The results are out for the 2026 Alberta Beer Awards. And I suspect you will recognize a lot of names populating the medal table this year, as a lot of breweries and beer in the winners circle have been there many times before. Here is my rundown on this year’s competition.

Entries were up significantly from last year, with 520 entries from 61 breweries (last year was 420 from 62 breweries). Given the headwinds the industry has been facing of late it is an encourage sign that breweries are still engaged and willing to commit resources to the province’s premier beer competition. This was the first year I soloed as head judge and we were fortunate to have a truly stellar roster of judges, including many international judges (some from as far away as Scotland and Italy). The ABA judging weekend abutted the judging for the Canada Beer Cup in Calgary (and whose results were announced a day earlier), which allowed us to draw from a larger pool of potential judges.

The big winner this year was Calgary’s The Establishment Brewing who picked up Brewery of the Year (BOY) on the strength of two golds, three silvers and a bronze. This is Establishment’s third BOY in four years and fourth in six years, clearly marking them as Alberta’s most acclaimed brewery. They have won 32 Alberta Beer Award medals since their opening in 2019, more than any other brewery in that time. Other big winners this year include Eighty-Eight Brewing (5 medals), Ale Architect (5), Cabin Brewing (5), Ol’ Beautiful Brewing (4) and Tool Shed Brewing (4).

A highlight was the Best of Show, where small Calgary brewery (and arcade) Burn Block Social Club surprised by winning the gold for their Going to the Meadow Oktoberfest Lager. Blind Enthusiasm picked up BOS silver with Spontaneous Manifesto 2025 and Blindman Brewing scooped up the bronze for their Perepllut Barley Wine.

Overall 39 breweries won medals this year, with 24 winning more than one. Full results are found below:

Sixteen beer repeated as medal winners from last year, including back-to-back golds for Ol’ Beautiful’s Abrazo Mexican Lager and Long Hop’s Tropical Pale Ale. I have to note that with a bronze in Amber Ale, Tool Shed’s Red Rage continues that brand’s streak of winning a medal at every edition of the Alberta Beer Awards. The regular Red Rage has won six times, and its non-alcohol version, Zero Red Rage, has won four times.Other notable repeat winners include Medicine Hat’s Gentlemen’s Stout, which has won six out of the nine year and Cabin’s Sunshine Rain, which has now medaled five years running (and six out of seven). Also noteworthy is Blind Enthusiasm’s sweep of the Mixed Fermentation category, the second time they have taken all three medals in that category.

Not surprisingly, Calgary breweries once again dominated the awards overall winning 41 medals, just over 50% of the beer-related medals awarded (there are three non-beer categories which I am excluding for the purposes of this analysis). Edmonton came second with 22. Results for breweries outside the cities dropped somewhat this year, with four coming from the north, six central Alberta and seven in the south, all down from last year.

My main observation this year is the consistency across years, both for breweries and beer. I note it because this year’s judging pool was deep in experience and international perspectives. That these esteemed judges came up with results that align well with previous years strongly suggests that our regional pool of judges (normally we have one or two international judges and a handful of out-of-province judges to supplement our Alberta-based judges) is top notch.

My final comment, which I think I give every year, is that competitions are imperfect measures of a beer. By necessity judges must evaluate to a common standard – meaning styles or category descriptions. A beer can be well-brewed and highly enjoyable but not naturally fit a style. Or it might, say, have not quite enough bitterness for “style”, but customers enjoy it just as it is. That is fair, but if we want to move beyond “I like this one best”, judges need a baseline to judge to. So if your favourite brewery or beer did not make the winners list, it is not because it is a bad beer. It may simply not fit a style easily.

All in all a very successful Alberta Beer Awards. See you next year for our 10th anniversary!