Two Fraser Valley breweries can lift a glass in celebration this week, as winners of the Canadian Brewing Awards.
Mountainview Brewing Co. in Hope won gold in the "Historic/Regional Beer" category for their Spruced Up gose beer.
Field House Brewing Co. earned bronze for their Salted Black Porter, in the "Other Strong Beer" category. Field House first opened in Abbotsford in 2016 and expanded to downtown Chilliwack in 2020.
The Canadian Brewery Awards and Conference (CBAC) was held in Vancouver this year, June 6-7. CBAC is a Beer Judge Certification Program sanctioned blind-tasting competition. Judging took place throughout the spring and were carefully tasted and evaluated based on style guidelines for each category.
In an Instagram post earlier this year, Mountainview wrote that their gose is made of "spring grown fresh spruce tips harvested locally and hand picked."
Gose is pronounced "goes-uh" and is a sour, top-fermenting beer that originated in Germany.
Mountainview also won in 2024, in the "Flavoured Stout/Porter" category, for their Black Forest stout.
Field House describes their bronze-winning porter as "a refreshing twist on the classic Baltic-style dark beer. Every sip unravels layers of coffee, chocolate, and caramel, with a cheeky hint of Dutch licorice."
They already have dubbed it as their "most award-winning beer and one that's been turning heads and winning hearts since our brewing story began."
Field House also brought home a bronze medal in 2023, for its Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout with Raspberries.
There are 50 categories in the annual awards. Best of Show went to Godspeed Brewery Inc. in Ontario for their Irori, a peated scotch lager created as a tribute to Greg Noonan, a pioneer of American craft beer.
There were 24 other B.C. brewers who stood out this year.
SEE MORE: VIDEO: Brewhalla showcases how Langley became a B.C. craft beer boomtown
B.C.'s beer boom began in March of 2013, when provincial liquor laws were relaxed and tasting rooms were finally permitted in breweries. In addition to an explosion of brew pubs and microbreweries, it led to the Brewing and Brewery Operations Diploma program at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) in Langley City, which started in 2014.
- with Black Press Media files
