The 2022 Alberta Beer Awards were announced last night at a gala event in Red Deer. The 5th annual awards celebrate the best in Alberta craft beer, and as usual the results did not fail to surprise. While many familiar names still top the charts, as it were, I was left feeling there might be a subtle changing of the guards quietly happening in Alberta beer.

To the uninitiated, the Alberta Beer Awards were co-founded five years ago by myself and Edmonton-area judge Owen Kirkaldy. The two of us are among only a handful of Master-level BJCP judges in Canada, and both of us have judged and organized many beer competitions. The ABAs are a partnership with the Alberta Small Brewers Association. To that end, eligibility is limited to ASBA members only (a point the co-founders and ASBA have some points of disagreement about). The good news is about 80% of Alberta’s brewers belong to ASBA. This year there were 426 entries from 61 breweries.

I will offer some general observations about this year’s iteration of the awards, but first to the key results.

The big winner of the night was Lacombe powerhouse Blindman Brewing, who scooped up 2 golds, 3 silvers, Best of Show AND Brewery of the Year. That is an impressive haul. New Brewery of the Year went to Edmonton’s Irrational Brewing, who opened their doors in late 2021. They picked up a gold and two bronzes in their first foray into competition.

Best of Show this year went to Blindman’s 24-2 Brett Stock Ale. This beer has been something of a juggernaut in the ABA’s. Over the years different versions of it have won three golds and a silver in their category, plus a BOS silver (in 2020) and now gold . A toned down version of it also won silver this year in Brown Ale. Clearly they are on to something with this beer. I judged both the category and BOS and can attest at just how amazing this year’s version is. (Of course I didn’t know what beer it was at the time, as all judging is done blind – I am just not surprised having learned the results).

I also want to remark on the other BOS winners. Silver BOS went to Folding Mountain Lager, which presented as an amazing classic pilsner. Bronze went to Long Hop’s Hazy Pale Ale, which all the BOS judges acknowledged was an exceptional example of a style that is normally only adequately done.

Other multiple medal winners included Calgary’s ’88 Brewing who matched Blindman’s 5 medals and was only narrowly edged out for brewery of the year. Both Cabin Brewing (Calgary) and Sawback Brewing (Red Deer) scooped up four medals, while Born Brewing (Calgary – formerly Born Colorado), Siding 14 (Ponoka) and The Establishment (Calgary – last year’s Brewery of the Year) picked up three, alongside Irrational.

In total 38 breweries won medals this year, which continues to show the growing bench strength in Alberta’s craft beer scene. Of particular note for me is that four breweries won medals for the first time (Irrational, Screaming Toller, Wild Winds, Railyard) and a number of recent breweries have begun making their mark over a couple of years, including Sawback Brewing in Red Deer, and ’88 Brewing in Calgary.

You can find the full results table in the attached PDF file.

So, what is my take? While trying not to sound too braggy, I am certain I judged more entries this year than any of the 25 or so judges we had (a handful from out of province, including one of the world’s few Grand Master Level II judges). Not because I am amazing, but because during the judging weekend I am Owen’s workhorse. He is the head judge and I know I need to put my head down and work to help us get through all the entries. I say this to highlight that I have a very good sense of the quality of the entries this year.

I have two key observations. First, the number of infected or obviously flawed beer continues to drop. There were only a handful of beer I sampled that were sink pours. The QA in the industry continues to improve. I did find my share of oxidized beer, but that can be attributable to a number of factors, including entering beer a bit past their prime and packaging in growlers, crowlers and other containers with less oxygen control.

Second, while there were a handful of beer that knocked my socks off (the 24-2 being one), my continuing observation of Alberta beer is that most of it is decent without being amazing. Clean with interesting flavours but nothing really standing out. To be clear, I think this is more about the market, or at least what the brewers think the market is, rather than any statement on those brewers’ skills. In short it is an issue of stylistic choice and recipe design. The pale ales are timid. The saisons lack an assertive spiciness. The fruit beer are too afraid to put any real beer flavour under the fruit. My most common comment in the “overall impression” box was “well made beer that needs more X”.

Probably that is because I am a beer judge who was working in beer judge mode. I fully suspect many of the entries to which I gave middling scores are beer I would happily have a pint of in the tap room. That is thing about judging. It puts you in a different, more critical, head space. And that is how is should be.

In the end the 2022 ABAs tell me two things.

1. The cream rises to the top. There are a handful of breweries that consistently win multiple medals every year. They have exacting standards and don’t compromise. And it shows.
2. There is good beer in Alberta. It might take a bit of searching and working through a volume of decent, but unmemorable beer, but it is out there.

I appreciate the ABAs for a variety of reasons, not the least because I get to basically spend a weekend at Alberta Beer Camp, sampling dozens of beer and getting a really solid sense of where the industry is. Plus, as a beer judge, it is really fun to spend a weekend with people just as passionate about quality beer as I am.

Can’t wait for next year.