It is with great honour and excitement that The Exchange Brewery was awarded two gold medals this past weekend, at the 2018 Canadian Brewing Awards, in Halifax, NS.
GOLD: Spontaneous Ale (Belgian-Style Sour Ale – Lambic/Gueuze Category)
ABV 6.8% | IBU 27 | SRM 3. Our Spontaneous Ale was brewed with traditional turbid mashing techniques followed by an extended boil of noble aged-hops. This barrel-fermented ale was inoculated with wild yeast cultures harvested from fruit skins grown in Niagara and using cultures from our own ‘mini-coolship’ experiments. This ale is blended in selected red wine barrels and aged for more than one year. (Release in Fall 2018)
GOLD: Breakfast Stout (Porter/Flavoured Stout Category)
ABV 8.4% | IBU 63 | SRM >30. A big stout brewed with lots of oats and an infusion of cold brewed coffee. The beans (Brazilian Peaberry and Costa Rican) were carefully selected and roasted by Lucas Schultz (Production Assistant) and Crystal Costa (Bar Supervisor) to achieve a great blend of nutty and chocolatey flavours. The roasted malts add extra chocolate flavours and subtle notes of dried fruit to this chewy beer. (Available in 750ml bottles, at the Exchange Brewery bottle shop).
“The brewers are very honoured to have two gold award-winning brews this year at the CBAs in two very different styles.” Says Sam Maxbauer, Head Brewer. “Our first passion has always been sour ales so it was a great honour to be selected in the Lambic/Gueuze category. We are very happy to see the Spontaneous Ale project so well received after almost three years of waiting for maturation. Winning for the Breakfast Stout was also a great privilege because it shows off more of our team and the great work they do, not only being passionate about beer but also great small-batch coffee.”
This news couldn’t come at a better time for the brewers, who were already extremely excited about their Spontaneous Ale. After two years of maturing, the Spontaneous Ale that had been bottled in October 2017 is set for an official release in the Fall 2018. A long (but very worthwhile) project in the making – that perfectly embodies the brewery’s philosophy of blending traditional and modern techniques and equipment, along with a passion for sour ales, in our home of Niagara-on-the-Lake.
About the Competition: The Canadian Brewing Awards are Canada’s national competition for judging the quality of Canadian manufactured beer. The Canadian Brewing Awards invites Canadian majority-owned breweries of all sizes to compete in a Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) sanctioned blind tasting, determining the best beers in 55 style categories. A Canadian Brewing Award medal is a widely-recognized symbol of Canadian brewing excellence. See the complete list of the 2018 Winners here
