s Pale Ale. Long their best-selling beer I have considered it an excellent kolsch since I first tasted it, despite its misnomer as a pale ale.

• The other gold went to Grizzly Paw in North American blonde/golden ale for their Powder Hound Blonde Ale. I am not sure if this was a one-off, or if they re-categorized their Powder Hound Pilsner for the competition.

• Ribstone Creek picked up a medal for the second year running for its Old Man Winter Porter, scooping up a silver in the porter category.

• Big Rock picked up a silver for its Hollow Tree Red Ale in the North American amber/red ale category. I never actually tried this beer. Now I am sad.

• Swift Current brewery Black Bridge picked up a second straight medal for their Milk Stout, this year a silver.

• Brewster’s won a bronze in wood and barrel-aged strong beer with their Blue Monk Bourbon Barley Wine.

• And, finally, rounding out the list is north of 60 upstart NWT Brewing gathering in a bronze for its Kick Sled Cream in the cream ale category. Not a bad start for the young Yellowknife brewery.

I haven’t done any math yet, but if I were to contemplate medals vs. total number of breweries, the prairies may have done not so badly. Of course we can never know who all entered and what beer they tossed in, so working out an exact proportion of entries to medals is impossible to calculate. That said, I am not surprised B.C. won the lion’s share – they both have a huge number of breweries and likely the most competitive craft beer market in the country. It also likely helped the competition was in Vancouver this year, allowing their beer to be a bit fresher.

I was pleased to note this year that a number of categories did not award three medals. They have a minimum score required for attaining a gold, silver or bronze. That they were prepared to enforce that rule helps strengthen the value of the actual medal winners. It means they all scored above the minimum (I don’t know what the minimum score was), meaning they are unquestioningly good examples of their style – at least according to this year’s batch of judges.

Over the years the CBA has done a good job of tweaking the competition format and improving on the judging quality. Personally I feel much better about the competition than I did a few years ago. As in any competition, there are always head scratchers – four medals for Molson, really? – and some complete surprises, but I have come to trust the results are valid, if always imperfect.

So, the eight prairie breweries who won, take a bow. For the rest of you, there is always next year.