The results of the 2020 Canadian Brewing Awards came out this past weekend, and the big surprise of the night was the number of medals scooped up by Alberta breweries. Alberta-based breweries won 38 medals, including 17 golds, and Calgary’s Common Crown Brewing won Brewery of the Year. Alberta’s medal haul was 23% of medals available (165).

The 2020 results are a marked change from previous years, where Alberta breweries were, in general, under-represented on the medal podium. Over the last three years, Alberta breweries won 9, 8 and 17 medals, respectively. Even more interesting is that this year’s medals were spread among 19 different breweries (10 of whom won multiple medals). You can find the full results here.

I think this is a significant result. It is a clear statement that Alberta has joined Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia as one of the senior beer jurisdictions in the country. Alberta breweries won the second most number of medals both in raw numbers and per capita (see table below). (In the interests of speed I just went with population rather than number of breweries.)

Of course the big story from the table is the insane win rate for PEI breweries. Five medals for a province with nine breweries is quite remarkable (the fact the island province has nine breweries is also a story in and of itself). But the point I want to make is that there are clearly four provinces that win most of the medals at the awards.

Of course, this makes perfect sense as they are the four largest provinces, but up until this year, the CBAs had a big three. This is the first time Alberta elbows its way into that first tier. It is, of course, only one year and a single incident is not a pattern. I will go out on a limb and suggest that we will see this replicated, to a greater or lesser extent, going forward.

Why? Because the Alberta craft beer industry has matured quickly. The massive growth of new breweries over the past five years (from less than two dozen to over 150 in that time span) has been unparalleled in the country. That rapid growth has also shortened the maturation phase. There is naturally a phase in craft beer where just being is a success. Customers are grateful for local options and their palates are not yet well developed (at times). Over time, increased competition, evolving customer tastes and more experienced brewers leads to an improvement in quality. Being local stops being enough. The beer has to also be good.

I think the Alberta scene has been something of a petri dish over the past few years. The rapid influx of new players, many arriving with well-developed brewing chops, has fueled innovation . Every brewery needs to up its game. The end result has been a fast tracking of the quality evolution. And this year’s CBAs are the first real signal of that.

Well, not really. Organizing the Alberta Beer Awards the past three years, I have seen first hand just how quickly the quality of entries improved from the first year to this year. There IS something happening in Alberta beer.

Further evidence of my argument is the swath of breweries who won medals (see list at the end of the post). The list includes some of the names Alberta beer fans would expect to see – those who have already built up solid reputations for great beer – but I think the list has a number of surprises. There are breweries there that one might not expect to see on a medal podium, either because their focus has been serving their local community or because, for whatever reason, their brand hasn’t lent itself to big reputations.

A perfect example is the 2020 Brewery of the Year, Common Crown. Many (including the owners themselves) were deeply surprised at their win. In the aftermath of the announcement I saw many comments along the lines of “I have always had good beer from them, but didn’t see this coming”. In a way this shouldn’t be a surprise at all. Common Crown has won medals (for the very beer they won with this year) at previous CBAs. They haven’t fared as well in the Alberta Beer Awards, but those things can happen.

My point is that their space in the craft beer scene was a solid local player but not widely considered one of the “stars”. It is a good lesson for all of us that solid breweries can win medals. Regardless of whether we, as consumers, expect it or not.

Finally I can’t close off without quickly mentioning my neighbours to the east. While Saskatchewan and Manitoba didn’t make the headlines this year, they continue to show a consistent achievement, with an interesting mixture of newcomers and reliable veterans. Warehouse Brewing, 9 Mile Legacy, District Brewing, Nokomis Craft Ales and Pile O’ Bones in Saskatchewan and Low Life Barrelhouse in Manitoba all scooped up medals this weekend.

List of Alberta CBA Winners

• Analog Brewing, Edmonton (Silver)
• Bent Stick Brewing, Edmonton (Silver, Bronze)
• Big Rock Brewing, Calgary (Gold, 2 Silvers Bronze)
• Blindman Brewing, Lacombe (2 Silvers, Bronze)
• Brauerei Fahr, Turner Valley (Gold, Silver, Bronze)
• Brewster’s Brewing, Calgary (Silver)
• Cabin Brewing, Calgary (Gold)
• Common Crown Brewing, Calgary (3 Golds)
• Eighty Eight Brewing, Calgary (Bronze)
• Hawk Tail Brewing, Rimbey (Bronze)
• Hell’s Basement Brewing, Medicine Hat (Gold)
• Inner City Brewing, Calgary (2 Silvers, Bronze)
• Medicine Hat Brewing, Medicine Hat (2 Golds, 2 Silvers)
• O.T. Brewing, Calgary (Gold)
• Ribstone Creek Brewing, Edgerton (Gold, Silver)
• Sea Change Brewing, Edmonton (Gold)
• Snake Lake Brewing, Sylvan Lake (2 Golds)
• The Establishment Brewing Company, Calgary (Gold)
• Town Square Brewing, Edmonton (2 Golds, Bronze)