Canada: Ontario craft brewers dominate Canadian and Ontario beer competitions

Ontario Craft Brewers (OCB) continue to dominate industry brewing competitions, taking home 16 medals (five gold, six silver and five bronze) at the 2006 Canadian Brewing Awards, Canada's premier beer competition. At the Ontario Brewing Awards, announced in Toronto this week, OCB members won in eight of nine style categories, CCNMatthews informed June 02.

"These outstanding results clearly validate Ontario Craft Brewers' commitment to producing the highest quality, great tasting beer," said Michael Stirrup, President, Wellington Brewery located in Guelph, Ontario, and a winner in both competitions. "A world of more than 120 handcrafted, premium beers, brewed in a wide range of authentic international styles and each with its own individual character, is available from the Ontario Craft Brewers."

Ontario Craft Brewers won in half of the 21 style categories, accounting for sixteen medals. Winning Ontario Craft Brewers include: Brick Brewing Company, Cameron's Brewing Co., Cool Beer Brewing Co., Great Lakes Brewery, King Brewery, Maclean's, Mill St. Brewery, Old Credit Brewery and Wellington Brewery. The 2006 Canadian Brewing Awards attracted 225 entries from 48 breweries throughout Canada.

Mill St. Brewery won three medals including two gold medals for its Barley Wine and Coffee Porter. Wellington Brewery was awarded four medals including two bronze for its Iron Duke and County Dark Ale. Brick Brewery took home two silver medals for its Red Baron and J.R. Brickman Pilsner. Multiple winner, Old Credit Brewery was awarded two medals including silver for its Holiday Honey. Complete results can be found at www.tapsmedia.ca.

Entries were judged in a blind tasting of 21 style categories. This year's panel of seven judges evaluated the beers based on appearance, aroma, flavour, mouth-feel and overall impression.

The Ontario Brewing Awards, now in its third year, have doubled in size since 2004. These awards, which celebrate the world-class beer available from Ontario's own brewers, had 81 entries in nine style categories in 2006. Winning Ontario Craft Brewers were Brick Brewing Company, Cameron's Brewing Co., Cool Beer Brewing Co., Hockley Valley Brewing Co., King Brewery, Mill St. Brewery, Niagara's Best Beer and Wellington Brewery.

A panel of judges determined their choice for the best Ontario beer in each of the following nine classic styles including: Best Lager, Best Pilsner, Best Cream Ale, Best Pale Ale, Best Amber Beer, Best Dark Lager, Best Dark Ale, Best Speciality/Flavoured and Best Porter/Stout. In a blind tasting, each beer was assessed using four criteria: appearance, aroma, mouthfeel and overall impression. Most of these winning Ontario Craft Beers will be present at Toronto's Festival of Beer, August 11-13, 2006.

The Ontario Craft Brewers are 30 small brewers dedicated to brewing great tasting beer in Ontario. The 30 Ontario Craft Brewers brew their beers locally in communities throughout Ontario - from Carleton Place to Windsor and Niagara Falls to Bracebridge.

E-malt.com, the global information source for the brewing and malting industry professionals. The bi-weekly E-malt.com Newsletters feature latest industry news, statistics in graphs and tables, world barley and malt prices, and other relevant information. Click here to get full access to E-malt.com. If you are a Castle Malting client, you can get free access to E-malt.com website and publications. Contact us for more information at marketing@castlemalting.com .