Brews news: Regional brewers win awards

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If you’re in London and have time to visit just one craft brewery, the choice is clear, at least if you want to taste award-winning beers fresh in the taproom.

Anderson Craft Ales, tucked in a former factory on Elias Street in the Old East Village since 2014, added to its trophy case at this year’s Canada Beer Cup with honours for innovative packaging, Anderson Gold Lager and Anderson Cream Ale.

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Scrutinized by beer experts from Canada, the United States and United Kingdom, Anderson Cream Ale captured a gold. Anderson Gold nabbed a bronze in the light American lager category and the brewery’s attention-grabbing seasonal 100-pack received bronze.

In Chatham, Sons of Kent is celebrating a gold medal of its own for Flywheel in the standard American lager category.

Fans of on-trend non-alcoholic beers should note a gold medal win for Na Guava Gose by Collective Arts of Hamilton.

The most interesting category was a new one for beers brewed with Canada’s Sasquatch hops, developed in British Columbia. Broken Rail of St. Marys took home a bronze medal for a Nordic ale dubbed Hike to Devil’s Peak using Sasquatch and brewed in collaboration with Upper Thames of Woodstock. Quayle’s of Oro-Medonte got silver for using Sasquatch in a New England IPA labelled as Sasquatch Versus Yeti. Gold went to a common – a beer fermented with lager yeast at ale temperatures – by Bayview Brewing of Ladysmith, B.C.

Canada’s best-known independent beer, Steam Whistle Pilsner, gathered gold in the Czech pale lager category.

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The award every entrant hopes for is Canada Beer Cup champion. This year, it went to a wheat beer (more specifically a witbier style) brewed in Regina by Pile O’ Bones.

Yes, but when?

Ontario’s Conservative government seems to be pro-beer in every way except the one that matters most.

Speeding up sales in convenience stores? Check. Buy beer-to-go from a restaurant? Check.

But when it comes to the change that matters most, the Doug Ford government is dragging its heels, much to the frustration of the Ontario Craft Brewers’ Association.

Craft brewers in Ontario say if the province doesn’t speed up its review of the taxes they pay, more breweries will close.

Ontario brewers pay the highest taxes in Canada, the association says, and that’s a roadblock to growth. The rate is eight times higher than breweries pay in Alberta.

A fairer deal on taxes will allow independent craft breweries to get in on the expanded marketplace, OCB argues.

“The recent retail expansion is the biggest change to the alcohol sector in a generation and presents a huge opportunity to deliver more choice for consumers and support our local breweries, but that won’t happen unless government takes action now,” said OCB president Scott Simmons in a release. “One month into the new expanded market it is clear that immediate tax reform is the key to unlocking this opportunity for craft brewers. It is the only way locally-owned craft breweries can invest in the people, trucks and equipment needed to get their beer on the new store shelves. Doing so will be the difference between unleashing the next decade of growth for the sector or craft beer disappearing altogether. This campaign is about making it clear we need to lower the tax burden on local breweries now to help them grow to compete in the new marketplace and create more jobs and opportunities in communities right across the province.”

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Premier Ford, tear down this tax wall.

NEW AND NOTED

The brewhouse is built and beer-making is underway, finally, at Port Stanley Brewing. An opening of a new brewery is rare these days. Port Stanley Brewing shares a renovated building on the harbour with Riva, an already-popular Italian restaurant that opened earlier this year. The first brew should be pouring in a couple of weeks. 

Beerlab London’s transition into Supply and Demand Beer and Pizza is getting close with a search for more staff, including an assistant brewer. Meanwhile, the city’s only downtown craft brewery is still pouring in its Beerlab iteration at 420 Talbot St.

At Storm Stayed in London, there’s a fresh double IPA. Brought to Life, 8.2 per cent alcohol, was made with Nelson Sauvin and Mosaic hops for a hoppy beer with flavours of passionfruit and pineapple to pair with food such as spicy ribs.

Wayne Newton is a freelance journalist based in London.

BrewsNewsTravels@gmail.com

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