In a previous post, I accused Taps Magazine, “Canada’s Beer Magazine”, of focusing overly on Ontario brewers. One fellow from Taps was kind enough to comment on our blog and let us know that Taps will increasingly be spreading its coverage throughout Canada. I think what Taps is doing is great and I understand that, as a young magazine focusing on a niche subject, it might be hard to cover our vast nation coast to coast, especially when based in Ontario. All that aside, I found that I read an awful lot about Mill Street Brewing and their greatness in early Taps issues. Their prevalence in Taps coupled with their great success at the Canadian Brewing Awards got me rather curious. Is Mill Street really Canada’s best brewery? Or are they Canada’s best brewery like the Leafs are Canada’s best hockey team (because they are from Toronto)?
To answer this question, I set out to try as many of Mill Street’s brews as possible, which turned out to be rather challenging. Nowhere in BC can any Mill Street products be found in draught form, but I did manage to track down bottles at a few places. Brewery Creek carries their Belgian Wit and used to carry their Stock Ale, until I bought the last six pack. The Irish Heather also carries bottles of the Belgian Wit, as well as their much heralded Tankhouse Ale. I made a special trip to the Irish Heather just to taste the Tankhouse Ale. I have now tasted both the Stock Ale and the Tankhouse Ale, both gold medal winners at the Canadian Brewing Awards.
As for the beers themselves, I first tried the Stock Ale in the comfort of my own home. My first impression of the Stock Ale was nothing whatsoever. I don’t think I noticed taking a sip. It really reminded me of macro brewed lager. I was really expecting great things, and was disappointed as such, but I can’t say that this was bad beer. It’s just everybody beer. You’d serve this beer to people who don’t like beer or you’d drink this beer if you wanted to drink 15 beers in one sitting. I suppose it was true to style, but I expected a touch of genius.
I next tried the Tankhouse Ale at the Irish Heather. Now this is Mill Street’s flagship beer, and having read so much about it, I was really expecting the greatest beer of all time. I think it was only the build up that had me disappointed, because I really did enjoy the Tankhouse Ale. I found it to be good pale ale and I would gladly buy it again. It has an amber colour, is a little spicy, and a bit hoppy. I found it to be very well balanced. I read on Mill Street’s website that they use Cascade hops to brew this one. This got me thinking, most Pacific Northwest brewers use Cascade, which were originally cultivated in Oregon, in a good portion of their brews. The Tankhouse Ale was quite good, but it is of similar quality to the pale ales I regularly get hereabouts (Phillips Blue Buck for example).
Tasting two beers probably wasn’t a fair assessment of Mill Street (I bet they have some great seasonal and draught beers), but I wasn’t particularly impressed with Mill Street. I held off originally on the Belgian Wit (not my favorite style), but I will endeavor to try some the next chance I get. What I find more alluring of what the East Coast has to offer is Dieu du Ciel. I’ve had three of the six varieties I’ve purchased so far and each one has been an experience. I plan to do a write up of my Dieu du Ciel experiences in the near future, but I definitely recommend trying any that you come across in the mean time.
To sum up, I think I’ve decided that Mill Street is the best brewery in Canada in the same way that Luke Schenn is the second coming of Bobby Orr (it’s the Toronto factor). Ontario is always going to get more attention at the national level and I can deal with that (especially when the Leafs are losing). I’m just happy to be living out West where there is an abundance of great beer, right here in BC and coming up from Washington, Oregon, and Northern California.
Cheers,
Chris
One thing that should be kept in mind regarding the “Brewery of the Year” award at the CBAs is that it’s based on the number of medals won by the brewery in that particular year. And beers have to be submitted by the brewery to be included in the judging.
Since they’re based in Toronto where the judging takes place, it is presumably easier for Mill Street to submit all of their beers each year, while more distant breweries may only submit a couple of beers, if any at all. More beers = more chances to place in a category = higher odds of being “Brewery of the Year”.
(It should also be noted, though, that unlike some other beer awards, the CBAs require that a beer reach a minimum points threshold in the judging in order to receive a medal. So even if there are only three beers submitted for a particular style, they’re not all guaranteed to win a medal. Several categories last year had only two of the three medals awarded.)
While the complete list of submitted beers isn’t made public, I think that the absence of certain breweries from the winners list is evidence that they didn’t submit anything. I know from talking to the organizers that Quebec in particular is poorly represented, and coverage out west is a bit spotty as well.
