Canadian Beer Awards

What's next? I'll tell you what's next, the Canadian Beer Awards, that's what's next.
This past Thursday I had the pleasure of attending my first ever Canadian Beer Awards Gala ceremony, presented by Taps Media at the Theatre Digital in Toronto.
Still in it's infancy, the Canadian Beer Awards are moving into just their fifth year of existence but from what I witnessed on Thursday night the snowball is heading down hill and picking up some of that packy snow you used to relish as a child and shows no signs of slowing down.
While we are on the subject, do you remember that? Packy snow? Remember when you used to be able to distinguish between different types of snow? There was the aforementioned packy snow, which was wet and sticky and great for making snowballs, snowmen and other snow related sculptures. But it usually left your snow pants completely soaked by the end of the day. Then there was powdery snow. It was light and airy and was basically useless when it came to snowball making. But what it was excellent for GT snow racing and making new toboggan runs through the trees. Then there was that hard packed icy snow that formed a crusty layer across the snow. That shit was completely useless and good for basically nothing but breaking off chunks and throwing at kids younger and smaller than you.....anyhoo, where was I? Oh yeah, the Canadian Beer Awards.
Judged by BJCP certified judges and with 21 different style categories and showcasing entries from coast to coast this was truly a national event.
The Gala began with what else but a sampling of some of Ontario's fine microbrewed beers. I say Ontario's and not Canada's fine micorbrewed beers because the douche bags over at the LCBO decided to not let any of the contestants from out of province bring their beers to the Gala for sampling. I mean far be it for them to allow some of the best beers in our nation be showcased for beer drinkers who may want to buy these products in the future. I mean, where are they going to buy it anyways? Oh, right they have to buy it from them cause they are part of a government sanctioned monopoly....but wait, I'm sorry, I'm not going to go into the whole rant about the completely asinine beer laws in this province. I'll save that for another post.
So after sampling a few of the beers it was time for the awards. Which for the record were done in exactly one hour, which was perfect.
Clearly the two biggest winners on this evening were Swan's Brewpub from Victoria, which took home twelve awards and was given an Honorable mention in a new CBA category, the 2006 Brewpub of the year.
The other big winner being Magnotta Breweries in Vaughn. Which took home 5 gold medals and 1 bronze medal for the 6 beers it entered in the competition. And for doing so, also took home the big prize of the evening the Canadian Brewery of the Year Award for 2006. Now I think it's worth mentioning here that I'm actually a brewer at the Magnotta Breweries...not that I really had anything to do with these awards, as they were actually selected back in May, a good two months before I started....but none the less, it's nice to know that you work at a brewery that makes really good beer and you are contributing to the beer community in a positive way.
And that was the main thing I took away from this evening (other than the copious amount of free beer), the sense of community. There was no snobbery, no catty in-fighting, just a sense of genuine happiness for the winners and participants. The Canadian beer industry (outside of the big two) is basically a small, but growing, industry. As Mike Ligas, the Brewmaster and my boss at Magnotta put it, "It's a big country, but it's a small industry". But with all the small guys banding together to create a larger, more sold unit the future of microbrewing in Canada has never looked better.
So yeah, it took me 30 years to get to my first ever beer awards and it was wonderful. Pretty much exactly what I imagined a beer awards ceremony would be, beer and prizes.
So what's next?