Ontario Brewing Awards - and the winner is

Yes indeed, last night the silverware, or in this case glassware, was handed out at the Ontario Brewing Awards. Hosted at The Dominion on Queen, the Ontario Brewing Awards are a satellite event for the Toronto Festival of Beer, in partnership with Libation Nation and bet.365.net.

I was not really sure what to expect when I arrived at 5 yesterday: tickets were available to the public, but I already knew from some brewery folks that there would be good industry representation too.  As it turned out, it was a mainly industry event, which meant that the non-industry attendees were treated to an excellent opportunity to hang out with some of their favourite brewers.  To cut right to the chase, there were a variety of categories judged, and you can see all the winners on Troy Burtch's blog: http://greatcanadianpubs.blogspot.com/2011/05/2011-ontario-brewing-awards-winners.html.

Back from reading the results?  Good.  So, first off, the winners:

I have nothing against any of the winners, though I am a bit surprised by some of the non-winners.  I know the silver/gold was judged by BJCP judges, and that (apparently) the people's choice awards were voted on by people who had completed at least Prud'homme level two. So I'm not questioning the validity of the judging.  But seriously, that Denison's Dunkle didn't place is a shock.  The same can be said about Cameron's Dark.  I also find it strange that Iron Spike Copper got people's choice in the Amber Ale category, and Iron Spike Amber won gold is the Dark Ale category.  Nothing against either beer, but ummm, does anybody else see a strange nomenclature effect there?

I was super-happy to see Amsterdam rate well, but I assume we all know by now I have a beer-crush on them.

A bigger issue, though, isn't so much about winners and not-winners, but a question about the validity of the awards.  I've heard a few voices that suggested this ranged from a silly exercise that was an excuse to drink a lot of beer, to it being a nice idea, but without much long-term importance.  But I would argue that.  Yes, there is no doubt this was a chance for a large majority of Ontario brewers to get together and hang out.  I have no doubt they all enjoyed access to a wide variety of beers in one place; I did too. But beyond that, this was an opportunity to celebrate brewing in Ontario.

We frequently are reminded by all and sundry that we're "just" Ontario.  The pessimistic view would tell you that all the really cool breweries are not here.  Quebec, for sure.  BC, totally.  Portland and New York and a variety of other US cities, definitely. But not us. And this point of view probably has it's loudest support within the province.  Sometimes it can get downright depressing listening to the seemingly endless talk about how awesome every other place is. So I think it's really important to take a night and talk about how awesome we are.  We have some really great breweries producing some phenomenal beers. We have a beer-based college program.  We have publicans becoming brewers. We should celebrate what we're doing, and how far we've come.

Cheers to all the Brewers who took part last night, thanks for giving us a reason to celebrate.  And thanks to Libation Nation et al for all the hard work they put in to give us an excellent evening.