Sudsy success for local breweries at national beer awards

Jeff Bunton had never brewed beer professionally before opening Haldimand County’s first craft brewery — Concession Road Brewing Co. in Jarvis — six years ago.

Winning a national award last month for a beer he created feels like a “huge” vote of confidence.

“Being that prior to starting my brewery I didn’t have any specific experience in the brewing industry, I always had a little bit of impostor syndrome, if you will. You don’t really know if you belong,” Bunton told The Spectator.

“So it’s nice to have that affirmation that you’ve been recognized for excellence in your field.”

Concession Road took home a gold medal at the Canadian Brewing Awards — presented May 25 in Hamilton — for Little Britain, judged to be the top English-style bitter in the country.

“It was pretty awesome. We were really excited,” said Bunton, who runs the Jarvis brewery with his wife, Shannon.

“It’s a certified judging process, so it’s really prestigious to win gold,” he said.

The 24th instalment of the Canadian Brewing Awards saw more than 1,800 beers submitted over 61 categories.

This year’s awards had 61 style categories, with three winners per category.

The awards gala was a coming-out party for Wishbone Brewing Co. in Waterford, which scored a silver medal for Road House, a traditional German lager that was in such high demand at the Hamilton Convention Centre bar that the venue ran out.

“It was a pretty cool feeling,” Wishbone co-owner Tyler Ferguson told The Spectator.

“To be looked at nationally is pretty special. When you submit a beer, you get tasting notes back and you can see what professional judges think of it.”

Road House was awarded a bronze at the most recent provincial beer championships but vaulted to silver at the nationals on the strength of a recent switch to a more traditional strain of German lager yeast, which created a “relatively subtle” taste difference and more consistency overall, according to head brewer Nick Lang.

“It’s a beer that I feel I’ve been championing for a long time,” Lang said of Road House, a staple at Wishbone since the bar opened in downtown Waterford in the summer of 2021.

“It feels great for it to be recognized at the national level, and to feel like we might actually be getting a little bit better every time we brew this beer.”

Meuse Brewing, a rural brewery south of Scotland, cleaned up with golds for its Belgian-style Tripel and sour ale and a bronze for Brux, a Belgian-style Brett beer.

Co-owner Estelle van Kleef said the Meuse team is “extremely honoured with our biggest award take home yet.”

“It’s amazing to be recognized for the specialty Belgian beer styles that we get the most excited to create,” van Kleef said.

Residents and tourists are cluing into Haldimand-Norfolk as a place to sip and sample. Sales of the Ontario South Coast Beverage Association’s Toast the Coast passports — which allow the bearer “to sample all the wonderful wineries and breweries around us,” Ferguson explained — jumped from around 250 in 2023 to almost 500 this year.

“People definitely know about Norfolk now, and it’s exciting to be part of that emergence,” Ferguson said.

“I don’t know, maybe there’s something in the water,” Brunton added.

“Us being the most senior of the breweries that were awarded this year is kind of neat, given that we’re only six years old. It’s really cool to see that we’re all coming up at the same level at the same time.”

Oranje Son Brewing in Caledonia won gold at the nationals for a traditional German-style Bock lager called Niagara, while Paris Beer Company earned bronze for its wood and barrel-aged beer, Black Forest Cake.

A trio of Hamilton breweries also took home hardware this year, with Merit Brewing Co. winning silver for a Belgian-style Brett beer called Wild Years and bronze for the experimental beer Happy Place.

Clifford Brewing Co. clinched gold for its Chain Link Vienna Lager and bronze for a Marigold Belgian Golden Ale, while Brewers Blackbird Kitchen and Brewery in Ancaster received a bronze medal for its West Coast Pale Ale.

J.P. Antonacci, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Hamilton Spectator