I usually give an annotated list of winners from each BC Beer Awards but I’m not this time, because I was actually pretty impressed with the winners. This year’s winners were much more in line with my personal thoughts, and lets face it, when preaching to the choir you are unlikely to criticize them in the next breathe.

…but… Mount Arrowsmith somehow won brewery of the year…  How? Well let me just say I didn’t like that they won. They won on the backs of their BLONDE Ale and a Saison… not exactly inspiring. But you should all know that story by now.  You see it was a point based system. 5 points for gold 3 for silver 1 for bronze (or something to that effect).

Surely you are asking: “Shouldn’t Dageraad have won in that case?” Not quite, you see each breweries points were averaged by how many beers they submitted in total. No doubt an attempt to give small breweries a chance against the big boys like Phillips.

So for example if you submit 4 beers, and win 1 gold and 1 bronze you would receive 6 point (5 and 1). Your points would then be divided by 4 so you would be left with a weighted score of 1.5. This was done for all breweries who won an award and evidently had the highest weighted score… sorry Dageraad… I’ll drink an Anno in your honour.

So no annotated list but perhaps something better instead…

A BIG OL’ SPREADSHEET

• It lists each brewery that won a beer medal.. no industry awards like Brewery of the year
• How many total won, and breakdowns of Gold, Silver and Bronze
• It also pools winners in to regions and subregions* So a medal can be counted in a region and subregion, BUT NOT IN TWO REGIONS OR SUBREGIONS… A brewery maybe listed in a region but not a sub region. 

Conclusions and Thoughts as a result of the spreadsheet:

1. What the heck happened to Steamworks? Flagship IPA became extremely popular after winning beer of the year in 2016, so much so I have heard through the grapevine they had to change the recipe to keep up with demand. Could this be the reason it didn’t appear anywhere and Steamworks won only one medal?
2. For that matter what happened to other past winners like Central city, Storm, Foamers’ Folly, 33 acres, 4  winds (do they even compete even more)?
3. The wave of Cool new Vancouver Breweries who open between 3-5 years ago seems to have crested. Suburban breweries won nearly as many medals as Vancouver Breweries and seem to be winning the more interesting categories… Twin Sails, Yellow Dog, Steal and Oak, and Dageraad are clearly leading the way.
4. That doesn’t mean Vancouver doesn’t have something to be proud of. New Schoolers Superflux and Boombox both grab medals for very progressive beers.
5. Vancouver Island and Victoria seem to be losing ground to the mainland… then again Swans just won beer of the year… and it was great!
6. Brewers Row tied Yeast Van for most medals… but Twin Sails also won an industry award so even math agrees… Brewers row is the best place in BC to grab a pint!

Once Again a very impressive and fun night of beers an recognition, hats off to the volunteers, brewers and organizers who are a credit to the industry!

The Brewers Row Beers and Brewery of the year. There were 50 responses to the poll and despite some surprising results I am happy with the sample size. Honourable mentions were given when the first runner up was within one vote of the winner…

Every Brewery on the Row won or was an honourable mention which shows the quality of this place!

Without further Adieu…

Best Brewers Row Core Beer

-YELLOW DOG PLAY DEAD IPA

It wasn’t even close, this is without a doubt THE BEER of Brewers Row

Best Limited Brewers Row Beer release (the choices given are the respective top rated beers from each brewery according to untapped)

-TWIN SAILS SPACE ARMADILLO DOUBLE IPA

The first of a few wins for Twin Sails… Props to Moody Ales Bourbon Barrel Aged Russian Imperial Stout, which also did well.

Best Branding

-TWIN SAILS

This win surely comes on the back of the tall can releases

Yellow dog followed a little behind

Best Tasting Room

Finally some intrigue, I was sure PARKSIDE would win this category but alas the came just short and win the Honourable Mention

Surprise, Surprise the winner is:

TWIN SAILS

Best Customer Service

Another close one but MOODY ALES grabs an Honourable Mention nod congrats!

But once again TWIN SAILS wins by one vote!

IPA is King in BC which was the best of the year on Brewers Row? (top rated IPA on untappd with more than 150 ratings is listed for each brewery)

Its not even close TWIN SAILS SPACE ARMADILLO IS KING! hopefully it comes back soon!

Just like last year these beers of the year are recollected from memory and supplemented from my untappd reviews (This is why you will see a lot of Port Moody Brewery representation, i drink their wares the most), They are the best beers I HAVE HAD this year:

Some will include a first second and third others will not. Beers available in BC are listed those not available will be given Honourable mentions.

Ale (pale, amber, brown etc):

1. Howe Sound- Sky Pilot
2. Old Yale Blonde
3. Strange Fellow- Talisman

IPA:

1. Yellow Dog IPA-still take the cake for me.
2. Old Abbey Brett IPA-This is of the Tony Dewald Brewmaster Era
3. Breakside IPA- Much better in Portland than it is here, great none-the-less

Stout (all kinds):

1. Moody Ales- Bourbon Russian Imperial Stout
2. Old Yale-Sasquatch Stout
3. Hearthstone Brewing Chocolate Milk Stout

Lager/Pilsner:

1. Twin Sails-Pilsner
2. Steamworks- Pilsner

Sour:

1. Four Winds-Nectarous
2. P49- Lil Red’emption
3. Powell Street-Amarillo Sour

HM-The Breakside La Tormenta

Belgian:

1. Dageraad Anno 2015
2. Dageraad 8 Degree

Everything Else (including one-offs):

1. Fuggles and Warlock & Moody Collab-Pears in White Satin
2. Yellow Dog- Fresh Hopped Play Dead IPA

Beer of The Year:

Storm-Glacial Mammoth Extinction- What a process, what an experience.