As I look through some of my past headlines reporting on the results of the Canadian Brewing Awards (CBAs) – you can read some of them here and here – I realize they at times got a bit breathy. Although I have also done more impartial analyses, like this post two years ago. Over the years I may have overstated the extent of the gains for prairie breweries. In all honesty, at the time it felt true – breweries from the three prairie provinces were moving from nowhere to somewhere on the national beer scene, and I wanted to acknowledge that. Plus my beat is the prairies, so give me a break.

But this year’s results, announced on Monday, dwarf all of that (you can find the 2023 winners list here).

This is the year where Alberta made a statement that they are now a serious player on the Canadian beer scene. 39 medals in total, plus Best of Show for Blindman Brewing’s Dwarf Sour Cherry. Almost double their haul in 2022 and the highest raw score ever (the previous best being 33 in 2021). Alberta breweries won more medals than Ontario (38) and Quebec (26), only finished behind B.C. (45) in total medals and tied for the most gold medals (16 – with B.C.).

For as long as I have been watching the beer industry, there have been the big three provinces – Ontario, Quebec and B.C. – and then the rest. Quietly over the last eight years or so, Alberta has slowly, first, separated itself from the pack and, second, crept closer to the big three. But this is the first time in a national competition where it demonstrated there is now a big four. Alberta won more medals per capita than the other big provinces (Nova Scotia won the per capita race), and the medal totals, over the past two or three years, are starting to show a level of parity.

This is news.

Yes I am being somewhat breathless, but I defy you to tell me why I shouldn’t be.

I recognize that one competition is only that. But the trend line over the last few years is Alberta increasing its medal totals year after year. And (I will get into the details in a later post), it is consistently the same breweries that win. That speaks to a certain quality that can win year after year.

Saskatchewan and Manitoba had quieter nights. Saskatchewan won two medals while Manitoba breweries picked up three medals.

I recognize I might sound kind of provincial and a bit of a homer with this post. I don’t really mean to do that. There are many breweries who won tonight (and previous years) for which I have immense respect and would go out of my way to drink their beer (as I did as recently as last week in Toronto). Competitions about which beer is best, not which region is best. I am fully on board with that project.

But you can’t blame me for tracking things over time. I call it statistics. And they can tell us a lot.

I also have to say in my opinion the CBAs Brewery of the Year Award rules are messed up. They require entrants, no matter how many they enter, to identify which 4 beer are eligible for brewery of the year award points. They are the only ones that count toward the award. Understandably, it is an attempt to prevent a brewery from swamping the competition with tonnes of entries and winning by volume.

This year the brewery of the year was Muddy York. Congratulations to them. A great brewery. They won by collecting two gold medals. At least five breweries also won two gold medals, including Blindman. Plus one brewery won a gold and two silvers (Snake Lake), which by the point system would have given them more points. But because they won medals with beer they didn’t tag as being eligible for brewery of the year, they didn’t count. Tell me how that makes sense?

The problem with the rule is that is not how these kind of competitions work. It is hard to win a medal. Maybe you only enter two and win one. Fantastic! But you could enter 10 and still only win one or two. It is about quality, not quantity. Multiple entries does not give a brewery an inherent advantage. If they enter five beer and win medals with four of them, we should say “Wow! What an amazing accomplishment!”. Not, well, three of them you didn’t tag, so they don’t count.

To offer a few details about Alberta breweries’ achievements, there were 29 different breweries who won medals, eight who won multiple medals. As I say, the medal list includes many familiar names, but it is interesting it includes a few one-timers and upstarts. So that is fun.

Here is the complete list of prairie medal winners:

Alberta

  • 2 Pillars: Silver, Bronze
  • 70 Acres: Bronze
  • ’88: Gold
  • Bent Stick: Gold
  • Analog: Gold
  • Annex Ales: Silver
  • Big Rock: Gold
  • Blindman: 2 Golds, Best of Show
  • Born: Gold
  • Brauerei Fahr: Silver
  • Cabin: Silver, 2 Bronzes
  • Canmore: Silver, Bronze
  • Cold Garden: Bronze
  • Dark Woods: Silver
  • Endeavour: Silver
  • Establishment: Silver, Bronze
  • Irrational: Silver, Bronze
  • Medicine Hat: Gold
  • Meta: 2 Golds
  • New Level: Silver
  • Olds: Bronze
  • Sawback: Gold
  • Sea Change: Gold
  • Snake Lake: Gold, 2 Silvers
  • Town Square: Bronze
  • Trolley 5: Gold
  • Troubled Monk: Gold
  • Valley: Bronze
  • Village: Gold

Saskatchewan

  • Pil O’ Bones: Gold, Bronze

Manitoba

  • Kilter: Silver
  • Low Life: Gold
  • Torque: Silver