Tag Archives: beer awards

The Trouble with Beer Awards

Every time I visit a tasting room, beer or wine, I see a lot of awards on display.  It seems like every product is an award winner of sorts.  But if every beer is an award winner, how are we, the gullible consumer, supposed to know what is actually the best?  Most breweries use “award winning” in their marketing, a message I find misleading.

central city canadian beer awards

Central City’s Canadian Brewing Awards, including brewery of the year

I really like the idea of beer awards.  They give brewers something to strive for, they provide the chance for brewers to commingle, and they sound like really fun times.  That being said, whenever I see a press release by an event or brewery bragging about some new award, I think about these things:

  1. Brewers pay to enter - An entry usually costs $100 per beer.  This means that only brewers willing to pay up (say $500 to a $1000 per product line per event) are actually judged.
  2. Who actually entered?  – Almost no beer awards list all of the entrants in each category, only the winners.  The gold medal for best IPA doesn’t mean much if only a handful of beers were actually entered.  I feel like full disclosure is warranted, otherwise how can we trust the authenticity of an award?
  3. There are too many categories - Most events have 30+ categories.  I feel like some categories are invented so that macro breweries win (sponsorship money?).  Consider that breweries are more likely to enter if they think they can win and that awards events have an economic interest in soliciting as many entries as possible.  Making everyone a winner seems like a pretty good deal for all involved.
  4. Beer is judged on style, not taste - If a beer most closely matches the style guidelines of its designation, it wins gold in that category.  Maybe this is the only way to judge beer, but I’d much rather prefer an award based on taste.  A bad tasting beer that is very exemplary of a style beats a very good tasting beer, wtf?
  5. What beer was actually served?  - Where did the beer the judge tasted come from?  Did it come from a bottle off the shelf? Did it come from a cask, brewed specially for the awards?  How did the beer get there?  How was it stored?  When was it brewed?  How do we know the playing field was completely level?
  6. There are a lot of awards -  There are so many awards events and so many categories that everyone wins, rendering the whole idea of awards pretty useless. It’s like primary school sports day all over again, here’s your (Pabst) blue ribbon!

I’m writing this post because the winners of the Canadian Brewing Awards were just announced, an event I’ve written about before.  There were 44 BC winners out of 111 possible awards, most of whom I consider deserving.  Central City was named Canadian Brewery of the Year, which I think is totally awesome.  While I’m very proud of how well BC did, I have seriously misgivings about these awards.  First, check out the list of categories and the eventual winners.  Now take a look at the entry form and consider the points I made above.  Some key questions:

  • What the hell is Phillips Blue Buck Pale Ale doing in the North American Amber Lager category?  It’s a pale ale and it won a silver medal as an amber lager?  Somebody made a serious mistake there.
  • What’s the difference between lager and premium lager?
  • Why is there a category for light beer?  Shoot me in the head.
  • How did Moosehead win four times?
  • How did three terrible beers win in the fruit category?
  • How did Driftwood, Central City, and Dieu du Ciel not win in every category of each beer they make?

These awards just seem incredibly incomplete to me.  I won’t be buying beer based on the medals they gave out. I have more hope for the BC Beer awards, which are slated to resurface this October as part of BC Craft Beer Month.  Here’s hoping they do our province proud.

Cheers,

Chris

First Ever BC Beer Awards by Brewery Creek

vcwb logoBrewery Creek, Vancouver’s finest beer store, is putting on the first ever BC Beer Awards as part of Vancouver Craft Beer week.  I’m told that 35 of BC’s breweries and brewpubs (almost all of them) will be entering over 190 beers (almost all of them) in ten categories.  I don’t know what the categories are yet, but will let you know when I find out.

In the past I’ve expressed concerns about beer awards because I feel like they aren’t true selectors of good beer. Awards should be fairly and honestly given, especially when considering beer companies tend to use the awards they win extensively in their marketing.  I’ve heard that winning some awards can be as simple as entering a beer into one of thirty or more style categories.  That’s ninety medalists right there, and then we aren’t told who actually entered what beers into what categories.  I’ve got it on good authority that almost every beer in BC will be entered into these awards and that the list of competing beers will be disclosed.  When you consider that this blind taste test will be judged by beer, wine, and food writers with considerable palates, I’m encouraged to think we have ourselves a true competition that will select BC’s finest brews.

The blind tasting will take place next Monday at an undisclosed (super secret) location and the winners will be announced during Vancouver Craft beer week.  All the pertinent details are in the following press release:

The Vancouver Craft Beer Week organizing committee is proud to announce the first ever BC Beer Awards by Brewery Creek. On Monday, March 22nd, an expert judging panel will review over 150 beers from all across British Columbia at [a location I'm supposed to keep secret]. Media are invited to join judges and volunteers at 9:00am to witness the judging process, as well as learn about the intricacies of craft beer and to find out more about the upcoming Vancouver Craft Beer Week.

The only blind judged beer competition in British Columbia, the BC Beer Awards judging panel boasts such beer experts as:

•       Don Tse – A BJCP Certified beer judge, freelance beer writer and consultant, Don has been writing professionally about beer for seven years. His articles have appeared in beer publications such as All About Beer, Ale Street News and Beers of the World.

•       Abram Goldman-Armstrong – A beer writer in Portland, Oregon, Abram has been a BJCP National Rank Judge since the age of 21, judging at competitions such as the Great American Beer Festival, the Okanagan Fest-of-Ales, and Portland’s Spring Beer and Wine Fest. He co-organizes the North American Organic Brewers Festival, the world’s largest organic beer festival.

•       Megan Flynn – The publisher of Beer Northwest, a quarterly magazine covering beer, food, and lifestyle in the Pacific Northwest, Megan travels North America in search of the best beer and beer personalities, continuing to develop her pallet into one of the most diverse on the continent.

•       James Nevison – Columnist for The Province newspaper, where his “Wine Guy” column appears weekly each Thursday. He is the co-author of five bestselling wine books, the latest is Had a Glass: Top 100 Wines for 2010 under $20, $25, and $30. Recently James was named a “Top 40 Foodie Under 40” by Western Living magazine.

Winners will be announced at the BC Beer Awards by Brewery Creek award show on Friday, May 14th, one of Vancouver Craft Beer Week’s signature events. For further information please contact:

http://vancouvercraftbeerweek.com
http://twitter.com/vcbw

Cheers,

Chris