A couple of days ago the results of the first annual Canada Beer Cup were announced. And while it was a mixed night for prairie-based breweries the launching of this new beer competition is a welcome addition to the Canadian beer scene.

The Canada Beer Cup is a creature of the Canadian Craft Brewers Association, which launched a few years ago to represent the interests of Canada’s small-scale, independent breweries. It was supposed to take place early in 2022, but COVID found a way, yet again, to wreck another fun thing in our lives. They were finally able to complete judging in Toronto earlier this fall and announced the results this past weekend.

There can be no ignoring the fact The Canada Beer Cup (CBCs) appears to be set up as a direct competitor for the Canadian Brewing Awards (CBAs), the longstanding national competition run by a private, for-profit organization. I am going to stay a million miles away from that debate as there are many perspectives. I just mention it because I know you, dear reader, are already thinking about it.

The Beer Cup is open to any brewery in Canada with an excise and provincial production license, less than 400,000 HL of production and 75% Canadian owned. The slate of judges may truly be one of the most impressive line-ups we have seen in Canada, headed up by the unmatchable Stephen Beaumont and including international names such as England’s Pete Brown (who may be my favourite beer writer) and Kate Bernot and John Holl from the U.S. Why Don Tse got included in that list is beyond me, but otherwise it is a quality panel (just kidding, Don!!).

They did not release the competition statistics but organizers tell me there were more than 200 breweries that entered and more than 1300 entries in 65 categories. And what of the results? B.C.’s Callister Brewing took Best of Show with their Wee Laird Wee Heavy Scottish Ale. The full results can be found here.

Looking specifically at the prairies – which is my beat after all – it was something of a mixed result. I would argue that Alberta breweries under-performed, especially in comparison to their recent success at the CBAs. However, Saskatchewan breweries did quite well, given their number and size. Of the 175 medals awarded, Saskatchewan picked up 6 medals (1 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze). Given that they have about 2% of the breweries in Canada, scooping up 3.5% of the medals should be considered over-preforming. Four different breweries won medals: Nokomis (Gold, Silver), Rebellion (Silver, Bronze), Paddock Wood (Silver), Pile ‘O Bones (Bronze).

Manitoba picked up three medals, all from Nonsuch Brewing, the Belgian inspired Winnipeg brewery which scooped up two golds and a bronze. Pretty impressive.

As for Alberta, nine breweries picked up 12 medals, including 4 gold, 5 silver and 3 bronze. Blindman Brewing won two golds and a bronze, while Cabin Brewing was the only other multiple medal winner with two silvers.

Personally I consider this to be a less-than-expected result, all other things being equal (we don’t know how many or which breweries entered). Twelve medals is 7% of the total, while Alberta currently has just over 10% of the breweries. I know competitions are not about proportionality (they are kind of like elections in Canada that way – who cares about proportionality?), but it is a rough measure of how well a province is doing. The big winners of the night, provincially, were the big three – Ontario with 54 medals (22 gold), B.C. with 46 (11 gold) and Quebec with 40 (10 gold). This doesn’t surprise, but in recent years it has seemed like Alberta was catching up with the big provinces. The CBCs seem to be a slight setback.

You can read my piece on the 2021 CBAs. In drafting up this post I realize I didn’t comment on the 2022 awards on the website, although I did do a CBC RadioActive column on it back in June.

When I scan the list of prairie winners, there are no surprises. It is a mixture of breweries who consistently win (e.g., Blindman, Cabin, Rebellion), breweries that haven’t yet made their mark nationally but were bound to do it soon (e.g., Trial & Ale, Nonsuch, Nokomis) and specific beer that make complete sense (e.g., Paddock Wood Red Hammer, Hell’s Basement All Hops for a Basement). Many of the medal winners won medals recently at the CBAs, the Prairie Brewing Awards and the Alberta Beer Awards.

I do note that prairie medals seem to cluster around two (or three) broad types of beer. One is the more accessible styles like Kolsch, Ambers, Reds and Pale Lagers. The other is the sour/wild/mixed ferment with a bit of Belgian ales thrown in. Not sure if this means anything (one competition is not a trend), but it is interesting to note. Likely I should do another regional analysis of style-strength sometime soon.

I fully understand a competition is only one snapshot. But my job is to crunch numbers and discern trends. I think every legitimate and serious competition has something to tell us, as long as we don’t take it too seriously. There are hundreds of amazing breweries in Canada, which means any national competition is going to be tough. I often tell breweries who fail to medal at the Alberta Beer Awards that just because they didn’t win, it doesn’t mean their beer isn’t good. There are lots of things that have to come together to allow a brewery to win a medal.

So take it both for what it is – a snapshot – and what it is – a measure from experienced beer judges of which beer rise above the din. There is enough to take out of the inaugural CBCs for prairie breweries to be encouraged.

Here is the complete list of prairie winners:

Alberta

  • Gold: Hub Town Fort Knox (Belgian Style Tripel or Other)
  • Gold: Blindman Perepllut Barley Wine (Barley Wine)
  • Gold: Trial and Ale A Saison Apparent (Sour/Wild Ale)
  • Gold: Dwarf Cherry Fruited Saison (Wild/Mixed Ferment with Fruit)
  • Silver: Cabin Super Saturation (IPA of 6% or Lower)
  • Silver: Village Village Blacksmith (American-style Brown Ale)
  • Silver: Cabin Zen Garden (Adjunct Driven Lager)
  • Silver: Brewsters Mexcellent Cerveza (Light Lager)
  • Silver: Common Crown Ploughman Wheat Ale (North American Wheat)
  • Bronze: Hell’s Basement All Hops for a Basement (IPA of 6.1% to 8%)
  • Bronze: Blindman 24-2 Brown Ale (English Style Old Ale/Scottish Ale)
  • Bronze: Long Hop Tropical Pale Ale (North American Wheat)

Saskatchewan

  • Gold: Nokomis Zig Zag Wonderer-Brett Saison (Saison)
  • Silver: Paddock Wood Red Hammer (Amber/Irish Style Red Ale)
  • Silver: Rebellion Amber Ale (North American Amber Ale)
  • Silver: Nokomis Schwingungen (Flemish Style Red/Oud Bruin)
  • Bronze: Pile O’ Bones Scarth Street Blonde Ale (Cream/Golden Ale)
  • Bronze: Rebellion Cat’s Got The Cream (Herb & Spice)

Manitoba

  • Gold: Nonsuch La Moliere (Pale Lagered Ale/Kolsch)
  • Gold: Nonsuch Key Lime Meringue-A-Tang (Experimental)
  • Bronze: Nonsuch Berliner Weisse (Berliner Weisse)