Anyway, the bottom line is that the selection of “Brewery of the Year”, and any of the other CBA winners, is not influenced by geography, at least in terms of the judging of the awards. The tasting is completely blind, so it would be pretty much impossible for the judges to have a hometown bias. But due to the logistics of submitting beer to the awards, Ontario breweries are disproportionally represented. In order for that to change, breweries all across the country should be encouraged to submit their beer in the future.
I’d be especially happy if this happened because as one of the writers for TAPS (the organizers of the awards), I get to grab stuff from the stash of leftovers after the judging.
Thanks for the explanation Greg. I was wondering how many BC breweries actually submitted their brews this year. I think its great that you guys are organizing these awards and I’m sure we’ll see full participation from across the nation in a few years time. I’m definitely looking forward to the 2009 awards and beyond.
Chris,
Just finished reading your post and felt it necessary to inform you how Mill Street came to be named ‘Canadian Brewery of the Year’ two years in a row. Now, before I begin, it should be noted that I am not endorsing or promoting Mill Street in anyway,
I’m just going to explain the procedure for winning said award.
The Canadian Brewing Awards has grown significantly in the two years that I have been associated with them. We have had more and more breweries from all over Canada submit their various products, BC breweries included. Your question “Is Mill Street really Canada’s best brewery? Or are they Canada’s best brewery like the Leafs are Canada’s best hockey team (because they are from Toronto)?” is funny, yet inaccurate and somewhat disrespectful to the men and women who judged over 250 beers from across the country.
Like Greg mentioned, to gain the brewery of the year distinction, breweries must do well in each of the categories they enter. Mill Street bottles five beers, yet they have 13 beers in total (the rest are brewed and served at their brewpub). The breweries receive a list of categories before-hand and they determine which category the want to submit their beer for. The judges taste all the beer blindly, make their scores and then those scores are tallied up and the results get released. Mill Street one nine awards, including 5 golds. They beat other breweries in those categories, based on scores from the judges, as their beers most closely resembled the BJCP guidelines. Georgraphy has nothing to do with it. Other breweries submitted their entire line-up as well.
Last year Phillips came in second, Cameron’s brewery in Oakville, ON entered four beers this year and won 3 medals, and Pump House brewery in New Brunswick faired quite well this year with four medals for nine beers. Greg also touched on the low number of Quebec breweries involved; however, the same can’t be said for BC breweries. There were a lot (17 west of Ontario). There are breweries in Canada that don’t enter brewing awards, Dieu du Ciel is one of those breweries (owner confirmed this at an event earlier in the year; however, he did say that they may compete next year.
I’m not trying to take anything away from your experience with Mill Street, I just wanted to make you aware of how the brewery won the award. I hope this didn’t come across in a negative way
Cheers,
Troy
Thanks Troy, I appreciate your adding to the explanation of how the Canadian Brewing Awards work. It would be really cool to see a list in Taps of all the entries next year.
As for my question: “Is Mill Street really Canada’s best brewery? Or are they Canada’s best brewery like the Leafs are Canada’s best hockey team (because they are from Toronto)?”
I apologize for insinuating that the Leafs are anywhere close to Canada’s best hockey team. I did not mean any disrespect to the rest of Canada, nor to the other five Canadian teams.
I’m sorry, I really thought my statement was far enough over the top to be clearly identified as a joke. I did not mean any disrespect to Mill Street Brewing and I apologize if I offended anyone. I really enjoyed their Tankhouse Ale and would love to try more of their brews.
Erik and I are pretty lighthearted guys who don’t take ourselves all that seriously. We mean no offense and are just having a good time with this blog.
Thanks,
Chris
I saw Mill Street’s Stock Ale and Coffee Porter at Firefly yesterday: http://www.fireflyfinewinesandales.com/.
Chris,
No need to apologize..especially to a guy like me. I apologize to you if I came across as an a**hole. I’m a lighthearted guy myself and I don’t take to much seriously (just ask my fiance). I guess I was just trying to defend the judges who scored Mill Street’s beers, even if it was a joke.
My bad.
I hope your treating Sundin and Wellwood good over there!
Troy
Thanks Rick, Firefly here I come.
No worries Troy, the beer tasters blindly picked out what they liked, fair and square. It was my bad for insinuating anything else, intentionally or not.
You can have Wellwood back! We’ll see if Sundin manages to accomplish anything, the jury is still out on him.
Cheers,
Chris
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