HALDIMAND—Two local breweries had a chance to shine this year at the 23rd annual Canadian Brewing Awards, with Jarvis-based Concession Road Brewery (CRB) and Caledonia-based Oranje Son Brewery (OSB) each taking home a gold medal for creating the best beer in their chosen category.
We spoke with owners and brew masters Jeffrey Bunton of CRB and Stephen Rodermund of OSB about the beer that won them gold, and how they went about crafting it.
Concession Road Brewery
Beer: Little Britain
Category: English Bitters
Bunton defined the English bitters category as “meant to showcase traditional English-style ales.”
“If I told you what makes our beer so good, I would have to kill ya,” quipped Bunton. “I think the best I can say is what makes very good English ales is respecting tradition. By that I mean it’s very much a think-inside-the-box kind of style – traditional ingredients, English ale yeast, noble hops, and proper conditioning and processes should always get you in the ballpark of a good English ale. The things that really make certain beers stand out is the little tweaks of the recipe and processes that the brewer employs in the fermentation and maturation.”
This is CRB’s second big award of the year, with their Island Breeze Guava Pineapple Sour picking up a gold medal at the Ontario Brewing Awards just six months ago.
“There are so many great brewers in Ontario, let alone Canada, so I think this one will take a bit of time to sink in,” Bunton said of the national recognition.
His love of English-style brews is natural given his English/Scottish heritage.
“I had my cousin visit five-ish years ago from England and before he came, I asked him what beer he would like me to brew. As a new brewer, I was very excited to have some of my personality coming into our beers. His reply – an ESB (extra special bitter).”
He defined the beer as a “gold to amber ale,” which is “not really bitter as the name implies. It’s more to describe that the bitterness is brought up to a point during the brewing process to match the nice rich malty character of the beer. British bitters are actually very balanced between an assertive bitterness character and English malt characters such as caramel, date, and toffee notes.”
As for the name, “We named it after his backyard patio bar he calls Little Britain.”
While Bunton insists no beer can ever be truly perfect, “to get where we are with this beer has been a culmination of six years of brewing and experience,” and the gold medal is “extremely rewarding to see people enjoy what we do and be recognized on such a prestigious stage.”
His hope is that the award will help the beer catch his customer’s eyes.
“English ales have lost a lot of popularity with young crowds these days; it would be really great to get people appreciating the art and history of brewing again. It’s not always about the newest over-hopped IPA or fruit smoothie sour combination that deserves attention, there’s some really great historical styles that I think need to be appreciated for what they are.”
Oranje Son Brewing
Beer: Niagara
Category: Bock – Traditional German Style
For OSB owner and brewer Rodermund, winning gold was “an amazing feeling.”
His brewery, which defines itself as “one of Ontario’s smallest breweries, working out of a home garage located in Caledonia,” is one of the town’s hidden gems, only open on weekends and by pick-up.
“There are a lot of great beers being made and to have one of ours be awarded a gold adds that peer validation that we make incredible beer styles,” said Rodermund.
He noted that Bock comes in several styles, with Niagara employing an Eisbock style that involves a freezing process post-fermentation.
He explained, “As it starts to freeze you remove the beer from the water that has frozen. This changes the malt/flavour profile some and effectively increases the alcohol. Going from a 6-7% abv to 11+% abv.”
He said that his small scale of brewing (OSB brews are always set at just 50 litres per batch) makes the process relatively easy.
“Most larger brewers trying this style are required to make it in the middle of winter and hope for a lasting cold snap to do the freezing for them,” he said.
“Inspiration for the beer came from a long time ago during my introduction to the world of craft beer,” said Rodermund, recalling spending a lot of time in microbreweries in the “late 80s, early 90s.”
He continued, “They are no longer in business, but at the time Niagara Falls Brewing Co made an Eisbock that I loved, and not being a readily available beer style, I went to work making one, naming my version Niagara as a tribute to one of those long-lost beers.”
Unlike Bunton, who developed his beer slowly over time, Rodermund said he nailed his recipe on the first attempt, with his first batch included in an annual Christmas advent calendar case.
“I knew I had an amazing beer so I made it again specifically to enter into the Canadian Brewing Awards,” he said, adding that it will likely be an annual winter release going forward.
While OSB has been a “one man show” so far, Rodermund is excited to bring in some help in the near future: “My daughter will be helping in the brewery house soon. Labeling cans and helping with the endless cleaning. “
The Press offers a hearty “cheers!” to both winners.
