SAN DIEGO, CA – The winners of the 2012 edition of the biannual World Beer Cup (WBC) were announced yesterday in San Diego as part of the closing event of this year’s Craft Brewers Conference. Presented by the Brewers Association, the competition featured 3,921 beers from 799 breweries representing 54 countries.
Among the 95 style categories, Canadian breweries were honoured with 13 of the 284 medals that were awarded, including a sweep of the Gluten-Free Beer category by Montreal’s Brasseurs Sans Gluten.
The Canadian winners included:
Category 4: Fruit Wheat Beer, 28 Entries
Bronze: Amsterdam Framboise, Amsterdam Brewing, Toronto, ON
Category 11: Specialty Honey Beer, 23 Entries
Gold: Boréale Dorée, Les Brasseurs du Nord, Blainville, QC
Category 16: Gluten-Free Beer, 15 Entries
Gold: Glutenberg Rousse, Brasseurs Sans Gluten, Montreal, QC
Silver: Glutenberg Pale Ale, Brasseurs Sans Gluten, Montreal, QC
Bronze: Glutenberg Blonde, Brasseurs Sans Gluten, Montreal, QC
Category 20: Wood- and Barrel-Aged Beer, 34 Entries
Bronze: Central City Oaked Porter, Central City Brewing, Surrey, BC
Category 35: Vienna-Style Lager, 41 Entries
Bronze: Belle Gueule Originale, Brasseurs RJ, Montreal, QC
Category 37: European-Style Dark/Münchner Dunkel, 34 Entries
Silver: King Dark Lager, King Brewery, Nobleton, ON
Category 38: German-Style Schwarzbier, 40 Entries
Bronze: Cameron’s Dark 266, Cameron’s Brewing, Oakville, ON
Category 56: French- & Belgian-Style Saison, 44 Entries
Silver: Saison Station 55, Microbrasserie Hopfenstark, L’Assomption, QC
Category 68: English-Style India Pale Ale, 48 Entries
Silver: IP’Eh!, Russell Brewing, Surrey, BC
Category 70: Extra Special Bitter, 49 Entries
Gold: Red Racer ESB, Central City Brewing, Surrey, BC
Category 85: Golden or Blonde Ale, 46 Entries
Silver: Labatt 50, Labatt Brewing, LaSalle, QC
The full list of winners is available at the WBC website.
Another victory for Labatts 50! What will we do when Trafalgar starts entering – and winning – medals in blind taste tests?
Could it be that we are little more than snobs and poseurs? I say we replace abv and ibu numbers with a figure representing street cred (low for Trafalagar, etc.) and be done with it.