Jun. 6, 2018 – Never mind the Canadian Country Music Awards or the Junos. What a city like London needs to land in order to be hip are the Canadian Brewing Awards.
Especially when there’s a hometown contender and a whiff of cannabis in the air (not that there’s any connection between the two).
The 16th annual awards recognizing the best of Canada’s craft beers were held in Halifax this year and Anderson Craft Ales was among those leaving with medals from among the 310 breweries submitting more than 1,900 beers.
The Old East Village brewery captured gold for its cream ale and, in the European-style amber to dark lager category, bronze for Anderson Spring. Not too shabby.
There were 56 categories, each representing a style of beer from brett to spiced to smoked.
Among the other medal winners:
• Gold for Walkerville Purity pilsner from Windsor
• Silver for Walkerville’s Kremlin Russian Imperial stout
• Silver for Westcott cream ale by the Grove Brewhouse of Kingsville
• Silver in the North American lager category for Frank’s cream ale by Frank Brewing of Tecumseh
• Silver for Scotch ale, Niagara College Teaching Brewing Beer 101 Strong
• Silver for Come to the Dark Side chocolate stout by Upper Thames of Woodstock
• Bronze for Ace Hill Light. One of the Toronto-based Ace Hill founders is Blake Anderson, formerly of London.
• Best of show was an English brown beer brewed in Quebec by Brasserie Mille-Iles and brewer of the year was Dageraad of British Columbia.
And the cannabis? That was the subject of an eye-raising seminar as cannabis beer edges closer to the marketplace via Province Brands of Canada. In anticipation of legalization for recreational use, the Toronto company has plans to make a beer using cannabis instead of hops.
Dooma Wendschuch, co-founder and chief executive of Province Brands of Canada, told CTV News the cannabis beer would have 6.5 mg of THC, the psychoactive agent in pot.
“Our goal is to make a product that is only as intoxicating as a standard beer would be for someone who has drank beer before,” Wendschuch told the broadcaster.
Hops are a plant cousin of cannabis and the research for using cannabis in beer is partially funded by you. The Ontario government chipped in $300,000 for Loyalist College of Belleville to work with Province Brands in the development of the new adult beverage category. Think of that as you vote in the provincial election.
Click to Read More: Brews News: Anderson Beers Win Medals at National Competition (The London Free Press)